Denying human beings the right to Call their land home

What does the Palestinian cause have to do with Tasmania? Plenty, says Greg Barns

WHILE there is understandable outrage at the Morrison government’s contempt for its citizens who are seeking to return to their homeland from COVIDravaged India, perhaps it will make us contemplate what life is like for the millions of Palestinians who have no nation they can call their own. This Saturday we will commemorate the Nakba, which translates as “catastrophe” and refers to the shameful and horrendous expulsion of Palestinians from their ancient homelands in 1948 by the Israelis. As

Hussein Ibish, writing in The Atlantic in 2018 puts it, “This event both defined their future of statelessness and occupation, and now forms the basis for their distinct national identity. Many of the chief consequences of the nakba, including the displacement of most Palestinians from their ancestral lands and ongoing statelessness, remain unresolved to this day.”

That there is no homeland for Palestinians, and that generations have been born, lived and died without knowing one, is one of the most obscene human rights scandals on this earth. Made worse by the fact that the Washington empire funds the arrogant apartheid state of Israel and that whenever their have been negotiations to resolve issues between the

Israelis and Palestinians the cards are stacked against the latter who lack resources and diplomatic firepower to contend with the incessant Israel lobby.

The word apartheid is used deliberately here. Only two weeks ago, in what should have been front page news in Australia (as opposed to the nutters pushing a war with China who get top billing), the reputable and centrist Human Rights Watch finally recognised and reported on what many of us have been saying for some years. Israel is an apartheid state, just as

South Africa once was. The Human Rights Watch report observes about “6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.” The vast bulk of this area is governed solely by Israel, while the Palestinians have limited self rule. But the reality of life in most of these areas is that “Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas … these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes

against humanity of apartheid and persecution,” Human Rights Watch reports.

Naturally the well oiled Israel propaganda machine hit back because any criticism of it is seen as anti-Semitic. But you cannot hide the reality of things. The response of the world to Israel ought to be to treat it as a pariah as many nations, including Australia under prime ministers Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke did in relation to South Africa. Only if this happens will justice for Palestinian people emerge. In Australia sadly the Morrison government and

Coalition parties are supporters of Israel. Long gone are the days when Malcolm Fraser and Cabinet opposed apartheid practices and led the world in standing up against the odious whites-only regime.

The ALP is beginning to show some spine on Israel. Former foreign minister Bob Carr has been a tireless advocate of a more robust policy on the Middle East and his work has been rewarded with the Labor Party adopting a position that makes recognition of a Palestinian state high priority for the next Labor government. As shadow

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in March, the ALP position “reflects our belief that Israelis and Palestinians deserve to prosper in peace behind secure and recognised borders. A true friend of Israel is a true friend of the rights of Palestinians to statehood.”

You might wonder what Palestine has to do with Tasmania. Plenty. Just as the English invaders rounded up and killed thousands of Indigenous Tasmanians and stole their land, so did the Israelis to the Palestinians in 1948. Injustice, rooted in colonialism, racial superiority, or a sense of grievance, happens around the world and Tasmanians might like to reflect on the shameful analogy posited here.

This Saturday the Australian Friends of Palestine (this columnist is a supporter) will hold a vigil in Parliament House Gardens from 4-6pm to reflect on injustice, suffering and loss of homeland. Perhaps you might lend your support to ending an injustice which denies human beings the right to call their land home.

Hobart barrister Greg Barns SC is a human rights lawyer.