MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr LEESER (Berowra) (15:13): Today is a day of memory, a day of disappointment, a day of defiance and a day of hope. Three years ago, exactly a year before the attacks of October 7, I was in southern Israel with the Leader of the Opposition. We went to see how the Abraham Accords were transforming Israel's relationship with its Arab neighbours.
We heard how they were creating not just peace but friendships and opportunities for both sides. A deal with Saudi Arabia was on everyone's lips. First Egypt, then Jordan and now the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco were making peace.
The more Arab nations Israel made peace with, the greater the chance for peace between Israelis and Palestinians became. Not everyone supported peace. We visited Ramallah and met with the Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, who denounced the deals and promised that the Palestinians would not be forgotten.
We visited on election day. We went to Kibbutz Nahal Oz. We went to Sderot.
We met volunteers from the wide range of Israeli political parties contesting the elections. Israel's elections are peacefully but hotly contested. We met people who live close to the border, working for peace.
We climbed abandoned watchtowers and looked out towards Gaza. The distance between those two places is so small. It's the distance from Castle Hill to Parramatta.
In Israel three years ago it was a time of hope. It appeared that Middle East peace was in reach. Australia has long stood alongside the Israeli request for peace because Israel is a nation like our own.
Both are Western liberal democracies which believe in the rule of law to protect the rights of women and religious minorities. Israel is one of the few places in the Middle East where Christians, Jews and Muslims can worship freely. Israel is the only place in the Middle East where LGBTI people live freely and openly and are celebrated.
Its multi-ethnic parliament, defence force and even supreme court are comprised of Jews, Arabs, Bedouins and Druze. Their security partnership with Australia has been highly important. Its intelligence has helped stop terrorist attacks in our country and saved lives.
It's why it's been so upsetting to watch the Albanese government abandon bipartisan support for Israel, even before October 7. However, one year on from that visit from the Leader of the Opposition and me, everything changed. Those horrific images of October 7 have been seared in our minds.
We saw the shocking scenes of Hamas terrorists invading Israel, gunning down young people at the Nova music festival, shooting at the same people we visited a year earlier. We saw pictures of Naama Levy, wearing blood stained jeans, being forcibly dragged into a truck by terrorists; the dismemberment of bodies; women being raped and having their breasts cut off; parents having to watch their children being tortured, raped and murdered before they themselves were murdered.
Babies and Holocaust survivors were captured, caged and killed. Hamas committed unparalleled acts of depravity on that day. Not only did they commit them but they broadcast these crimes in real time so the world could see their atrocities.
It was the sadistic murder of 1,200 people, the largest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust. We even saw one of the terrorists calling his mother to celebrate the number of Jews he had killed. Australia born grandmother and librarian Galit Carbone, whose brother is here in the gallery at this moment, was murdered.
When the Foreign minister went to Israel, she refused to meet with her family and she refused to go south to see the places where these dreadful attacks took place. Following this attack, Hamas took the corpses back into Gaza where they were spat on by ordinary Gazans. Hamas orchestrated the events of October 7 because they have one objective: to remove Israel and Jews from the face of the earth.
Hamas is a death cult which uses its own people as human shields. Hamas aren't just terrorists; they are the government of Gaza. They run its health ministry.
The infiltrated the UN agency UNRWA, whose employees took part in the October 7 attacks and whose headquarters were used as a Hamas communications base. Hamas has spent billions of dollars of foreign aid not developing its economy and giving its people a future. Instead, they stockpiled munitions under schools and hospitals.
They created a network of terror tunnels which still hold 48 hostages in appalling and inhumane conditions. This is exactly why Australia listed Hamas as a terrorist organisation long before October 7. I come back to the remaining 48 hostages who Hamas are holding captive.
They are not just statistics; they're innocent people whose lives have been destroyed. Their families have been living a nightmare for two years, not knowing if their loved one is dead or alive. Those being held by Hamas range in age from 19 to 85.
We must never forget their stories. One of the remaining hostages is Maxim Herkin, 37. Maxim was born in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
He has a daughter living in Russia, a partner and an 11-year-old brother, Peter. Although not a fan of parties, Max agreed to attend the Nova festival with two of his friends. Both of those friends were tragically killed on October 7, their bodies later found burnt inside a vehicle.
Max was abducted from the Nova music festival. On the day of the attacks Maxim attempted to reassure his mother via text. 'Everything's okay,' he wrote early in the morning on that terrible Saturday. 'I'm coming home, slowly but surely.' Later, as the horror unfolded, he wrote simply to his mother, 'I love you.' There are the 28-year-old twins Ziv and Gali Berman from Kfar Aza.
They are inseparable brothers who love travel and soccer. They are fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Liverpool FC and have played on the village football team, the Kfar Aza Foxes. On October 7, Ziv was in his room and Gali was visiting a friend two houses away.
Ten days later the family received a message from the IDF that the brothers had likely been kidnapped. Their parents and their eldest brother, Liran, survived the terror attacks and are waiting for their return. I want to speak about Evyatar David, who is just 24.
Evyatar has an older brother and a sister. He plays guitar and, like so many 24-year-olds around the world, he loves to party. He was at the Nova music festival when he was trying to escape and was taken hostage with his best friend.
Many people know Evyatar as the man who appeared in the Hamas video two months ago, looking like an emaciated figure out of Bergen-Belsen, being forced to dig his own grave in a terror tunnel. These are just four of the 48 people who have been held in captivity for 731 days. They must be brought home.
But, as disturbing as the October 7 attacks have been, they've led to a dreadful rise in antisemitism here in Australia. Australia has always been the exception to the rule about antisemitism. There have been Jews in this country since the First Fleet.
Jewish Australians are responsible for building so many of Australia's institutions, from our Constitution to our football clubs and the retail, housing and entertainment industries. There are Jewish Australian Olympians, philanthropists, Anzacs, parliamentarians and even bushrangers. Australia has been one of the few nations on Earth that has never discriminated against Jews; however, for the past two years, Australians have seen things we never thought we would see in this country.
The very day after October 7, there was a gathering in Western Sydney where a sheik described October 7 as 'a day we have been waiting for, a day of elation'. That same spirit spilled onto our streets. We saw protests at the opera house.
We saw restaurants invaded. We saw cars firebombed. We saw multiple graffiti and arson attacks on synagogues.
We saw shops burnt. The families of hostages visiting from overseas had paint thrown on them. Even today in Melbourne, there was a sign reading 'Glory to Hamas'.
People do it because they know they can get away with it, because they know there are no consequences. That's what Australia has become. Two years later, not enough has been done to curb these antisemitic excesses.
The pro-Hamas rallies continue. This week, again protesters are trying to hijack the Sydney Opera House. Tonight, demonstrations are planned in Bankstown led by the same sheik who described October 7 as 'a day of glory'.
Our university campuses continue to be unsafe for Jewish students. Artists continue to be pressured and punished for refusing to bend to the mob. Unfortunately, we have seen a federal government that has failed to act with urgency.
All of these failures directly lie at the feet of the Prime Minister, who has refused to stand firm and stamp out antisemitism across Australia, in stark contrast to Labor leaders like Chris Minns. Under the leadership of this prime minister, this government has spent two years being reactive to issues impacting the Jewish community. It took months to legislate the hate symbols ban first proposed by the coalition.
They failed to coordinate law enforcement and intelligence agencies across the federation when the crisis first reared its head. They failed to curb violent protest on our streets. They allowed Jew haters to run amok on campuses and refused a judicial inquiry.
The Prime Minister had to be dragged kicking and screaming to convene National Cabinet, which delivered neither tougher penalties nor stronger laws. For two and a half years, we have called for them to list the IRGC, which has been responsible for terrorist attacks on our streets. The former Attorney-General failed during his tenure to root out antisemitism at the Human Rights Commission.
The Foreign minister's conduct abroad has left thousands of Jewish Australians appalled, breaking decades of bipartisan foreign policy. Labor took months to appoint the special envoy on antisemitism and then ignored her advice on crucial matters. The special envoy delivered a comprehensive report months ago.
The government has had this report, yet there has been no response, no plan, no decisive action to keep law-abiding Australians of every background safe. Of course, there is hope. The hope is the peace plan that has been pursued by the United States.
It's a peace plan that this government has had no input into because this government chose to disrespect our longstanding bipartisan position in relation to Israel and alienated Washington. This government chose the path of unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state. This has been praised by Palestinian actors, and I say to the Prime Minister: with the new political capital you have with the Palestinian actors, it is important to pressure them to pressure Hamas.
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