Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

What we are seeing in Gaza is not simply a famine. It is the result of Israel's deliberate and intentional starvation of Palestinian people. Starvation is being used as a method of mass murder and as a tactic in the ongoing ethnic cleansing, genocide and colonisation of the Palestinian people. Despite the sudden concern we are seeing from the Albanese government, the crisis didn't happen overnight. Over two long years of violence, we have witnessed horrific scenes of Israel's genocidal campaign against Palestinians—fathers crying out as they hold what is left of their dismembered children, unborn babies removed from their deceased pregnant mothers, surgeons operating in overcrowded hospitals without anaesthetic and crushed bodies retrieved from underneath the rubble.

We have seen psychological warfare as Israel has forcibly displaced Palestinian families, watching as they flee their homes for their supposed safety only to be bombed in makeshift tents. Most recently, we are watching Israel's latest genocidal tactic of starvation, with skeletal children fenced like animals in a cage, holding out pots as they beg for food and aid to simply survive another day. This government pretends it is not a major player in this genocide. This is a lie. They spread misinformation about Australia's role in funding and arming Israel, pretending that the bomb bay doors they supply for F-35 jets are non-lethal in nature. These are the doors that release the bombs that slaughter innocent civilians.

This government contributed to the starvation of Palestinians by suspending funding to UNRWA, the primary humanitarian agency providing food, water and medical aid. This government chooses to do these things and to defend Israel's war crimes, rather than to confront the moral and legal obligations they refuse to uphold. This is not, and has never been, about Israel's so-called right to self-defence. It has been over 77 years of occupation, apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, with one clear goal to erase Palestinians and take their land. We are now seeing a sudden panic regarding the crisis in Gaza—that maybe the starvation of children is a bridge too far, not something that can be deflected as a matter of self-defence but genocide.

Despite the government and the media spending the past two years parroting Israeli propaganda to manufacture consent for genocide, we welcome the latecomers because this is a matter of Palestinian life or death. Israel continues to cross red lines; it does so with impunity. Each time this government stays silent, Israel is given the green light to carry on its genocide, knowing it can get away with it. Strongly worded emails and sharpened criticism of Israel's actions are not enough to hold Israel accountable. This government has the power to take real action and put an end to the mass murder of Palestinians.

The Palestinian population is on the brink of complete annihilation as this genocide enters its final iteration. We demand urgent action before it's too late. We demand nothing less than a full arms embargo, the sanctioning of Israel—this means economic sanctions against the state of Israel, not just against individuals—and the recognition of a Palestinian state, not as a threat against Israel but as a human right. Until then, this government is not only complicit in but also an active contributor to the genocide of Palestinians.