Rosemary MacBride, a Labor Party member, has sent me this letter to the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong to be published on this website. The letter speaks for itself. – Ian Curr, 7 Dec 2023.
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Dear Ms Wong,
I write to you beg you to act and call for a total and permanent cease fire. Even though there is a “pause” children have been killed on the West Bank and at any moment hostilities could resume. My concern is that genocide must be stopped and here I have been very disturbed by the extreme statements emanating from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet.
I am a loyal and hard-working member of the Labor Party – the Kurilpa Branch. I am 80 years old and have supported the Party for nearly 50 years. However, I am very disappointed in the Labor Party’s stance on Gaza. I am very familiar with the troubled history of the region. The fact is that Palestine is occupied by Israelis and the Palestinians are exercising their right to resist. As an Irish person I can relate to that
All over the world people in their hundreds of thousands are protesting about the treatment of the people of Gaza. We are watching genocide unfold on our televisions and on social media.
The harsh truth is that the US dictates what happens. The Israeli War Machine is a creation of the US government. Worse than that, Australian foreign Policy is also a creation of the US State Department.
You are allowed to call for “humanitarian pauses”, but you are forbidden to call for a total cease fire or a just solution. I feel that your speaking notes are approved in Washington. When you see the slaughtered babies you are supposed to mention “Hamas” as often as possible. You are expected, also, to say “Israel has a right to defend itself.”
You do this though you know we are all witnesses to genocide and a Second Nakba.
Shame on you.
Mr Keating has said that Australia should detach itself from American foreign Policy. He never said a truer word.
At the moment, I am watching Palestinian children cooking bread in the rubble of their homes. Nowhere is safe in Gaza. If the Israeli bombing resumes these children could be killed. Yet children should be protected according to international law. Perhaps, you should watch the Al Jazeera News at 5 am as I do.
You know this is not a new war. It has been going on since 1947. Now, in this phase 16,000 civilians are dead so far. Most of them women and children. Should the present brief lull end we will return to unbearable killing. If the Labor Party wants to be on the right side of history, it should call for a total cease fire now.
Sincerely
Rosemary MacBride
30 November 2023
