There is an unofficial ban by the Australian government of Palestinians coming to Australia. The technique that the government uses is to impose near impossible conditions for Visa applications. To illustrate this I refer to an article that I wrote in 2022. Ian Curr Ed., 2 June 2025.
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News from Palestine is not good. The Israeli occupation forces have increased the intensity of their attacks on people in the West Bank and in Gaza. (See video about settler violence in Hebron and the Australian Friends of Palestine podcast below).
Strong support for Petition
This week (ending 20 Nov 2022) was our 4th week campaigning to assist a family from a refugee camp on the West Bank whose apartment has been raided and trashed by Israeli occupation forces.
In the first week we sought support from NGOs, a migration agent and the Palestinian ambassador with limited success. I then wrote scores of emails to hundreds of people in the second week and launched a petition in the parliament which is currently under scrutiny by a panel.
In the third week I concentrated on parliamentarians and so far had to receive support from only one. I have asked Senators McKim, Rice, and Steele John and to MPs Andrew Wilkie, Max Chandler-Mather and Zoe Daniels to sponsor the Petition EN4627.
Meanwhile my friend Khalil has approached a number of friends for support, people in the construction industry who may be able to sponsor Basim to get a work visa. Khalil has provided daily accounts of what is happening in Nablus since the Lion’s Den emergency began in October. He has also spoken to a priest who is prepared to sponsor Basim to come on a student visa.
In the fourth week, given the slowness of the parliament to respond to our petition, I started a change.org petition and after a slow start have secured a lot of support. I framed this petition because of the negativity of NGOs and the migration agent about the chance of a Palestinian escaping Israeli violence on the West Bank.
We are calling on the Prime Minister to relax tight restrictions on Palestinian travel to Australia, just as he did for Ukrainians. Palestinians have a right to work, study and reunite with family and friends abroad.
Our petition has over 3,000 signatories. Thanks to our supporters for this and a special thanks to the Member for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather for his support. We wish to get 10,000 signatures by the end of the month (November 2022). If you haven’t already signed the petition you can do so at https://chng.it/zSKN57bsQk
It is important to share the petition to your friends on social media.
Meeting with churches
This week Khalil Hamdan and I will be meeting with church representatives to ask for their assistance in bringing Khalil’s nephew to safety here in Australia.
Sponsorship of the petition
We are advised that a parliamentary panel will be considering this coming Wednesday whether it will accept our e-petition to the speaker of the house of representatives. We are seeking your assistance in having your local member of Parliament speak to this petition and to sponsor it in either the House of Representatives or in the Senate.
Right of Return
The Big Ride for Palestine (Australia) has asked NGO’s with a particular interest in Palestine for their support and we are waiting on their response.
One of those organisations is Australian Friends of Palestine who this week presented the Edward Said Palestine Remembered memorial lecture. This years lecture “Imagining a Palestinian Future: Re-internationalising the Palestinian Struggle” was given by Dr Yari Hawari and does discuss the failure of the two state solution to address the right of return of the millions of Palestinians in exile from their homelands and villages.
0:00 Underpinnings of the Zionist narrative.
1:48 “Another world is not only possible, it’s also a very clear refusal of the unjust global reality.”.
7:19 The two-state solution as the default formula for a future.
11:40 Palestine and internationalism in the 70s.
16:53 Can you expand on the concept of finding joy in activism?
22:17 Are all of the new Israeli settlements in Palestine resisted by the Palestinian administration? Are there examples of where Palestinian resistance has stopped new settlements?
26:09 Do you support armed resistance at this point of our struggle?
31:50 How important do you find the interlinking of struggles between marginalized and colonized people to be in changing the current Israeli-Palestine paradigm?
37:54 Is there much of this collaboration taking place?
Ongoing settler violence on the West Bank sponsored by the Apartheid State of Israel
If you need any information, please email me.
Ian Curr
The Big Ride for Palestine (Australia)
20 Nov 2022
iancurr@bigpond.com