Roughly 5,900 Palestinians have been completely or partially displaced by settler violence since January 2023, along with 32,000 Palestinians forcibly removed from their homes in West Bank refugee camps last year.
The scale of this prompted Major General Eyal Ben-Reuven, someone who spent his life fighting for Israel, and who recently visited the occupied West Bank, to remark: “This, what the settlers are doing here, is the real threat to Israel. This is more concerning to me than Iran, Gaza or Lebanon.”
The former Israeli minister of health and retired brigadier general Ephraim Sneh said: “This is ethnic cleansing, to put it simply.” Retired air force general Asaf Agmon declared: “Once a society behaves this way – that society is doomed.”
One of our most significant allies believes what’s happening in the West Bank is wrong.
The UK Labour government, led by new prime minister Andy Burnham, decided enough was enough. They took action, targeting illegal settlements and settlement expansion through banning imports.
Oddly, even before the UK formally announced their moves, our own government declared we wouldn’t embrace the same measures.
I’d be misleading the parliament if I was to say I wasn’t disappointed.
To justify this decision, it was said: “We have concerns about the implementation of a blanket ban and unintended consequences for Australian businesses, for Palestinians and for Israelis.”
By way of contrast, it’s worth noting Australia has imposed 1,800 sanctions and strict tariffs on Russia over its illegal invasion of Ukraine, which has seen the total value of Australia’s imports from Russia drop by around 99%.
And it would sound quite odd for us to say we wouldn’t impose sanctions on Russia because of the impact on Australian businesses or Ukrainians or Russians.
We took action knowing it would have an impact, precisely because we wanted it to lead to change.
Additionally we’ve pointed out regularly that we – as an individual nation – couldn’t possibly act on our own regarding what’s happening in the West Bank or Gaza.
Yet many Australians would then question why we wouldn’t act when we had a chance to do so in concert with many like-minded nations.
But let me come back to the issue of impacts. Let’s look at this another way.
It was former prime minister Bob Hawke who dedicated so much of himself, in such a principled and unyielding way, to ending apartheid in South Africa.
As a prime minister he pushed on the world stage for comprehensive financial sanctions against South Africa, measures that were so tough, the former foreign minister Gareth Evans said they were “profoundly practically important in their economic, and ultimately, endgame political impact.”
Now, imagine telling Bob Hawke not to impose bans or measures on South Africa because it would affect Australian businesses or the very South Africans resisting apartheid?
Bob Hawke championed a cause that forms an important part of Labor history.
Likewise prime minister Anthony Albanese has led a government that can justifiably be proud to be part of history it has written: the first ever Australian government to recognise the state of Palestine.
But having stated the ambition, we must act to protect it.
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Because settler terrorism is tearing to shreds our ambition to see a state of Palestine – and we cannot sticky tape that back together with yet another statement.
It’s why I have urged regularly – before and after our ALP national conference – the need for concrete action.
Because the Netanyahu government will simply ride out the flurry of statements that our country or other nations issue.
And we should recognise the expectations of so many Australians, who want to see action taken to see the end of suffering for innocent Palestinians.
Among those Australians are many members of our own party, who joined driven by a sense of purpose, a sense of social justice. Who believe that that commitment to social justice simply does not end at our own borders.
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In fact I’m reminded of the words of Ben Chifley in 1949: “We have a great objective – the light on the hill – which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand.”
I’ll end on this point.
Nearly a dozen other nations agreed to join the UK in its stand this week.
The only government to enthusiastically support our government’s decision not to join the UK and other nations to take a stand on settler terrorism in West Bank? The Netanyahu government.
