Media Release 3 October 2024
Israel’s genocide, illegal occupation, apartheid and warmongering is the real issue
The Chairperson of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), Ms Christa Christaki, says that she is appalled at the Australian Government’s narrative on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, invasion of Lebanon and attacks on Syria.
Ms Christaki stated: “The Prime Minister’s parroting of Israel’s propaganda once again demonstrates his government’s double standards, selective application of International Law and moral failure: Only Israel has the right to defend itself. No-one else has that right. It is unconscionable that the aggressor, Israel, is portrayed as the victim while the actual victims are portrayed as the aggressors”.
“It is no surprise that Israel is out of control. This state has acted with total impunity for 76 years with no repercussions for its vicious apartheid rule of the Palestinian people, it’s 57-year brutal occupation, its 17-year inhumane siege on Gaza and its relentless annexation and theft of Palestinian land for illegal settlements. Israel is secure in committing genocide, practicing apartheid and maintaining an illegal occupation because it knows that its powerful Western allies, including Australia, will say and do nothing”.
“Is the Prime Minister so entrenched in Zionist propaganda that he and his government have failed to notice:
Israel’s indiscriminate killing of over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children? Or the over hundred thousand injured people?
the severe restriction of food and medical aid resulting in the use of starvation, malnutrition and disease as weapons of war against the entire population of Gaza?
the wholesale obliteration of people’s houses, hospitals, UN shelters, schools, universities, water and electricity infrastructure, churches, mosques, cemeteries, agricultural land?
the forcible displacement of 2 million people from their homes, farms and livelihoods? For many people five times over?
the deliberate killing of aid workers, journalists, doctors and nurses?”
“The Prime Minister’s position denies the humanity of Palestinians, who continue to be slaughtered by the Israeli Occupation Forces, under the command of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who should be seen as a terrorist leader, not an ally of Western democracies”.
“Netanyahu continues to run an apartheid-based, genocidal regime that defies international law, the rulings of the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the United Nations”.
“What is happening in Gaza and now in Lebanon is not a war,” Ms Christaki says. “It’s the vengeful slaughter of innocent civilians by the most sophisticated war machine in the Middle East, supported by its immoral allies”.
“Netanyahu’s clear purpose is to kill off as many Palestinians as possible, both current and future generations. His program of ethnic cleansing is plain for all to see, as is his intent that no territory will be known as Palestine. It’s no secret - he and his warmongering government say it openly and use terror to achieve it”.
“AFOPA is troubled that the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Opposition Leader, and the Murdoch press, focus on people gathering to protest Israel’s atrocities rather than the realities: a genocide in progress before our eyes, an illegal occupation, the ruthless enforcement of racial segregation and apartheid, the imprisonment of 2 million people in Gaza and now the killing and displacement of civilians in Lebanon”.
AFOPA and our partners have been protesting for a year, through peaceful fortnightly rallies, to tell our government that we want the killing to stop; we want the illegal occupation to stop; we want Palestinians to be able to live in their homeland free of apartheid policies and practices and as equal citizens; we want our government to stop with the “concern” and to act to hold Israel to account and to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.
The thousands upon thousands of people, from all walks of life and different backgrounds, who have attended protest after protest in Adelaide for the past year have made it clear that they will continue to speak up and stand up for justice and human rights until their government stands on the right side of history.
Australia must regain its international standing as a fair and just global citizen by genuinely committing to justice, human rights and the consistent application of international law; by recognising Palestine as a state and then imposing diplomatic, economic, trade, cultural and sporting sanctions on Israel to compel it to obey international law, just as we did with apartheid South Africa, bringing to an end a barbaric racist structure.