Labor’s invitation to President of Israel Isaac Herzog, as head of a state responsible for genocidal acts is immoral, cowardly, illegal and wrong.
How can the Prime Minister fail to understand that he risks all his endeavours for social cohesion by associating the nation with a government that includes indicted war criminals?
The massacre at Bondi Beach merits a national coming together, coupled to support those who are grieving and fearful. It does not need a visit from a president of a country judged to have committed genocide in Gaza, a man who oversees a government which uses famine as a weapon of war, and which has slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children, as well as refuses to end the illegal occupation.
Is the Labor government blind? Is it sensitive only to grief and fear experienced by one community?
Herzog has presided over brutality and has approved the destruction of a people whose rights he does not respect.
In December 2023, he was pictured signing bombs due to be dropped on Gaza. At a news conference following the October 7, 2023 attack, he commented: “It’s an entire nation that is out there that’s responsible”, words subsequently cited in the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Instead of the Australian government rushing to appease only one group by passing laws to erode free speech and the right to protest, obligations under the Genocide Convention and the rulings of the International Court of Justice should be implemented.
Such a change of attitude and policy will require courage and should encourage all politicians to realise fundamental truths, that state violence of all kinds can be ended by observing international law and by achieving justice for Palestine.
If the invitation to Herzog is not withdrawn, there should be massive protest against the prospect of a likely war criminal being welcomed in this country.
Signed: Margaret Reynolds; John Menadue; Alison Broinowski; Paul Heywood-Smith; Stuart Rees; Paul Chambers; Helen McCue; Richard Broinowski; Richard Hil; Peter Slezak; Lama Qasem.
[To sign on to this statement contact Margaret Reynolds on margaret.reynolds.tas@gmail.com / 0418 181 843 or Stuart Rees profstuartrees@gmail.com / 0419 151 777. This piece was first published at Pearls and Irritations.]