Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to send my best wishes to everybody at the end at the holy month of Ramadan for Eid Mubarak, for Eid early tomorrow morning, which we won't be able to be at because parliament is sitting. There has been a cloud over the entire period of Ramadan with COVID, in the sense that people haven't been able to gather at the large iftars as they would like to. I certainly hope it's not too long before I can invite people back to Lakemba for the main street night market.

In the last few days there has been a much darker cloud, as we have seen the events in Jerusalem. I would urge everybody to read the bipartisan statement, released by those who are members of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, on Jerusalem and the recent escalation of violence. This parliament has been very strong in speaking out against people going to a place of worship and being fired at with weapons. To see the scenes we've seen outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest places in the Islamic faith during their holiest month of the year, has been chilling. People often say, 'Do you condemn all acts of violence?' Of course we do, but let's not pretend the escalation didn't come from somewhere. The escalation we've seen is directly connected to the settlement movement, innocently called 'the settlements'. We're talking about people being evicted from their homes, as they were at Sheikh Jarrah. Australia has a role as a nation in the pathway to peace. We should not stand silent.