When members of a community have families and community members persecuted, killed, displaced or vilified in their own or another country, they often turn to their local MP for help.

So, that is exactly what Palestinian and Arabic background Australians have done over the last 18 months in their home electorate of Grayndler. They sought help and understanding from the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

In some cases, communities and families were displaced or under threat of bombing, severe hunger and death. But instead of responding, Albanese refused to meet or engage meaningfully with his own constituents despite their repeated attempts to communicate with him about the horror in Gaza and the West Bank. 

On April 10, 19 members of Sydney’s Inner West released this letter. You might think this would be a media story but so far only the Muslim Times has published the letter. 

The letter read: 

We write as members of the Palestinian and Arabic communities of Sydney’s Inner West. the area represented federally by the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese MP.

Over the past 18 months we have witnessed the unfolding genocide in Gaza in horror. We are dismayed by the direct and indirect licensing of Israel’s conduct by Western leaders, among them our Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

During this period, Israeli forces have killed more than 50,000 people, almost 18,000 of whom are children, including around 900 under the age of 1 year. Israel has displaced two million Palestinians in Gaza, devastated the West Bank, depopulated Southern Lebanon, occupied more Syrian lands, and killed at least 399 international aid workers, including an Australian citizen— all with a level of impunity unprecedented in living memory.

Calling out these atrocities, we have been heartened by the solidarity and support of our diverse local community, as we exercise our civic and political rights to protest. At the same time, we are deeply distressed by the moral, legal and political failure of our elected leaders to speak out against genocide, take effective action to stop it, or enforce accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Prime Minister directly contributes to climate of impunity

The Prime Minister and his Cabinet have directly contributed to the climate of impunity that has enabled Israel’s atrocities and continuous breach of international law. They repeatedly declared the ‘friendship’ between Australia and Israel, even as every university in Gaza was destroyed, schools and hospitals sacked, and journalists and health workers were killed in record numbers.

In shock and anger we have had to listen to senior Labor ministers insist upon Israel’s ‘right to self-defence’, at the very same time that Gaza was reduced to rubble, children were dying of deliberate starvation, and people were burnt alive in tents. The decades-long Israeli occupation and colonisation of the Palestinian Territories is never referred to.

The Prime Minister and his Cabinet have failed to take effective actions required under international law against war crimes and crimes against humanity, in line with the Genocide Convention’s Obligation to prevent Genocide.

Treated as second-class citizens

They have failed to listen to our community, in effect treating us as second-class citizens in this country. They have spoken repeatedly of ‘social cohesion’ but there can be no social cohesion without fair, balanced, and ethical treatment of all sections of the Australian community, including our own.

Demands for Action

We do not believe that the stand of the Prime Minister is representative of the diverse majority in his electorate. As we approach the federal election on May 3rd, we call for a moral, political, and legal reappraisal of Australia’s stance in relation to the question of Palestine.

As our communities prepare to vote, and Anthony Albabese stands for reelection, we call on the Prime Minister to commit to the following five policies, to be implemented within the first 100 days of the next government.

  1. Immediately calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza, an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the resumption of access to aid.
  2. Immediately and unequivocally demand an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, in line with the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024.
  3. Unequivocally reject and actively work against any attempt to relocate (ethnically cleanse) indigenous Palestinians from the Occupied territories of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
  4. End military trade and cooperation with the State of Israel and take immediate action to review the sixty-six defence export permits granted to Israel before the start of the current genocide in Gaza.
  5. Establish a mechanism to investigate and prosecute potential involvement in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by Australian nationals who have fought in Gaza.

Any future Australian government must uphold international law, hold accountable war criminals regardless of nationality or ethnicity, recognise and actively work towards ensuring the Palestinian right to self-determination.

By taking these actions, Australia can contribute to justice and stability on the global stage while also fostering healing and unity within our own diverse communities.

Why we signed the letter 

I asked three signatories of the letter to tell me why they took this action.

Dr Norman Saadi Nikro comes from an Australian and Lebanese background. He is an independent scholar and author.

Devastated by the overbearing silence

We’ve come together around this petition because there is a general feeling that as a community in Albanese’s electorate our concerns over Israel’s devastation of Gaza and Palestine more generally are being ignored.

We are devastated by the overbearing silence from our political representatives, including our own MP Albanese, and wonder how they can go on with business as usual while a genocide is taking place. Albanese’s indifference makes the situation worse for us. You wake up to news that 90% of Rafah on the southern Gazan border has been destroyed, including 22 of the 24 water wells, or else an entire Palestinian family murdered in one fell swoop of an American made bomb–such as the 25 members of the Al-Aqqad family in the Al-Manara neighbourhood of Khan Younis. 

This is the news we get up to on a daily basis, made all the more distressing by the silence, the tacit acceptance, of Albanese.  

Considering that there is a sizable community of Palestinians and other Arabs in Albanese’s electorate Grayndler, we would have expected him to reach out to at least ask about our families and how we are coping with the daily news of atrocity. 

My father, who is Lebanese, came to Australia in the 1950s. Like many others, he was drawn to Marrickville and the inner west. Over the years the Arabic community, in relation to other communities, has made a considerable contribution to the social, economic and cultural life of the Grayndler district. Now, when our community is in severe distress, we hear nothing back from Albanese. 

There is no reaching out, he does not ask, “are you ok, can we help with any resources?” We have been deeply shocked by this. 

People are distressed, we are in shock. Why is there this silence? What does it say about the political culture in Australia at the moment? And it is not just that they are not speaking, it’s also that they have nothing to say about why they are not speaking.

If we had a more vibrant political culture, there would be a discussion about why our politicians will not speak out against Israel’s now vigorated project of erasing Palestinians and their history. 

The International Court of Justice has adjudicated that there is a plausible genocide. This is backed up by so many scholars and human rights organisations. Palestinians in Gaza are crying out for help, but are met with an indifference that is astonishing in its breadth of tacit accommodation for Israel’s apparent right to unaccountability and impunity.

I myself find some solace when attending Palestinian solidarity demonstrations, or else when visiting the Addison Road community centre in Marrickville. I go there because I can find people who I can interact with, normal people who care, who offer empathy, an emotional resource that has been vacated by our political representatives and political culture.

Inner West Chefs organised a bake sale. November 2024. Photo: Nikki To.

I also speak as a former Australian Volunteer Abroad in Ramallah, in the years 1998 and 1999, during which time I visited Gaza twice. 

I come from a Labor voting family - but now must ask: Why has Labor been unable to come to grips with this crisis?

Our petition spells out our demands, and while we have lost all expectation that Albanese would reach out to his own electorate, we urge him to come to his senses, break his silence, and get on the right side of history.

Ihab Shalbak - Lecturer in Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Sydney. He was born and grew up in Occupied Palestine. His family resides in Jenin City, a city under occupation by Israeli forces.

Local community members, as individuals and groups, made numerous attempts to reach out to the prime minister. I’m aware for example that immediately after the repeated bombing of hospitals, shelters and schools, distressed community members as constituents urgently called the office of the prime minister, only to hear formulaic answers and dismissive replies from his office staff. 

For months Families for Palestine, led by members of the community, held a round-the-clock sit-in outside the prime minister’s electorate office, demanding that he speaks directly to his disappointed constituents. Hundreds of people braved the rain and the heat to participate, young families turned up with their children, restaurants offered food for free, passing cars relentlessly honked in support and solidarity. However, the prime minister never showed up; rather, his office called the police on his own constituents.

Protesting in Ashfield. 2024.

Regardless of the prime minister’s silence, our community has been touched by the great support we received by our inner west neighbours from diverse backgrounds. No week passes in the inner west without a self-initiated solidarity event, organised by the Greek, Italian or other communities, or a fundraising event organised by a local restaurant that attracts large number of local community members. Palestine is the moral cause of the inner west. 

All of this shows that the prime minister, in his silence on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, is out of step with the political demands of the Palestinian and Arabic community in the inner west and the general moral stand of his constituency.

This letter reiterates our demands and re-states the electorate’s moral stand to never stop talking about Palestine.

Tamara Asmar is a Palestinian-Australian screen writer and script producer. Her family is from Nablus on the West Bank. She was born in Dubai and migrated to Australia when she was nine.

I have been deeply shaken by Labor’s response, or lack thereof, to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. 

In the face of worldwide condemnation by every human rights group, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the testimony of Palestinians themselves, Labor have failed to fulfil their moral and legal obligations under International Law to condemn and act to stop the genocide. In fact, they have enabled it. 

I signed the letter because Labor needs to understand that what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is unprecedented and a threat to the global rule of law and humanity itself. It is a call to Labor to step up and fulfil Article U of the Objectives as laid out in their own Constitution:

“maintenance of world peace; an independent Australian position in world affairs; the recognition of the right of all nations to self determination and independence; regional and international agreement for arms control and disarmament; the provision of economic and social aid to developing nations; a commitment to resolve international conflicts through the UN; and a recognition of the inalienable right all people to liberty, equality, democracy and social justice”. 

Australian Labor have broken and continue to be in breach of almost every one of these objectives by which they are bound when it comes to their foreign policy regarding Palestine and the ongoing genocide

For 18 months I and many in my community have made dozens of attempts to contact Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and Tanya Plibersek with our concerns and demands for action to no avail. 

I have attended the picket outside Anthony Albanese’s ofice many times and he never once came and spoke to us directly - only increased the police presence outside it. 

I have never received a response to any of my many, many emails sent to Mr Albanese, only generic auto-replies with no follow up. I have endlessly protested, flooded the post, written, lobbied, attended council meetings, spoken at Parliament House in Canberra, approached my local Labor member, Jo Haylon, called, asked and begged for Labor to do the right and humane thing but it has all been met with deafening silence. 

It is deeply distressing to be gaslit and ignored for so long and to feel like our representatives are not only not listening to our concerns or prepared to act on them, but are also on the wrong side of history.

Full list of signatories:

Tamara Asmar, Dr Norman Nikro, Dr Ihab Shalbak, A/Professor Jumana Bayeh, Wael Sabri, Prof Fethi Rabhi, Teresa Zalloua, Nicole Barakat,Louis Sabri, Sara Haddad, Dr, Ibrahim Al-Salti, Assad Abdi, Mohammad Qashlan, Issa Shaweesh, Abdullah Shaweesh, Amani Sabri, Caitlin Arraj, Hilal Asmar, Cherine Fahd