New South Wales Parliamentary Friends Of Palestine

Page 4685

Mr LYNCH (Liverpool) [5.24 p.m.]: I draw to the attention of the House the formation of a new organisation recently established in this Parliament. It is known as the New South Wales Parliamentary Friends of Palestine. Apart from me the convenors of the organisation are the honourable member for Gosford, Chris Hartcher, the Hon. James Samios, the Hon. Richard Jones, and the Hon. Ian Macdonald. The inaugural meeting of the group was held on Wednesday, 8 April in this building. In addition to the convenors a significant numbers of members of Parliament attended the function, including the honourable member for Georges River, Marie Ficarra, the honourable member for Lakemba, Tony Stewart, and a number of members from the other place, the Hon. Peter Primrose, the Hon. Dr Meredith Burgmann, the Hon. Janelle Saffin, the Hon. Brian Vaughan, the Hon. Eddie Obeid and the Hon. Ian Cohen. The meeting was also attended by the Premier. Other people who were not able to attend sent their best wishes, including George Thompson, the member for Rockdale.

The guest of honour at the meeting and subsequent inaugural dinner was His Excellency Mr Ali Kazak, head of the General Palestinian Delegation to Australia and Ambassador of Palestine to Vanuatu. I have a significant number of constituents who were born in what they describe as Palestine. I have learnt much from my Palestinian constituents about their history and their tragedies. I have been impelled to read much more about their history from my discussions with them, although I must say that before coming to this place I had a real interest in those issues. My reading expanded dramatically after some of the things that happened in 1982.

The immediate cause of the tragedy of the Palestinian people is, of course, the expulsion of 750,000 refugees from their homeland in 1948. In Arabic that is known as al-Nakba, the catastrophe. Many horrors have been inflicted on the Palestinian people in the last several decades. One of the most notable was the massacre of the village of Deir Yassin, which was carried out by the Irgun and Stern gangs with approval from the commander of the Haganah in Jerusalem. The fact that Menachem Begin sent an order of the day to the attackers of Deir Yassin congratulating them underlies the significance of the attack to ongoing issues. The generally accepted figure for the massacre is 250 killed. The tragedies and horrors have been ongoing since 1948.

The aftermath of the 1967 war and the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza revisited the previous horrors. It revisited the displacements and deaths. To me, one of the most impressive activists and representatives of the Palestinian people is a woman named Hanan Ashrawi. In her book This Side of Peace Ashrawi, who had grown up on the West Bank, wrote of the 1967 war and its aftermath:

After the 1967 war, the "Palestinian question" - whether we would ever have our land restored to us, or at least a portion of it - had become a personal issue. With the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza it had hit home, literally. It was no longer my parents’ legacy or an abstract historical or political concept. It became my burden, my responsibility. Overnight I had become an "exile" and most of my family remained under occupation.

The urge to go home became my overriding motivation. The era of resistance had taken on a new urgency and momentum. This became a momentous transition in my life in which activism was the key. I became involved in the growing Palestinian revolution.

Ashrawi goes on to point out the swelling support for organised Palestinian military resistance channelled mainly into Fatah, prompted by the battle Karamah. There were many other tragedies and horrors continuing over the years. They are far too numerous to relate here. However, I particularly note the horror of the cold-blooded massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in the camps of Sabra and Chatilla by paramilitaries in the full sight and with the collusion of the Israeli army in 1982. For those interested I would recommend the gripping and horrifying account of that incident by Robert Fisk in his book Pity the Nation. Resolution of these disputes and the fulfilment of the just demands and recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people are not now easily resolved. There is some hope, of course.

The peace process commencing officially in Madrid in October 1991 resulted in September 1993 in the Palestinian-Israeli declaration of principles. The friends of the Palestinians could hardly regard those agreements as ideal although most friends would support the process. Even the modest entitlements of the Palestinian people under those principles are under challenge from a reactionary and aggressive Israeli Government that seems, at least to me, to have no real commitment to the peace process. That process is particularly under threat from the imperialist planting of settlers in the occupied territories. It is worth remembering the plethora of United Nations and Security Council resolutions on the topic, particularly Security Council resolution 446 of March 1979. It noted in part:

Page 4686

The policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

A series of similar resolutions have followed. Finally, I note that since the inaugural meeting His Excellency Ali Kazak has forwarded to supporters of the group a book entitled The Jerusalem Question which strongly demonstrates the necessity for what might be termed an open city in Jerusalem, which thus far has not been successfully achieved. I look forward to the realisation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, the restoration of their land, and the implementation of the United Nations resolutions. I hope that the New South Wales Parliamentary Friends of Palestine can contribute to that outcome. [Time expired.]