On Wednesday 10 April the Opposition leader Peter Dutton compared a pro-Palestine protest at the Sydney Opera House on 9 October last year to the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre in which 35 people were murdered by a lone gunman. On the evening before the protest the sails of the Opera house had been lit up in Israel’s colours as a gesture of solidarity following a deadly attack on Israeli settlements by members of Hamas.
Nobody was killed or injured at the protest but there were reports, later proven false, of anti-Semitic statements being made. Dutton’s claim that Anthony Albanese’s failing to respond to this as vigorously as then PM John Howard responded 35 deaths at Port Arthur was a failure to provide security for the Australian Jewish community.
Never mind that the protest was a response to 75 years of murder and dispossession of Palestinians by the Israeli state where no Palestinian flag was ever flown or building lit up in Palestinian colours. The anger of Palestinian-Australians and their supporters was legitimate and understandable and, until now, has never been properly addressed.
To make matters worse, this statement was made by Dutton long after Israel’s response saw mass protests worldwide and charges of genocide levelled against Israel in the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
Dutton and his coalition members have been deathly silent on this issue and are clearly in Israel’s criminal corner. Instead they do what they have always done throw minority communities under the electoral bus in an effort to wedge other parties and win votes.
The Labor Party has fared little better with token calls for Israel to be more careful and moderate when it commits mass murder of Palestinians.
It was only when an Australian aid worker was murdered in a deliberate attack on an aid convoy by Israel that Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong finally found something resembling a spine with Albanese expressing his dismay to the Israeli ambassador and Penny limply floating the possibility of maybe, someday recognising Palestinian statehood.
This attack on the Australian and her colleagues in Gaza by Israeli drones was most probably using drone and bomb components supplied by an Australian company.
The opposition’s response to this was as could be expected mock outrage with Simon Birmingham, its spokesman on Foreign Affairs uncertain whether he is a Senator for South Australia or the member for Tel Aviv suggesting it risked giving a tick of approval to Hamas.
This apparent warming of the Albanese-Wong duo to Palestine is more a reflection of their concern for the damage their uncritical kow-towing to Israel has damaged their standing in the Muslim, Arabic and Palestinian Australian community.
This is happening in a background of reports that various groups in these communities are organising to run independent candidates in Labor heartland seats which could cost Labor up to seven seats including those of ministers.
It will of course be a failed strategy even if they can unite behind single independent candidates in each seat. All that it will do is siphon votes away from Labor and give the advantage to Dutton’s extremist mob.
A better strategy would be to focus on getting senate seats. At least in NSW and Victoria they have sufficient numbers to come close to pulling this off. If they can it means they can counter some of the more extremist parties with anti-Arab and anti-Islam agendas like One Nation and their fellow travellers.
They might even have strong bargaining power in a finely balanced Senate where a government need Senate support to get its bills passed.
So how does the Prot Arthur Massacre equate to a loud but peaceful pro-Palestine protest at the Opera House. It doesn’t but it equates to something else.
Thirty five people were murdered at Port Arthur in Gaza while Israel has murdered over 35,000 Palestinians. In Dutton’s evil calculus the life a Palestinian is only worth one thousandth of the life of an Australian.
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