While I was away..... *WARNING: Contains Graphic Image*

 

A brief look at some items of note during the last ten days.

 

I was in #Gaza in March+testified to @CIJ_ICJ as part of gen0side case against #Israel

Today, #EyeWitnessGaza starts with video testimonies of horrors we saw. Campaign demands pinned2 @BenNephrology
This is my first testimony. More health workers2post soon@HA4Palestine@CIJ_ICJ pic.twitter.com/1WGSZjy925

— Ben Thomson 🇵🇸 (@BenNephrology) August 14, 2024

 

“The entire unjust world does not care about this. That’s all I can say.” Heartbreaking testimony in the wake of the killing of newborn twins and their mother in Gaza -- leaving behind a father whose world is shattered. Correspondent @JDiamond1 reports. pic.twitter.com/CKUwLt23sn

— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) August 14, 2024

 

⚠️ GRAPHIC ⚠️

Sorry for bothering you, but things are worst on ground.

Thanks for your tax money. 🥸

⚠️ GRAPHIC ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/mIjYPnSFX5

— Amer Amayreh (@a_amayreh) August 14, 2024

 

On 14 August 2024 the State of Israel's War on Gaza entered its 313th day and, the Palestinian population has suffered more war deaths than the Australian people did during the approx. 2,107 days of the last world war.

A sad comparison

In World War Two 34,000 Australian service personnel were killed along /w 700-1,000 civilians [ABS 1998, Parramatta History and Heritage 2020, Statistica 2024]. These numbers are estimated to be 5% of Australia's total population as of 30 June 1939. 

In the War on Gaza from 7 Oct 2023 up to 14 Aug 2024 a total of 39,965 Palestinians are recorded as killed [UN OCHR August 2024] with est. 11,000 of those killed being children.

NOTE: These UN numbers do not include the thousands missing presumed dead or the as yet unidentified dead stored within the Gaza Strip.

However, the numbers do represent an estimated 2.0% of the Palestinian population residing in the Gaza Strip on 1 September 2023.

As of 20 August 2024 there is no negotiated ceasefire or any timetable for a declaration that the War on Gaza has ended.

Jewish Council Australia, media release, 14 August 2024:

Jewish Council condemns Peter Dutton and Dave Sharma for stoking racism in comments on Palestinians fleeing genocide

August 14, 2024

Today, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told Sky News that no Palestinians from Gaza should be entering Australia and that a visa scheme for Palestinians fleeing Gaza would put Australia’s national security at risk.

These comments were made days after Liberal Party Senator Dave Sharma criticised the government, suggesting that Palestinians entering Australia “might endanger” Australian citizens and “our own democracy.”

These comments cannot be taken in isolation. Only two weeks ago, neo-Nazis held a Trump inspired anti-immigration rally outside Federation Square in Melbourne calling for the mass deportation of immigrants. Rather than clearly distancing themselves from dangerous anti-immigrant sentiment, Peter Dutton and Dave Sharma are only fuelling division.

The Jewish Council rejects any assertion that Palestinians fleeing violence are a threat to the safety of Australians.

Palestinians in Gaza face extreme levels of violence. On Saturday morning, an Israeli attack at the Al-Tabeen School in Gaza City killed at least 100 people, making it one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s 10 month assault on Gaza. The intensity of the bombing was such that many victims were dismembered beyond recognition. Doctors resorted to collecting body parts in plastic bags, giving families 70 kilos of remains when their loved ones could not be individually identified.

The horrific reality of violence faced by Palestinians in Gaza underlines the need for Australians to do all we can to support and welcome Gazans seeking to enter Australia.

Dr Max Kaiser, historian and Executive Officer

“The rhetoric directed against Palestinian refugees is reminiscent of the same rhetoric used to vilify Jewish refugees in the 1940s and 1950s who were frequently labeled ‘security risks’. This rhetoric is also part of a long history of racism and exclusion in Australia, from the White Australia Policy to panics about ‘boat people’.”

Sarah Schwartz, human rights lawyer and Executive Officer

“Peter Dutton and Dave Sharma should be ashamed of themselves for using anti-immigrant rhetoric to stoke fear and division. It is only weeks since anti-immigrant riots took place in the UK, and neo-Nazis held an anti-immigration rally in Melbourne’s CBD. Politicians should be distancing themselves from all forms of racism and xenophobia not fuelling division.

“The Australian Government should not be influenced by the Israel lobby’s false and racist depictions of Palestinians. Many Jewish people have family histories of fleeing persecution and understand the importance of Australia meeting its obligations under International Law to protect the human rights of refugees.”

Historical background

Rhetoric directed against Palestinian refugees is reminiscent of the same rhetoric used to vilify Jewish refugees in the 1940s and 1950s who were frequently labeled ‘security risks’. T.H. White, Australia’s delegate to the 1938 Evian Conference famously said with reference to German and Austrian Jewish refugees, Australia has "no real racial problem [and is] not desirous of importing one". This rhetoric is also part of a long history of racism and exclusion in Australia, from the White Australia Policy to the War on Terror’s exclusion of people from the Middle East.

Statements by Leader of the Opposition & LNP MP for Dickson, Peter Dutton:

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 2024:

....Dutton on Wednesday decided to push beyond the Coalition’s previous demands for tougher scrutiny of Palestinian refugees, saying: “I don’t think people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment. It’s not prudent to do so and I think it puts our national security at risk.”

9 News, 15 August 2024:

"So (the government) said that they will bring people into Australia who are sympathisers with a listed terrorist organisation," Dutton said.

"Could you imagine if we were proposing to bring people in who were sympathetic to another listed terrorist organisation, like al-Qaeda or ISIL or ISIS? It's completely unacceptable.

"You bring 3000 people in, let's say 99 per cent are good.

"If one per cent, 30 people, are questionable or sympathisers with a listed terrorist organisation, how on earth is that in our country's best interests?"

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess has previously said that "rhetorical" sympathy for Hamas would not be considered an automatic bar to entry.

Note: Using statistics drawn out of thin air to create hypothetical risk scenarios produces nothing but 'word salad' - especially as the number of Palestinian refugees who have entered Australia since October 2023 is far less than the 3,000 mentioned. A wider lens is required. As an example, between 2014 & 2020, a total of 3,360,650 people entered Australia on migrant visas [ABS, 2021]. If the total number of individuals actually charged with terrorism related offenses within this period had been in that 6 year migrant intake, it would still only have represented an estimated percentage point of 0.003273176320057132% of this statistical cohort.

 

A cartoonist's perspective

Matt Golding

An exchange in the Australian Parliament

House of Representatives, Hansard, 15 August 2024, excerpt:

Ms STEGGALL (Warringah) (09:16): It's extremely concerning to see the opposition turn up today with this suspension of standing orders and the words and the rhetoric that we're hearing here. It goes directly against the advice of ASIO and the concern around the polarisation in our communities—that whipping up of a sense of fear and that inference that, for example, our services and systems are not working. What I'd like to share is the human story, the real story, about some of the people we're talking about and the lives we're talking about.

Mr Conaghan interjecting—

Ms STEGGALL: And I would ask you to be silent! I have the floor!

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Cowper will cease interjecting. The member for Warringah will be heard, just as other members were heard, in silence.

Ms STEGGALL: In 2020, I met a man called Mohammed at the North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club. He had come to Australia under a visa approved by the Morrison government under the same systems. He came to participate in a surf lifesaving skills program. He wanted to give the children of Gaza an opportunity to learn water safety, to not drown, to have something positive on weekends. They loved that program. They attended.

Unfortunately, after the horrendous events of October, that program, of course, ended. The bombing started. Many people that participated in that program have died. Many of the children have died. These are normal families. These are families that you are seeking to paint as all being terrorists, who should all be mistrusted and who are not worthy of humanitarian aid.

Mr Dutton: Complete rubbish! Stop repeating the governments lines.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting.

Ms STEGGALL: We heard you in silence; you can hear me in silence. Stop being racist.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition is seeking the call.

Mr Dutton: That was an offensive and unparliamentary remark and it should be withdrawn.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is far too much noise. As I previously asked for the chamber to be silent, I'm just going to ask the member for Warringah, if she made an unparliamentary remark, to withdraw it to assist the House.

Ms STEGGALL: Could I have a clarification: is a description of language as being racist an unparliamentary remark?

Mr Katter interjecting—

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Kennedy will resume his seat. Just to assist the House so the debate can keep going, as has been previously ruled, I will just ask the member to withdraw and continue. [my yellow highlighting]

The War on Gaza continues

ABC News, 16 August 2024:

The death toll in Gaza from Israel's offensive has surpassed 40,000 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

It says a total of 40,005 people have been killed and 92,401 injured since October 7, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel....

The Leader of the Opposition & LNP MP for Dickson continues

The Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2024:

The Nazis tried to conceal their crime of murdering six million Jews. Hamas felt no guilt when they carried out their terrorist attack on October 7. They invaded Israel with body cams and phones to film their butchery of 1200 people – the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 August 2024:

“The advice that I have is that, out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 are from second- and third-generation Lebanese Muslim backgrounds,” he said in November 2016.

The comments were widely condemned at the time and last year, in an episode of the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet, journalist Annabel Crabb put to Dutton that they were racist.

“They’re comments that I shouldn’t have made,” he replied. “I have apologised for that.”

But five leaders of Australia’s Lebanese Muslim community now say they have no recollection of Dutton ever making that apology.

The opposition leader’s office did not respond to multiple enquiries from this masthead about when, how and to whom he said sorry.

[my yellow highlighting]

The pushback by members of the Jewish community in Australia continues

On 9July 2024 UN experts declared famine has spread throughout Gaza strip

 

A malnourished Palestinian baby is held while receiving treatment at the International Medical Corps field hospital, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, June 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

PRESS RELEASES | SPECIAL PROCEDURES

UN experts declare famine has spread throughout Gaza strip

09 July 2024

GENEVA (9 July 2024) – The recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition leaves no doubt that famine has spread across the entire Gaza strip, a group of independent experts* said today.

“Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on 30 May 2024 and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi died on 1 June 2024 at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. Nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida died on 3 June 2024 in the tent sheltering his displaced family in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. All three children died from malnutrition and lack of access to adequate healthcare,” the experts said.

“With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza.”

The experts said the death of a child from malnutrition and dehydration indicates that health and social structures have been attacked and are critically weakened. “When the first child dies from malnutrition and dehydration, it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold,” the experts said.

“We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza. We call upon the international community to prioritise the delivery of humanitarian aid by land by any means necessary, end Israel’s siege, and establish a ceasefire.” [my yellow highlighting]

“When a 2-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh died of hunger on 24 February and 4 March respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza. The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths,” the experts said. “Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since 7 October, the majority being children. Inaction is complicity.”

The experts: Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967; Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Barbara G. Reynolds (Chair), Bina D’Costa, Dominique Day and Catherine Namakula, Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Comprising the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, Special Procedures is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

And the War on Gaza continues into its 207th day........

 

The Palestinian civilian death toll over the last 206 days of the State of Israel's war against Gaza has now reached at least 34,535 people, with another est. 77,704 injured. Approx. half of all those killed are thought to have been Palestinian women & children.

In that count is the premature infant rescued from her mother’s womb shortly after the woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah. Baby Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday, 25 April after her health deteriorated & medical teams unable to save her [Al Jazeera, 26 April 2024]

While at least 66 people were killed and 138 others were injured in Israeli attacks that took place last Saturday, 27 April.

That comes to a crude average of 545 civilians killed or injured every single day. 

GENEVA, April 24 (Reuters) - The Gaza Strip could surpass famine thresholds of food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality in six weeks, an official from the World Food Programme said on Wednesday.

"We are getting closer by the day to a famine situation," said Gian Caro Cirri, Geneva director of the World Food Programme (WFP).

"There is reasonable evidence that all three famine thresholds -- food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality -- will be passed in the next six weeks."

Israel's military response, to the Hamas militia terrorist attack on Israeli soil on 7 October 2023, ceased to be a proportionate response within a week of the commencement of aerial bombardment of northern Gaza.

TheGuardian, 30 April 2024:

The Israeli government believes that the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague is about to file war crimes charges against Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials. We can’t know for sure – the ICC has kept its plans close to the vest – but the Israeli prime minister has good reason to worry, and the defenses he has offered so far are unlikely to help him.

The ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s most likely target is Netanyahu’s starvation strategy for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Because the Israeli government has refused to let ICC staff enter Gaza, it will take time for Khan to complete the detailed investigation required to demonstrate other possible Israeli war crimes, such as indiscriminately bombing civilian areas and firing on military targets with foreseeably disproportionate civilian consequences. But the facts surrounding Israel’s obstruction of humanitarian aid are readily available.

During his two recent visits to the region, Khan stressed that, as international humanitarian law requires, Palestinian civilians in Gaza “must have access to basic food, water and desperately needed medical supplies, without further delay, and at pace and at scale”. He warned the Israeli government: “If you do not do so, do not complain when my Office is required to act.” The standard he cited is endorsed by virtually every government in the world including Israel, Britain, the United States, and, as a United Nations observer state, Palestine.

For much of the war Israel has allowed just enough food into Gaza to avoid widespread death, but not enough to prevent pervasive hunger and, in some parts of Gaza according to the USAid administrator, Samantha Power, “famine”. Oxfam calculated that hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza were receiving on average only 245 calories a day, about one-tenth of normal requirements. At least 28 children younger than 12 were reported to have died of malnutrition as of 17 April.....

Read the full Guardian article here.