An independent Australian senator from Victoria harshly criticized the Israeli occupation and violence against Palestinians, saying that there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as world powers allow the oppression of Palestinians.
“As long as we allow for the continued oppression of Palestinians, we will not see peace in the Middle East,” Senator Lidia Thorpe said on X on Monday.
"Governments across the world, in an attempt to address anti-Semitism and somehow redress the horrors of the Holocaust are allowing Israel to get away with apartheid, ethnic cleansing, detention of children, torture, restriction of movement and other freedoms, and the illegal occupation of land," Thorpe told the Australian Senate in her speech.
She noted that the world cries out "never again" after every genocide, but Israel is currently attempting to carry out a genocide and countries like Australia do not just watch it quietly but "support the oppressor."
Thorpe, who is the first Aboriginal senator from Victoria, said Palestinians “live with generational trauma of dispossession” as she compared them to the Indigenous people in Australia, saying that they fight for their sovereignty and liberation.
“You have the responsibility to support Palestinians standing against it, just as you have the responsibility to support First Nations people here standing against it,” she said.
As long as we allow for the continued oppression of Palestinians, we will not see peace in the Middle East.
Full speech: https://t.co/RE9Ma7Tqdj pic.twitter.com/4jr91VTBOc
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) October 16, 2023
Thorpe also criticized the Australian government for siding with Israel.
“I'm not surprised the Australian government, which is itself the illegal occupier of these lands, condones illegal occupation of other lands, and sides with an oppressive regime,” she said.
She continued by saying that countries around the world remain silent, allowing Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
“Israel's indiscriminate bombings on Gaza are killing thousands of innocent people, people who already had to suffer for so many decades in what is often called the world's biggest prison,” the senator said, noting that the civilians didn't attack Israel, but ended up being punished.
Thorpe also highlighted that Palestinians, who were forced to flee to Gaza when Israel was established in 1948, want nothing but to “live peacefully” amid Israel’s continued and illegal confiscation of their land and property.
“Palestinian voices have all but been silenced over what happened.”
