Stand with Israel, PM, as you did for Ukraine

Hamas relies on the naivety and gullibility of the West to soak up its anti-Semitic propaganda and outright lies. Don’t fall for it, Prime Minister.

Anthony Albanese meets with President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. The prmie minister was right to visit Ukraine. Now he must do the same in Israel. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay/The Australian

It’s Saturday morning. I wake to sunlight and fresh air streaming through my window; there’s no noise except for the birds chirping pleasantly. I’m in my home, I’m safe, and I wake up peacefully to familiar sights and sounds, something many of us take for granted.

I didn’t sleep peacefully, though; I couldn’t. The night before I had returned home from Israel, where I visited a kibbutz and the site of the Nova music festival – two of many massacre sites of the October 7 atrocities.

I also witnessed raw footage of what innocent Israelis faced when Hamas attacked, invading homes in a calculated, bloodthirsty, dehumanising assault. I was shown footage from mobile phones, car dashcams, CCTV and the body-worn cameras of Hamas terrorists, footage of things I will never be able to forget.

Footage of two little boys, brothers around the ages of eight and 10, shirtless and startled by warnings of rocket fire, and gunfire cracking through the air nearby – a rude awakening first thing in the morning for anyone, let alone sleeping children. Their father, also shirtless, gathering them in his arms and running into a small garden bomb shelter for cover.

Bullet holes and blood stains on a door and walls of a house where civilians were killed in an attack by Hamas militants on the Kfar Aza kibbutz on October 7. Picture: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Just as they think they are safe from the rockets firing overhead, a grenade is hurled into their small safe room. The father throws himself on to his little boys but the force of the blast violently rips him apart, slamming the pieces of his body against the entrance of the safe room.

The little boys, in gut-wrenching terror, covered in blood and shrapnel, step over the bloodied remains of their father and flee.

Footage of a group of teenage girls – just like the many we saw attending Taylor Swift’s recent Australian concerts – abhorrently gunned down in cold blood as they huddle inside a bomb shelter thinking they were safe from attack. Footage of young Israelis, the same ages as my own sons, being gunned down in their cars, or on foot, desperately trying to flee, only to be hunted down and murdered.

Footage of Hamas celebrating in Gaza by parading the naked corpses of Jewish men through crowds before the bodies are callously thrown to the ground, spat on, kicked and stomped on, as all the while those celebrating chant “Allahu akbar” – God is great.

Among those murdered on October 7 were not just Jewish Israelis but Arab Muslims, also peaceful citizens of Israel. A Muslim mother of nine being one who was shot in the head after pleading with the terrorists for her life: “Please don’t kill me, I am Muslim just like you.”

An Israeli soldier patrols near Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, close to the place where 270 revellers were killed by militants during the Supernova music festival on October 7. Picture: Aris Messinis/AFP

These fanatical terrorists are not interested in a two-state solution. They’re not interested in a peaceful coexistence of Israel and Palestine. They do not want an end to the war, a ceasefire or peaceful negotiations. They want the total destruction of the Jewish people. They want Israel wiped from the face of the earth. Indoctrinated their entire lives through a well-funded terror regime intent on the annihilation of the most persecuted people on earth, Hamas and its supporters celebrate martyrdom. For Hamas, death in pursuit of its cause – even the death of its own civilians – is praised.

More than concerning, it is a complete outrage that even in Australian cities we hear the glorification of martyrdom and claims that Palestinian mothers would be worshipped when their children were martyred. As was reported in The Australian: “It is great. (When) every single martyr died, they go to their houses with a sweet,” one told a gathering in Melbourne.

“And they chant to his mother: ‘You are very lucky … I wish my mum (is) in your place.’ How are you going to defeat us when we wish our mothers has (sic) the martyr in their house?”

This is the reality surrounding Israel, it is the situation it is forced to confront. The Middle East’s only democracy, a diverse nation of Jews, Christians and Muslims attempting to live peacefully while surrounded by people hellbent on their destruction.

Hamas relies on the goodwill of its enemies. For years it has used safe places, schools and hospitals as cover while it launched its unrelenting attack on Israel, banking on the Israelis’ humanity to stop them from retaliating.

Hamas has kept its people in poverty and relied on UN humanitarian aid to clean up its mess and fund its activities.

Now it relies on the naivety and gullibility of the West to soak up the anti-Semitic propaganda and outright lies being pushed by some in the media and left-wing politicians – and it’s working. In Australia and across the world support for this hate-fuelled terror group grows.

Australians must not fall for it – and it’s time our government shows we will stand firm in our support of Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.

In the wake of the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Nazis’ Holocaust, Anthony Albanese must lead Australia by example, he must visit Israel and see first hand the atrocities committed against its people. The Prime Minister must demonstrate to the world that Australia will not stand idly by, ambivalent to the creeping indifference of the world towards the ultimate goals of Hamas and its partners.

Albanese was right to visit Ukraine, to demonstrate Australia’s support for Ukraine, our condemnation of Russia’s unjust invasion, and witness first hand the reality of Vladimir Putin’s barbarism. Now he must do the same in Israel.

Just as the leaders of the US, Germany, France, Britain and the EU have done, now so must Albanese. It is time to make clear beyond doubt the commitment of Australia to our only democratic partner in the Middle East, to peace in the region and our advocacy for the return of every hostage taken on October 7.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price visited Israel as a guest of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.