Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm humbled to soon be tabling in the Senate a petition with nearly 10,000 signatures that calls on the Australian government to save the family of Akram, a Palestinian-born Australian citizen who is trapped in Gaza. Akram and his family migrated to regional Victoria from Gaza in 2009, and he has been a devoted doctor to his local community ever since. He works in his local town's clinic and nursing home, while his wife runs a local restaurant.

Since 7 October more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attacks on Gaza, more than 100,000 have been injured and millions more have been displaced owing to this violence and devastation. With the Israeli government declaring a ground attack on Rafah, there's no where that is safe for Palestinians to go. Akram's family members' lives hang in the balance as they remain stuck at the Rafah border crossing, unable to escape. They have been displaced four times since losing their homes, their collective six houses were all bulldozed in the attacks, and now they're facing starvation, dehydration and disease owing to a lack of clean water. But the Labor government have turned their back on Akram, his family and all other Palestinians living in Australia and in occupied Palestine, as they refuse to call for a permanent ceasefire.

Silence in the face of atrocities is not an option. Australia has a responsibility to act to stop the crime of genocide and support punishment for genocide wherever it occurs. I urge Labor to take this petition seriously and to expedite the visas of Akram's family. I also call on Labor to publicly back South Africa's proceedings against Israel in the International Court of Justice to sanction Prime Minister Netanyahu and his entire war cabinet, to end all military and security trade and cooperation with Israel, to restore and increase aid to UNRWA, and to finally call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.