Watch: Lighting Opera House sails “ignoring the plight of Palestinian people,” NSW Greens MP says
A NSW Greens MP has used a speech in parliament to condemn lighting the sails of the Opera House in Israel’s colours, and slammed the government’s “failure” to support “decolonisation of Palestine”. Watch the video.
NSW
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A NSW Greens MP has used a speech in parliament to condemn lighting the sails of the Opera House in Israel’s colours, and slammed the government’s “failure” to support “decolonisation of Palestine”.
Upper House Greens MP Abigail Boyd on Tuesday used a notice of motion speech to condemn an “escalation of conflict” in Israel and Palestine without singling out Hamas – a declared terrorist organisation – as the instigator of the most recent conflict.
She used her speech to express “profound sadness for the lives lost in the most recent escalation of conflict between Israel and Palestine, and the lives lost over the last several decades as a result of the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land”.
The speech condemned “all forms of violence”, declaring “the premeditated targeting of civilians by Hamas, as well as the bombing of Palestinian civilians in response by the State of Israel” violates international laws.
She called for the government to work towards “de-escalation,” including “an immediate ceasefire”.
Ms Boyd said comments from Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant regarding “human animals” were “shockingly genocidal and should be condemned”.
She said that Israeli officials using the “actions of Hamas” to justify a “complete siege of the Gaza Strip” is a “a blatant attempt by the Israeli government to occupy more of the Strip in breach of international law and should be condemned”.
In her speech, Ms Boyd said lighting the Opera House sails in Israeli colours “is misguided and represents a trend of continuously ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people and the historical context of the conflict in Gaza”.
“The historical failure of the Australian Government to support the decolonisation of Palestine represents a clear failure to challenge all forms of settler colonialism, including the rights of First Nations peoples in this country,” she said.
Ms Boyd defended politicising the conflict in Gaza when contacted by The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday night.
“War and conflict is a political issue. If we want to stop more people being killed, we need to have mature and well-informed political debate,” she said.
The speech was a procedural motion giving notice of a motion which may be debated and voted on at a later date.
Deputy Liberal Leader Natalie Ward said lighting the sails of the Opera House was the “correct decision”.
“While I strongly disagree with Ms Boyd’s characterisation of the conflict, the fact is the ineptitude of senior ministers in the Government this week has resulted in this conflict being brought to Sydney’s streets and into the NSW Parliament,” she said.
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