President of the ZFA, Dr. Danny Lamm AM strongly and unreservedly condemned the statement on Gaza situation issued by Senator Di Natale, the Leader of the Greens, who peddles the lie that the attempts by Gaza Palestinians to breach the Israeli border were spontaneous, peaceful protests against the hellish conditions imposed upon Gaza by Israel, whose soldiers proceeded to kill around 60 unarmed Arabs out of sheer trigger-happy brutality.
Dr. Lamm said, “In condemning the Israeli forces, Di Natale totally ignores the role that the terrorist organization Hamas has played in inciting these clashes. In responding to these events with nothing but criticism of Israel, Di Natale once again has failed the Australian community. Genocidal Hamas’s role was firstly exemplified by the comments made by a senior Hamas leader Salah al-Bardawil who claimed that 50 of the 62 Palestinian rioters killed this week during clashes with the IDF on the Israel-Gaza Strip border were members of the Islamist terror group that rules the coastal enclave.”
Dr. Lamm also pointed to a report published last week by the High Level Military Group of distinguished military figures around the world which describes these Hamas onslaughts over the past six weeks as “carefully planned and orchestrated military operations intended to break through the border of a sovereign state and commit mass murder in the communities beyond, using their own civilians as cover.”
In his misinformed statement, Senator Di Natale totally ignored the provisions of International Law. The law distinguishes between civilians and combatants. While enemy combatants can be targeted with very few limitations, civilians are protected by an array of provisions and restrictions. However, the law withdraws these protections and in effect defines a civilian as a “combatant” for all intents and purposes when a civilian engages in “direct participation in hostilities.”
As to the call by Di Natale for an immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, Dr Lamm said that “Senator Di Natale an important and inconvenient truth: that Israel accepted the case for Palestinian statehood long ago, but it refuses to commit national suicide.”
