Vilifying art-lovers at the NGV is a step too far
PROTESTS
Exiting the NGV on Sunday, I was confronted by women protesting. My first instinct was to think they are women like me. As a teacher and Christian leader I've worked for peace, justice and reconciliation in education, churches and communities creating meaningful ways of offering hopeful transformation. I am a protester. But my instinct was wrong about these women as I don't target individuals and vilify them as they did to hundreds of us.
A woman with the megaphone claimed 'anyone entering the NGV was ensuring the NGV thinks it's OK to hang out with fascists. You have blood on your hands and you support Zionism.' She then got personal to one woman saying 'you in the hat, you are supporting genocide entering the NGV'. I was collecting my bike nearby and foolishly engaged suggesting we can protest but it's wrong to target individuals as perpetrators of genocide. She then directed the megaphone at me chanting 'you support genocide'.
She's right; we are all complicit in systemic and collective sins of commission and omission. But broad scale public vilification is not protest. It polarises, shuts down empathy and divides us further.
Sally Apokis, South Melbourne
Albanese should offer more than a gesture
Anthony Albanese is correct in that the government should not recognise Palestine as a gesture only. He should do it as a commitment to the people of Palestine (''We won't make a decision as a gesture': Albanese says no imminent move to recognise Palestine ', 28/7). At the moment Albanese is gesturing, not acting. He is unprepared to take a bold stand, whether it be to recognise Palestine or sanction Israel for its blatant crimes. While acknowledging the heartbreak of seeing children starve, he makes no mention of genocide or ethnic cleansing. It's time he be a true leader.
Lorel Thomas, Blackburn South
Australia must act
Sadly it appears the world's leaders are deaf and blind to what has been happening in Gaza. And as Sean Kelly noted (' Mere words won't pass our moral test ', 28/7) only two months after the horrific Hamas attacks on Israelis on October 7, 2023, already 93 per cent of people were in phases 3, 4 or 5 of food insecurity. In May UN experts noted that 'while States debate terminology — is it or is it not genocide? — Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza, through attacks by land, air and sea, displacing and massacring the surviving population with impunity'. When will the Australian government take action? It's time we say to the US and the UK that we will not proceed with AUKUS unless arms supplies to Israel stop. Where is the power of leaders if they take no action to stop this carnage in Gaza?
Peta Colebatch, Hawthorn
Blame not so simple
Regarding Sean Kelly, the Geneva Conventions allow the blocking of aid if the enemy is stealing or using it. Kelly cites a New York Times story denying Hamas is doing so, but a Washington Post report set out in detail, citing many witnesses including Gazans, how Hamas is in financial crisis because Israel has stopped it taxing aid, or stealing and selling it. Kelly writes about famine starting within months of the war beginning, but those warnings were retracted by the Famine Early Warning System, a US-funded monitoring group.
The UN is also culpable. After ending its nine-week blockade in May, after having allowed enough aid into Gaza to last for some months, Israel not only facilitated the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has distributed around 95 million meals, but also resumed UN access. However, there were recently 900 truckloads of aid inside Gaza checkpoints the UN hadn't collected.
As for the suggestion of recognising a Palestinian state, only Palestinian Authority intransigence has prevented such a state. Hamas would say recognition only happened because of the October 7 atrocities. Recognition would simply encourage further Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism.
Jamie Hyams, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council
Statehood for Palestine
The people of the world claiming statehood for Palestine are living in a world of delusion. There are so many questions that still need to be asked. Some of these are: What are the geographical boundaries that define this state called Palestine? Who are the citizens of Palestine and who makes the decisions as to who becomes a citizen? What are the institutions that govern this state called Palestine? Are Jews allowed to be citizens of this new state called Palestine?
These are only a few of the questions that need to be considered. No leader nor a member of the lobby groups that are advocating for statehood have made proposals that define this state.
It's disingenuous on all people wishing for a state called Palestine because it's a falsehood. The people who are most vulnerable and exploited are once again being led up a path of others making.
Graham Haupt, Glen Waverley
Revert to 1947 borders
Yes, as several correspondents to this page have stated, there are other serious human massacres also occurring, right now, in Yemen, and in Sudan. The difference is that those wars are not openly supported by a vocal and prominent segment of Australians, or accepted by Australian governments.
Injustice for the people of Gaza stings our collective conscience. Here, and around the world.
The only fair and long-term solution is to formally recognise those 1947 UN borders and allow the two states to exist as equals — with equal rights to exist, and also equal rights to have the military capability to defend themselves.
Geoffrey McNaughton, Glen Huntly
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