To: 'senator.plibersek@aph.gov.au' Subject: Gaza

Dear Senator Plibersek,

The reports from Israel about the Netanyahu government’s intentions for the future of the Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza strip are increasingly alarming.

Ministers in the Netanyahu government are now talking openly about the plan to drive out the Palestinian people and replace them with Israelis and Jewish colonists. The Agriculture Minister, Avi Dichter, boasts that: “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba. Gaza Nakba 2023. That’s how it will end”. Netanyahu has told his party that the DRC is prepared to accept Palestinians, and that there are active discussions taking place with other countries.

Will the Australian government and the US finally draw a red line in the sand and make it clear to the Israelis that removing the Palestinian people from Gaza, under whatever pretext, simply cannot, and will not happen?

Let us be quite clear. Bombing the Gazans out of their homes, starving them, denying them medical aid and forcing them to mass on the Egyptian border so that, finally, they will leave “voluntarily” – which is clearly the Israeli strategy- will not be permitted by the international community.

It is well beyond time to call out and put an end to this genocide. Israel must be held to account for its war crimes, and the Australian government should not continue to sit on the fence.

Mike