Melbourne school kids should scrap the Palestine strike for a history lesson

A Pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne.

Instead of wasting time at the School Strike for Palestine in Melbourne on Thursday, students should be in class, where a few good lessons on World War II and The Diary of Anne Frank would equip them to better understand the war in Gaza. Rabbi James Kennard, principal of Melbourne’s largest Jewish school, Mount Scopus Memorial College, is correct when he says the protest should be opposed by the Victorian and federal governments. While some at pro-Palestine rallies had expressed concern for innocent civilians, others had shown hatred for Israel and for Jews, he said. Students at the strike would be exposed to the current surge in anti-Semitism that has left Jewish communities feeling vulnerable and unsafe.

Premier Jacinta Allan is on the fence. She expects students to go to school but attendance is “very much a matter for local schools” and peaceful protest was “a fundamental principle of our democracy”. It is. But the time for it is not in school hours, especially for such a divisive cause. Most parents agree with Bill Shorten that “during school hours kids should go to school”.

Australia’s longstanding relationship with Israel is important. We had the distinction of being the first country to vote for the 1947 UN resolution that led to Israel’s establishment as a nation. Anthony Albanese told caucus on Tuesday that unity and harmony were needed. What is more important is that the government provide more coherent leadership in responding to the war than the current confusion and contradictions. As Dennis Shanahan wrote on Tuesday, that confusion was “increasing fear within the Australian Jewish community, emboldening racists and amplifying hate speech”. That is especially the case since Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s muddled assertion in an ABC interview on Sunday in which she appeared to pledge Australian backing for a ceasefire and warned Israel about breaking international law by targeting hospitals in its drive to destroy the Hamas terrorists.

On Monday the Prime Minister insisted that Senator Wong’s comments were consistent with a parliamentary motion condemning the October 7 Hamas attacks. But he refused to back her call for a ceasefire, a demand that would put Australia in the camp of Arab states and others that are highly critical of Israel’s response to the October 7 massacre and naively believe Israel should agree to a ceasefire. As Mr Shorten said: “We’ve called for a humanitarian pause, but we completely recognise that Israel’s dealing with Hamas, who don’t want to negotiate. How do you negotiate with someone who says you don’t have a right to exist?”

A ceasefire, British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has stated, would only allow Hamas to regroup, rearm and plot “another October 7”. Genuine friends of Israel must support the Jewish state in its life-or-death struggle. Since the October 7 massacre, 45 envoys from world governments, including 30 heads of state and foreign ministers, have visited Israel to express solidarity. Australia has not been among them.

Images of Israeli soldiers inside the Gaza parliament show IDF forces making rapid progress. They now control most of Gaza City and are preparing to storm tunnels under the city. But footage of Hamas firing rocket-propelled grenades from the Al-Quds hospital shows their difficulties in protecting civilians close to Hamas’s bases. Thousands of people are dying because of shortages of fuel, supplies and water, the World Health Organisation warns. But Hamas refused to let the Al-Shifa hospital accept a supply of fuel that Israeli soldiers left; instead, terrorists fired at the soldiers. The suffering of civilians in the crossfire is tragic. The end of Hamas is critical to ensuring Palestinians do not face such horror in future.