By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Bruce Labor MP Julian Hill was busting several “myths” as he strongly implored Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza last week.
“The truth is that right now only Israel has the power to decide if the people of Gaza will die of starvation or not,” Hill told Federal Parliament on 27 February.
“Not Hamas, not Australia, not Egypt and not even the US; it is Israel that can decide this.
“If the right-wing Israeli government wants to salvage the shreds that are left of its international reputation with much of the world, it should let enough food in now.
“How can a country that has so many wonderful people and so much to offer the world, which claims to be a civilised democratic state, fail to act with urgency while civilians are at immediate risk of starving to death 10 kilometres from their shops and supermarkets?”
Several pro-Palestinian protests have been staged in Dandenong since the recent conflict, including a Valentine’s Day march outside Hill’s electorate office.
Greater Dandenong councillors have raised motions – one to call for a ceasefire that succeeded, another to raise the Palestinian flag in protest which was voted down.
Acknowleding the tragedy on both sides, Hill noted the horrors of 7 October 2023 – “the largest loss of Jewish life on a single day since World War II at the hands of terrorist group Hamas, who still holds civilian hostages”.
And also “the harrowing situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is affecting many Australians, who are grieving and scared for family and loved ones.”
He said the world couldn’t abandon either Israelis to be “slaughtered by the Iranian regime or … proxy extremists” nor allow Gazans to stave to death.
“Mass starvation is not a proportionate response to Hamas’s horror show. All human life is sacred, and all innocent civilians should be protected.
“I say to the government of Israel: for God’s sake, let food in now—not tomorrow or next week or next month but now, today.
“Right now, 400,000 Gazans are starving.
“Now, one million are at risk of starvation. Families in Gaza have been forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eat leaves out of desperation to survive.”
He said it was “offensive” and “ridiculous” to say the Australian Government or MPs supported “genocide”.
Australia had voted for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and stated it expected Israel to abide by a recent International Court of Justice ruling over a claim of genocide, he said.
Other “big lies” were that Australia sold weapons to Israel, or that cut all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
“All $20.6 million has been paid this financial year (to UNRWA).
“Six million dollars in extra funding has been temporarily paused, not cut, and of course people want that resolved and restored.
“Mythbusters: Australia is not cutting all funding from UNRWA, Australia is not selling weapons to Israel; Australia does not support genocide; Australia does want to see a ceasefire; and Australia is not giving terrorists visas to come here.”
