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

In recent weeks, Israel has killed more than 1,100 civilians in Lebanon and displaced more than a million people. They are systematically destroying housing, roads, bridges, water systems and hospitals. They are killing health workers in double tap strikes. Just as we saw in Gaza, they are using white phosphorous which causes severe bones that often reach the bone and can spontaneously reignite. Israeli ministers are openly calling for annexation. They want to colonise south Lebanon and turn it into the new Gaza.

How does this Labor government respond to this violence, invasion and clear breach of international law? Minister Wong offers some meaningless words of concern while Labor continues material support for the Israeli military, supplies intelligence from Pine Gap and deploys Australian personnel and military equipment to support violence in the region. Meanwhile, IDF members are still being let into the country to holiday here while there is an active case in the International Court of Justice on Israel conducting genocide and while Iranian people with legitimate visas are being blocked. Netanyahu acts with impunity because his allies, including this Labor government, refuse to take any real action. This comes as we hear horrific reports that Israeli soldiers tortured a two-year-old in Gaza to extract information from his father, as strikes and killings in Gaza and the West Bank continue. Labor must immediately end all military cooperation with Israel and stop supporting this violence. I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in Lebanon. (Time expired)