Craig Foster’s Mid East call has divided the republic movement

Craig Foster and Nova Peris in 2023. Picture: LinkedIn

Like so many other institutions across this country, the Australian Republic Movement has become embroiled in the politics of the Middle East. I have chosen to step down as co-chair of the ARM because I cannot stand by and condone Craig Foster’s divisive and inaccurate comments on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

While we are aligned on the issue of the republic – a cause I have felt passionately and deeply about since I was a participant at the 1998 constitutional convention – we hold very different perspectives on the Gaza war. I was deeply troubled by Foster’s public message to FIFA last week, urging the suspension of Israel’s membership. I do not believe the exclusion he advocates leads to dialogue and reconciliation. And I believe his incendiary comments have compromised the Australian Republic Movement. It has made my position untenable, divided the movement and likely set back the cause we both care so much about.

Foster has claimed the International Court of Justice made clear on January 26 that the atrocities occurring in Gaza amounted to plausible genocide. But this is wrong. In a widely publicised BBC interview the (now former) president of the ICJ confirmed as much when she said the ICJ “didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible” or that there was a “plausible case of genocide”. It’s concerning that Foster’s emotive statement was so incorrect on this crucial legal matter, especially as he has a law degree.

He also suggests the ICJ found Israel to be guilty of apartheid. Again, the ICJ has made no such finding. On my recent trip to Israel I learnt there are two million Arab citizens in Israel and I witnessed it with my own eyes. They have the same rights to social security, public schooling and other benefits as Jewish citizens. Many volunteer for the IDF. How is this apartheid?

What is happening is that Israel is responding to Hamas’s barbaric incursion on October 7 last year.

Peris with Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser at the Jewish Museum in Sydney in January. Picture: Nikki Short

In Australia, we live far away from many of the world’s conflicts, and we could bring constructive leadership. Sadly, Foster’s example demonstrates how we are doing the opposite. The trend of importing foreign conflicts into Australia now seems embedded. Everything has become binary. There is only right or wrong, oppressor or oppressed. In this debate, the most unimaginable person is someone who supports both Israel and Palestine. (I’m one, as are most Jewish Australians.) But fair-minded Jewish citizens who support a two-state solution are being labelled as genocidal “Zionists” merely because they support Israel’s existence.

Criticism of Israel’s government or of the conduct of the war is legitimate, and millions of Israelis are doing this every day. But labelling anyone who believes Israel has a right to exist a “genocide supporter”, or calling for the destruction of the only Jewish state, or imposing a higher standard on Israel than on any other country is hate speech. Hate speech is rampant. Pro-Palestinian agitators have stormed the Victorian Labor Party conference, they have occupied university buildings, they have disrupted commerce and they continue to make demands outside the democratic process. This is a mob rule mentality. This is not the Australia I love.

This trend is a serious concern for the overall stability of our liberal democracy. Australia Palestine Advocacy Network leader Nasser Mashni recently said: “Israel and Australia share two things in common, aside from being a shithole racist, settler colony … they also have the highest incidence of skin cancer. Their skin is designed for northern Europe, where there is not much sun.”

Any person, particularly any Aboriginal Australian, who hears a leader using skin colour as the basis of determining indigeneity should have a hard think about the movement they are following. Unlike Mashni, I am an Aboriginal woman, a First Australian. My family has a long experience of racism and settler colonialism. But I do not hate this country. I love it and I would never call it a “shithole”. I’m well aware there’s racism, a history of genocide and occupation in this country. Yet I do not support radical responses.

All my life I have been working for equality and reconciliation. It should concern all Australians that some people are suddenly siding with a barbaric terrorist organisation and denying that Jews are indigenous to Israel, while hypocritically occupying Aboriginal land and following someone who calls Australia a racist shithole.

This atmosphere makes Foster’s statements even more irresponsible. As a dual Olympian, Olympic gold medallist and the first Aboriginal woman elected to Australia’s federal parliament, I have been fortunate enough to participate in both sport and politics. I believe in the ancient Greek tradition of the Olympic truce that allows for the safe participation of all athletes and spectators. I don’t have all the answers, but as an Olympian I point again to the tradition of the Olympic truce. Let’s not divide and polarise any more.

Nova Peris is a former senator, dual Australian Olympian and gold medallist, and an inductee into the Sports Australia Hall of Fame.