The loss of life in Israel and Gaza is heartbreaking

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As a woman, I am sickened by the abduction and murder of babies and the use of rape and kidnapping of women and girls in the brutal attack by Hamas on the 7th of October – a heartbreaking and unfathomable day on which Hamas violently took 240 innocent hostages, a condemned terrorist organisation, and a devastating day on which the Jewish people experienced the greatest loss of life since the Holocaust.  

Writer: Nova Peris

As a human, I abhor the deaths of thousands of innocents in a violent war. Throughout recorded history, too many people have died fighting over the Holy Land.

As an Aboriginal person, I understand the connection to the land. I understand the Jewish / Israelite connection to the land over millennia, and I understand the Palestinian connection to the land for countless generations too, both groups being indigenous to that region.

Extremists on both sides feed off each other. It is time for a real peace. A two-state solution was once possible, and it can be again. I was committed to this during my time as a Federal Senator in the Australian Parliament. We should be pushing the rejectionist elements on both sides, especially Hamas to come to their senses. Peace will also require the Israeli government to make compromises regarding settlements in the West Bank. The longer the parties are at loggerheads, the greater the risk of escalation of the damage and divide, thereby reducing the prospects of a long-term settlement, and the more damage terrorist groups like Hamas will do to destroy any chance of peace whatsoever.

I am revolted by war and the harm and fear being experienced due to the current rise in racism in Australia. I cannot remain silent and feel compelled by my duty to speak up.

I urge both sides to accept the humanity of the other and acknowledge their right to a homeland.

Hamas, a proscribed and condemned terrorist organisation, is determined to eradicate Israel. In fact, Hamas’ covenant is a comprehensive manifesto which unequivocally promotes its basic goal of obliterating the State of Israel and its majority Jewish population through an Islamic Holy War – that is the antithesis of and can never be a foundation for a peaceful settlement. Hamas must be stopped due to their outright contempt for international law and rejection of a negotiated peace settlement.

The negotiated ceasefire brings us all hope. I want to see a just peace with security for all. I will do what I can in my capacity to help bring this to fruition.

There is no place in Australia, especially among First Nations peoples, for the kind of toxic antisemitism and hatred against the Jewish community and Israel that we have seen aroused by the conflict in the media, on our streets, in some of our universities, schools, trade unions, arts centres and even a hospital, as well as in the higher levels of our community.

I support and stand with my fellow distinguished Indigenous leader Marcia Langton’s recently published condemnation of the ‘Blak Sovereignty’ movement’s proposition that Indigenous Australians feel solidarity with Palestinians as ‘simply untrue’ and her stance that there is little comparable to the two people’s situations. I do not support the display on national television of a pin with both Aboriginal and Palestinian flags worn by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni during the ABC program Q&A when discussing the Israel-Hamas war – simply put, this is cultural misappropriation of us First Nations’ people. The Jewish community have always supported Aboriginal people, have championed Aboriginal land rights and most recently the Voice to Parliament from the very beginning.

In the meantime, whatever happens in the Middle East, we must redouble our efforts in Australia to make this country accepting and safe for all Australians and to recognise our shared humanity, whether they are Jews, Muslims or belong to us First Nations people or those who’ve come to Australia more recently.

The recent referendum debate in Australia, regardless of which side one was on, generated a national debate that forced people to take sides in a way seldom witnessed in Australian history. For me personally, the racism and threats I received during this time often left me feeling unsafe, so I can only imagine how others are feeling that are directly affected by the war in the Middle East.

We need to respect our fellow human beings, disagree where we need to but seek just solutions for all rather than resort to racist violence and antisemitism.

Nova Peris became the first Aboriginal to win an Olympic gold medal when she was a member of the victorious Hockeyroos in Atlanta 1996.