Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would be the only senator in this chamber who has actually been to Israel, boots on the ground, shortly after October 7. I went there in December 2023, along with my colleague the member for Macnamara and the then senators Birmingham and Fawcett, who have now departed this chamber. What I saw shocked me to the core. It was like nothing I have ever experienced. I have seen plenty of death as a doctor—believe me, I have—but this was a level of atrocity and depravity that I've never experienced before and I will never forget.

I went to Kfar Aza, a kibbutz on the Gaza border. I could see the plumes of smoke. I could hear the gunships going overhead and the bombs dropping. It was frightening. Kfar Aza was a burnt-out shell, with pockmarked walls and blood splattered on the walls, mattresses and furniture, and you could smell the death. I then went to a town called Sderot, which, again, is on the southern border of Israel. That town, incidentally, has the highest level of enuresis—for those who don't know, enuresis is bedwetting—because the children in that community are constantly under attack. There are sirens going constantly, day and night, because of missiles and rockets flying overhead from Gaza.

As the member for Higgins, I had a very large Jewish community. Around 6½ thousand constituents identified as Jewish. The vast majority of my constituents were descendants of Holocaust survivors. Australia has the largest Holocaust survivor community outside of Israel. I have a deep connection with my then community and also with Israel. I identify as a friend of Israel. I am an ally of Israel. But, as an ally of Israel, I am not here to rubberstamp what the Netanyahu government is doing. I will not rubberstamp what the Netanyahu government is doing. It has distressed me to no end that I have seen very little effort going into crafting a political off-ramp to this devastating conflict. We have now had two years of a military campaign which has reshaped the Middle East. We've seen that ripple effect go out. But I have not seen sufficient effort by the Netanyahu government to actually craft a political solution.

Right now, the people of Gaza are suffering. There is a humanitarian catastrophe. There are no words left anymore in our lexicon to describe what is going on there. It is unconscionable that children should be starving. It is unconscionable that pregnant mothers cannot deliver. There is no anaesthesia or painkillers and insufficient antibiotics for the trauma and blast injuries that are being dealt with—when I know that a few kilometres away, across the border, there are supermarkets groaning with food.

Right now the Netanyahu government has not articulated to the global community what the political solution to this is. This is a problem that has spanned back 100 years. It has its roots in the Balfour Declaration in 1917. That's where this conflict started. There has never been justice for the Palestinian people. Similarly, there has been an undermining, over a long period of time, of the two-state solution. Right now, we are left with a problem which has not been managed. It's been mismanaged over a long period of time. It has never actually been resolved.

What we need to do as a global community and, indeed, as a country is not divide any further but come together and support the Netanyahu government—to nudge them in the right direction, push them in the right direction to make better choices—because not only are they bringing Israel into disrepute and further isolation; there is an unconscionable stain on this country's history, I fear, with the deaths of so many people. It's disproportionate, and I say this as an ally of Israel. My Jewish community know who I am. They know how hard I have fought for them, and I will continue to do so, but there must be a better solution to this conflict. (Time expired)