Recognising Palestine is a distraction. We need sanctions to stop Israel killing my people
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The reality is that Israel acts with impunity because of the ongoing support it receives from governments like Australia. The same impunity that allowed my grandparents' expulsion in 1948, that sustains the occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza, that today enables the deliberate starvation of a population.
For nearly two years, I have watched bombs fall on hospitals and schools. I have seen my family members killed. I felt alone as I saw videos of screaming children on my screen and the world had abandoned us. I was enraged when Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a complete siege on the Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024, and declared that the people of Gaza, my people, my family, would be treated as 'animals' – and the world failed to stop it.
'We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,' Gallant said.
Israel's response to the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, has indeed been wildly disproportionate and a violation of international law.
I have listened to leaders issue hollow words as the massacres escalated: the invasion of Gaza, the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab by 335 bullets, the flour massacre, the tent massacre in Rafah, the killing of more than 60,000 people. The crimes grew. The condemnations got louder. The actions stayed the same.
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Israel will not be stopped by speeches or hand-wringing. It will only be stopped by cutting off supplies to its military killing machine: sanctions, an arms embargo, an end to trade with this regime. Indeed, this is the bare minimum that Australia must do to meet its legal obligations to prevent and punish Israel for this genocide.
This is not abstract for me. I carry the grief of generations, and I get messages from family in Gaza begging us not to stop protesting against this atrocity. I will not.
Our movement is being heard. The pressure is rising. The government is scrambling; not out of principle, but because the people are demanding it.
In 2003, the Howard government rejected the mass opposition in the streets and went on to invade Iraq, leaving millions dead in war and occupation, for nothing. The Albanese government must reflect on its legacy, on how it would like to be remembered: a government that serves the interests and desires of its people, or one complicit in a genocide.
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History is watching. Lives are hanging in the balance.
Recognition is not enough. It never has been. Only action can end a genocide. On August 24, 2025, we will be in the streets again as part of a massive Nationwide March for Palestine. And we will not stop.
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