Penny Wong can’t support Gazan protest and oppose a ceasefire with Israel at the same time
Gaza is now witnessing the largest ever protests against Hamas. Open opposition highlights how residents want the terror organisation to leave. At least some Palestinians are so fed up with Hamas that they’re brave enough to risk their lives to be heard.
Palestinian pollsters have found that many in Gaza privately disapprove of Hamas’s refusal to agree to a reasonable extension of the January hostage deal and ceasefire, especially since the expiration of that ceasefire and resumption of fighting. Ironically perhaps, many would agree with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who posted on X recently urging Gazans to join the residents of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip where protests took place and “demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages – this is the only way to stop the war.” In one protest crowds of young men chanted, “You stupid Hamdan”, referring to Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas political leader, “We don’t want to die.”
But now we’re seeing a crackdown by Hamas against the protesters with six executed and some tortured. Last Monday Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the executions “reprehensible acts” and said the terror group must play no role in Palestine’s future. Yet Wong also urges Israel to cease fire against Hamas. Wong can’t have her cake and eat it too. The protests are possible because Hamas is losing its grip after Israel resumed its military operations against it. An open-ended ceasefire only strengthens Hamas’ power in Gaza by allowing it to reimpose discipline on its subjects.
As Gazans finally reject the sacrificial role of unwilling martyrs that Hamas has imposed on them, Wong is in effect suggesting Hamas shouldn’t be removed from power. If the foreign minister is serious about wanting to remove Hamas from the strip, she should be supporting Israel’s current efforts to achieve this objective rather than urging Israel to stop its military campaign.
The outright defiance by the protesters reflects the weakened position of Hamas after nearly 18 months of war, with the organisation losing many of its senior military and political leaders. But Wong’s directive to DFAT is to fund the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which enables Hamas. That’s not helpful to those Gazans risking their lives to remove Hamas.
Likewise, the Greens leader Adam Bandt, when he was asked by this masthead if he condemned Hamas’s executions of Palestinians replied: “The killing of civilians is devastating, never acceptable and should always be investigated by human rights organisations.” Bandt then directed the blame to Israel. “For all killings to finally stop, and for Palestinians and Israelis to have a just and lasting peace, the occupation of Palestine and the invasion of Gaza need to end,” he said.
It was an extraordinary response. How does he expect this to happen given he has demonstrated he won’t support those brave Palestinians who are willing to stand up to Hamas and risk reprisals. Meanwhile, the weekly pro-Palestinian protests in Melbourne have resumed with support from the Greens. Melbourne will again be an unsafe place for the Jewish community every Sunday. Greens candidate for Fraser, Huong Truong, told a crowd she was an organiser for “We Vote For Palestine”. “Can you imagine how different this would be if I was standing here as an MP that can go into parliament and bring this grassroots voice into parliament”, she said.
This is a fundamental reason why if Labor fails to win majority government, Prime Minister Albanese should rule out making a deal with the Greens and why both of our major parties should preference each other rather than the Greens.
It’s not only the Greens who are silent about Palestinians being killed by Hamas. Australian university students and staff who eagerly rose to defend Palestinian rights when they saw Israel as the oppressor have remained deafeningly silent. Not a peep of solidarity on any of our campuses.
At some point in the future there will be a Gaza run by Palestinians who have liberated themselves from the thuggish brutality of Hamas. They won’t thank Australia, Labor, the Greens, Penny Wong and all those who call for an end to the only process that can remove Hamas.
The question our government should be asking is: how can we help the Palestinians overthrow these brutal tyrants and embark on a new path, towards a genuine peaceful outcome based on two states for two peoples? The only answer is by supporting Israel’s campaign to defeat Hamas, stop funding UNRWA which enables Hamas and educates new generations of Palestinians against accepting the permanence of Israel, and find ways to back pragmatic Palestinians who, like all of us, hate oppression and embrace peacemaking over endless bloodshed.
Anthony Bergin is a senior fellow at Strategic Analysis Australia.
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