The moral test for Labor has shifted on Gaza: Words are not enough

Shortly after Hamas brutally murdered over a thousand Israelis – and took others hostage – Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Penny Wong, tweeted: “Australia unequivocally condemns the attacks on Israel by Hamas, including indiscriminate rocket fire on cities & civilians. We call for these attacks to stop & recognise Israel’s right to defend itself. Australia urges the exercise of restraint & protection of civilian lives.”

Immediately, a storm of criticism met Wong. How dare she call for Israel to show restraint in the face of such horrific violence? Wong was clearly sufficiently concerned about this that, when asked, she seemed determined to make clear those words had not been directed at Israel specifically. Had she said “Israel should exercise restraint”? No, Wong said, her tweet had called “for restraint and the protection of civilian lives. And I think that’s an unremarkable point, frankly.”

Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, July 26.Credit: AP

Within a month, as the extent of Israel’s attacks became clearer, Wong had become comfortable explicitly saying to Israel that it should exercise restraint, pointing to the 3500 children killed that month.

You can understand, in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ violence, the strong reaction to Wong’s words, the frustration some might have felt at the idea of being told Israel should restrain itself after such an atrocity. I heard that frustration expressed at the time. The emotion behind it was not cynical but deeply felt.

Such criticisms were taken up publicly, including by the Coalition. By this time, though, knowing what has happened in the two years since, those public criticisms sound hollow. Worse than hollow: misguided on a world-historic scale. By now, more than 17,000 children in Gaza have reportedly been killed. More than 3000 children have been made amputees.

What has become clear over almost two years since Hamas’ horrific attacks is that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has no interest in restraint. It is equally clear that the global community has insufficient interest in encouraging him to develop such an interest.

Credit: Jozsef Benke

And now we are all aware of the starvation in Gaza.

It is important to recognise that this starvation, now beginning to get attention in media across the world, is not new. It has been an aspect of the war in Gaza since its beginning. Two months after Hamas’ attacks, 93 per cent of people in Gaza were in phases 3, 4 or 5 of food insecurity – numbers that, as expert Alex de Waal has written, recalled “the nadir of the famine in Somalia in 2011”.

Just two months ago, the United Nations warned: “Every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine. One in five faces starvation.” And we know many have been shot by Israeli soldiers while trying to get food.

At the weekend, Israel announced it would take steps to restore aid. Sadly, by this stage it is difficult to know with what level of credulity to treat its government’s assertions. Israel has long blamed Hamas for looting aid; on Sunday, The New York Times carried a report based on conversations with Israeli military officials: “the Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations … In fact, the Israeli military officials said, the UN aid delivery system, which Israel derided and undermined, was largely effective in providing food to Gaza’s desperate and hungry population.” This backed reports of a recent American analysis with similar findings.

The starvation of the people of Gaza, then, is not an accident; it is not a tragic byproduct of other actions. As de Waal wrote years ago, “starve” should not be seen as a passive verb. It is something someone does to someone else. And, it follows, something that others permit to be done. Almost a year ago, one Israeli minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said: “No one will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though that might be just and moral until they return the hostages.” He was wrong.

Wong’s early call for restraint in Gaza tells us several things. It shows it was possible, at the very beginning, to glimpse some of what was coming. At the same time, Wong’s early defensiveness shows how easily participants in public debate – including leading politicians – are able to be knocked off course by efforts to make certain statements unsayable. The conservative press is significant in these efforts; but the rest of the political class, politicians and media, are the ones who allow themselves to be cowed.

Israel has achieved as much as it ever will from this war. In the doing, thousands more Palestinians have been killed. Together, these two facts mean that more things are now able to be said. But the moral and practical test for those with influence has shifted.

Of course, it’s true that Australia can’t by itself end the fighting. And it is hard to know what will make Netanyahu listen – or make America behave differently. And it is true, too, that statements can have some effect. The last time famine threatened in Gaza, international pressure led to an increase in aid.

Obviously, though, this was only temporary. And that is why it is important to recognise that other options are available to Australia. The UK has now announced it is working with Jordan to deliver aid and will medically evacuate children. France has said it will recognise Palestine as a state, something former Labor ministers Gareth Evans, Bob Carr and Ed Husic are calling for here.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made clear that Israel has breached international law. This was a welcome injection of clarity. Still, the test at this late stage is no longer whether politicians can issue damning statements. The only meaningful test left is whether our leaders will do everything they can to stop Netanyahu’s Israel from killing any more Palestinians.

We have waited two years for the world’s political leaders to work up enough courage to speak as strongly as they are now. The Palestinians in Gaza cannot wait any longer for the same leaders to actually do something.

Sean Kelly is a regular columnist and a former adviser to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

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