Penny Wong urged by families to visit massacre sites in Israel
Australians whose loved ones are still being held captive by Hamas or were killed in the October 7 terror attacks are demanding Penny Wong visit the massacre sites in southern Israel.
Australians whose loved ones are still being held captive by Hamas or were killed in the October 7 terror attacks are demanding Foreign Minister Penny Wong visit the massacre sites in southern Israel, declaring she has a duty to see in person the horrors of the attacks.
As Senator Wong left Adelaide on Monday for her week-long tour of the Middle East, Anthony Albanese distanced himself from his Foreign Minister’s decision to stay away from the southern Israeli towns targeted by Hamas in the deadliest assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Jewish leaders in Australia on Monday labelled Senator Wong’s decision a “serious error of judgment”, as family and friends of Hamas’s victims said she must visit the sites – compared by one to Auschwitz – and use her trip to focus on the release of the 140 hostages still held by Hamas.
Before she flew out on Wednesday morning for the diplomatic mission where she vowed to “advocate for a pathway out of this conflict”, Senator Wong defended her position, saying she would meet with survivors of the attacks, as well as families of hostages.
Nikki Perzuck, whose 19-year-old cousin, Naama Levy, has been held by Hamas for 100 days, said Senator Wong “had an obligation and a duty” to Australia and to the families of the hostages to visit the massacre sites, and urged her to change her plans.
“It shouldn’t be a choice. If she goes to the region, that’s what she should do,” Ms Perzuck said, adding the family was “all devastated” that 100 days had passed.
“The family feels that if she’s going to Israel, sent on behalf of our country, she’s obliged to go and see the sites … to understand fully what transpired.
“We feel if she fully understood that, she would be first demanding the release of the hostages … and then talk about ceasefire.
“They’ve still got almost 140 hostages. Demanding the release of the hostages should be her whole angle.”
The Prime Minister said “Penny Wong’s itinerary is a matter for her”. He added later that he was “surprised that this has been raised”.
“There was a call for her to visit, she’s visiting. It’s not about … a photo op,” he told ABC radio.
“We are not a central player in the Middle East, but we are a respected voice, and this visit is about us being able to express our voice and for Penny Wong to see first-hand and to have those discussions face to face.”
On Monday, pro-Palestine supporters gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Canberra, waving Palestinian and South African flags, seemingly in reference to South Africa launching a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
Zack Shachar, another Australian cousin of Ms Levy, said by not visiting the kibbutzes, she was ignoring that part of the conflict.
“I think that … not going to see what happened there, she is ignoring what happened there,” he said. “We expect her to help release the hostages and not just to ask for a ceasefire … She needs to understand what happened on the 7th of October. How those monsters invaded Israel and did what they did. To fully understand it, she must visit the south like she would have done in ground zero or Auschwitz.”
Keren Lewinsohn, who grew up on one of the kibbutzes ravaged by Hamas on October 7, Kfar Aza, said it was “extremely disappointing” that our Foreign Minister would not visit the southern Israeli towns, and questioned why she was “avoiding October 7”.
Ms Lewinsohn, who has called Australia home for 16 years, went back to Kfar Aza in December to visit her parents and other family.
Four of her closest friends were among the dozens murdered there on October 7.
“It’s just a disaster. You just walk through there and you know in this house, this person was killed, in this house, this person was murdered, in this one, they were burnt alive, it’s just terrible,” she said.
Ms Lewinsohn said Senator Wong would benefit from seeing the aftermath of October 7 on her town.
“What you see there, you see what the intention was on October 7,” she said.
“The intention of Hamas was to kill as many Jewish people as possible … So just seeing that with your own eyes, and how cruel, hearing stories of women being raped … or being shot in the head, just seeing it for yourself and understanding what this group of Hamas terrorists were able to do.”
Senator Wong’s decision to stay away from the massacre sites stands in contrast to the position of UK and European leaders, who visited the southern Israeli towns where the massacres occurred.
But the minister, who arrives in Jordan about 5am AEST on Tuesday for the first leg of her trip, defended her itinerary.
“I will be meeting with survivors of that attack, as well as families of hostages, and that will be important,” she said before departing Australia. During the trip, Senator Wong also will meet with senior figures in Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and the United Arab Emirates.
“I think all of these meetings are about engaging with a wide cross-section of perspectives and parties in the region and to put Australia’s view, but also to listen, and it is an opportunity to do that,” she said.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEOs Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin said Senator Wong’s decision not to travel to massacre sites is a “serious error of judgment”, and asked her to reconsider.
“The Foreign Minister’s decision to not travel to the scene of Hamas’s atrocities in southern Israel is insulting and deeply concerning,” they said in a joint statement.
“Personally inspecting the south and witnessing the carnage and destruction would not only convey Australia’s support, it is essential to understanding the depth of evil that Israel faces and the necessity of its war to defeat Hamas.”
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham, who late last year visited kibbutzes where Hamas slaughtered whole families, said the minister would be unable to gain a full understanding of the conflict without doing the same.
“The failure to visit any of the sites of the October 7 Hamas attacks will disappoint many and deprive Senator Wong of a full appreciation of the atrocities committed,” he said.
“Senator Wong will no doubt hear of frustration at the increasingly confusing stance of the Albanese government, which has said one thing about disabling Hamas but voted in contradictory ways at the UN.”
Liberal senator Dave Sharma also attacked Senator Wong’s decision not to visit the southern Israeli towns, saying it was “deeply insulting” and she “seems to be finding as many ways as possible to insult Israel in the process”.
The head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, Izzat Salah Abdulhadi, urged the minister to call for an “immediate and complete ceasefire and the provision of sufficient, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
“I also hope Senator Wong will tell Israel the following for the longer term (that) Australia will recognise the state of Palestine without further delay if Israel does not provide a clear plan with a specified time frame for implementing the two-state solution following the end of the war in Gaza,” he said.
Senator Wong’s decision aligns with that of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who hasn’t toured the sites but just completed his fifth visit to Israel and the broader region since October 7.
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