ZFA response to senator’s speech on the West Bank

June 20, 2017 by J-Wire Staff
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Senator Lisa Singh has delivered a speech in the Senate critical of Israel describing her visit to the Palestinian Territories.

Lisa Singh Photo: Twitter

The Labor Senator for Tasmania  said: “It certainly has given me a better picture of how people live in Palestine. It is hard to comprehend what I have seen. But I certainly learnt something of what it is like to be a Palestinian. It is like feeling every single emotion in one day. It is being confronted each day by one of the 300 Israeli army checkpoints that are scattered throughout the West Bank; the fear and intimidation of queuing for Israeli soldiers with big guns as they search cars and check papers; and seeing the profound limitations for Palestinians, who are deprived of many of their basic human rights—like an individual’s right to freedom of movement and freedom of expression; a family’s access to water or to their own land; access to health care or to a family’s sick who are in hospital; access to children detained by Israeli military courts; or access to political prisoners in Israeli jails. These policies have resulted in violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

She  added: “The occupation denies us any sense of normalcy or dignity. We are shaped by our experiences as children standing at a checkpoint and not fully comprehending why a soldier with a gun won’t let us pass; and to learn later in life that it was simply because we were Palestinian.

Whilst I was there, over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were on hunger strike, protesting for their basic human rights, like medical treatment, family visits and access permits for visits. These demands were regarded by NGOs around the world as just, reasonable and grounded in international law that governs the treatment of prisoners and detainees. Over 600 Palestinian prisoners are behind bars in what is known as ‘administrative’ detention for an undetermined period of time. Some have been detained for 12 years without charge or a reason given for their imprisonment.”

But Danny Lamm, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia responded saying: “I would like to know if during her visit, Senator Singh was taken to Dalal Mughgrabi Square, named by the Palestine Authority after a terrorist who murdered 38 Israelis in 1978? Did she visit one of the hundreds of mosques where every Friday, Imams spout hatred towards Israel and Jews?

Did she find the time to enter Gaza, where the people are used as human shields and armaments are kept in schools and mosques, where the Hamas command and control centre is located underneath a public hospital, where they throw their opponents off buildings and fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilian targets? 

Is she aware of the thousands of Palestinians treated every year in Israeli hospitals or the hundreds of truckloads of food and clothing that are delivered to the people of Gaza while its rulers refuse to pay for electric power but spend millions on terror tunnels?

Following last week’s co-ordinated terror attack in Jerusalem which resulted in the murder of Israeli border police officer Hadas Malka, the Palestine Authority PM Mahmoud Abbas refused to condemn the attack. Instead, he threatened to take Israel to the International Criminal Court because its police killed three people armed with knives and a submachine gun in the act of carrying out a terrorist attack. 

Did Senator Singh spare a single moment to reflect on the lengths society must go to in order to defend its citizens from such a mindset?

If not, then perhaps she is only seeing a small fraction of the picture.” 

Read the full text of Senator Singh’s address

 

Comments

4 Responses to “ZFA response to senator’s speech on the West Bank”
  1. Celina Wines says:

    Lisa Sing is such an ignorant person, why didn’t she also go into Israel and evaluate her position then.. I guess we know why; how pathetic that she is a Senator and making decisions for the community..

  2. Sheldon Pozniak says:

    What ignorant,one-sided & dumb comments from this senator from Tasmania…no wonder there is so much hatred toward Israel & Anti-Semitism toward Jewish communities.
    What pisses me off even more is the fact that the Australian Govt paid for her to go there at taxpayer expense & this is all she had to say to the Australian people!!
    Comments like that & elected people like her are starting to divide Australian communities even more so these days.
    I’m just staggered she has gotten away with this & there is no comment from other politicians to correct the record.

  3. Timoteo Arao says:

    As far as I know, the people of Israel and the Nation of Israel are too much tolerant and comprehensible towards other people and nations. They are sensitive. To know Gaza and the Palestinians you have to search a little bit of history. Israel is not Palestine. The name Jacob was changed by God to Israel. No Nation in the world can live in perfect harmony with other peoples, nations, belief systems like Israel. Afer 10 times visiting Israel, I realized that if you don´t understand the SOVEREINGHTY OF GOD, you cannot understand ISRAEL intelectually.

  4. Eion Isaac says:

    The Arabs in Judea and Samaria have a long life expectancy large families in good health have schools and universities and rule themselves in their cities towns and villages .
    But the security situation in the areas they live in is very dangerous with psychopathic murderers in all areas .
    In this universe of the danger of massive casualties from violence the Israelis need to be very vigilant as regards security .

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