Activists should condemn Hamas

Hamas’s torture and execution of Gazan protesters, using methods hardly seen since medieval times, underline why Israel must disarm and destroy the Iranian-backed terror group. It is a just war. The issue moved front and centre in Australia’s election campaign on Monday when Greens leader Adam Bandt, despicably, suggested Israel was to blame for Hamas’s latest butchery. His contemptible views reaffirm why the major parties have no moral choice but to preference the Greens last in all seats and the Senate.

Israel’s necessary response to Hamas’s massacre of 1200 Jews and kidnapping of 250 others on October 7, 2023, has inflicted a high number of casualties. But the tragic suffering has been far worse than it should have been because of Hamas’s callous misuse of civilians as human shields near its bases beside hospitals, schools and homes. The bravery of Gazan protesters, risking sadistic punishments and death because they speak out, is a good sign that decent people have had enough. They deserve the support of Israel, Arab and free nations.

Hamza al-Masri, a Gazan social activist who lost an eye after being tortured by Hamas, said on social media that the terrorists were determined to silence dissent. “There isn’t a single journalist in Gaza who can speak about the crimes being committed here,” he wrote. “The world has no idea what’s happening.” Hamas’s crackdown is being thwarted, fortunately, because the Israeli military is targeting any militants it spots in the open. Israel’s renewed military pressure was effective, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet. “We are negotiating under fire … We can see cracks beginning to appear.” The situation highlights the complexity of the challenges facing Israel, and the naivety and ignorance of advocates of an imminent Palestinian state. While many advocates insist Hamas should have no governance role in such a state, it would fight to the death to retain control of Gaza, buttressed by hundreds of kilometres of well-equipped tunnels.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has been clear that Australia sees “no role for Hamas in a future Palestinian state”. But in September 2024 she told the UN: “Australia no longer sees recognition of a Palestinian state as only occurring at the end of negotiations but rather as a way of building momentum towards a two-state solution.” No new state, however it was established, would withstand the onslaught while Hamas remained a force in Gaza; peacekeepers would be in the firing line. Mr Netanyahu is being pragmatic in offering to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza while insisting that the group abandon its arms.

Around the world, including in Australia, the silence of pro-Palestinian demonstrators over Hamas’s outrages is appalling. They are unmoved, apparently, by the plight of a young man, Odai al-Rubai, 22, who was beaten and tortured for four hours with clubs and metal rods, then dragged with a rope around his neck and dumped on his family’s doorstep. “This is the punishment for those who badmouth Hamas,” militants reportedly told his family. Another protester, Hussam al-Majdalawi, was shot in the legs and left in a public square.

If Australia’s Greens had a shred of decency they would distance themselves from pro-Palestinian activists. On Sunday, the Greens’ candidate for the seat of Fraser, Huong Truong, told a Melbourne rally she was an organiser for a pro-Palestine group, We Vote For Palestine. If elected, she would take the movement to parliament, which she derided as a “racist, white supremacist, colonial institution”.

Anti-Israel groups are also pushing to help former Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam defeat Labor’s special envoy for social cohesion, Peter Khalil, in the Melbourne seat of Wills. “Your Labor MP is supporting genocide” is the false slogan being used against him.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Education Minister Jason Clare, who face Muslim community challenges in their western Sydney electorates, have struck the right note. “It won’t be the first time that Hamas has been responsible, not only for the persecution of Israelis but also for the persecution of Palestinians,” Mr Burke said. Mr Clare said the killing of innocent people was abhorrent. He condemned Hamas, as should every candidate standing for office.