Transcript of Fatima Payman’s 15 May statement

Good afternoon.

I intended to deliver this statement with the community earlier outside. But understandably, there is disillusionment in the community with the parties. We will work to close this gap.

As we gather today, the same day as the commemoration of the Nakba, the catastrophe, I am terrified at my own inadequacy to stand for what I believe. Today, more than ever, is the time to speak the truth — the whole truth — with courage and clarity.

My conscience has been uneasy for far too long. And I must call this out for what it is. This is a genocide. And we need to stop pretending otherwise.

The lack of clarity, the moral confusion, the indecisiveness, is eating at the heart of this nation. It is dividing and confusing the nation. Hundreds of thousands are on the streets; encampments are taking place across the universities. Multiculturalism is at stake. Social cohesion is at stake.

I bring you not only my voice, but the voice of those who I represent, and the voice of the communities that I speak to.

We cannot be disconnected from the people of Australia.

The young of this nation are telling us, and we are silencing them.

The future of this nation is speaking, and we are silencing them.

Instead of advocating for justice, I see our leaders performatively gesture, defending the oppressor’s right to oppress, whilst gaslighting the global community about the rights of self-defence, of the armed jailers against their prisoners, of the dominators against the subjugated, of the well-fed against the starving.

How is that, that we, a civilised nation, fail to champion the freedom of all humans? Do we not see those suffering their own slaughter in broad daylight as humans?

They say freedom has its price. Is freedom not due for the Palestinians after 75 years of suffering? Is 75 years not enough to end the menace of tyranny and occupation? Are we not human enough to understand their humanity? To defend their right to their native soil? To weep at the death of so many innocents. Is it not the epitome of evil to justify the death of innocent civilians, children, women, men, doctors, journalists and aid workers? Do their lives not lose their sanctity? Their dignity stripped even in death.

When we label them “collateral damage”, “human shields” and worst of all, “terrorists”, we can no longer shy away from decency, from having the moral clarity to stand up, to face evil, and declare ourselves in opposition to it and the system that keeps feeding it, until we’re so diseased with it that we can no longer distinguish between the good and the bad.

Has our humanity been eroded? So eroded, that even when we can discern, we choose to side with the bad? Are our hearts so dead that they’re unable to know compassion that empathy?

I ask our Prime Minister and our fellow parliamentarians:

How many international rights laws must Israel break for us to say “enough” What is the magic number?

How many lives need to be lost before we say “enough” What is the magic number?

How many mass graves need to be uncovered before we say “enough”

How many images of bloodied limbs of murdered children must we see?

How many horrors must be repeated before we feel that this should end?

How many Palestinian lives are enough to call this violence against them “terrorism”

How many lives does it take to call this a “genocide”

I ask my colleagues: How many?

What are we willing to sacrifice to support what international human rights organisations have called a “human rights crisis” and a “humanitarian disaster”

How many?

I call on you to stand for what is right. We can do something. We can sanction. We can divest. We can stop trade with Israel. We can call for a permanent ceasefire. We can call for an establishment of the Palestinian state.

We can be on the right side of history so that when the young read about us, they can be proud Australians, knowing that their country, at a time when it was needed, had the moral clarity to do what is right; that the voices calling for freedom and for justice were heard. I ask you to join me to continue to call for freedom from the occupation, freedom from the violence and freedom from the inequality.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.