Dear Mr Baird,
I refer to your recent trip to Israel, which I understand was funded by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies. I appreciate your attempt to visit Palestinian areas in East Jerusalem and Bethlehem and I trust that you witnessed first-hand the devastation caused by the occupation and the apartheid walls in these areas. I assume that you recognised the extreme hardship and severe poverty experienced in the day to day lives of the refugees in Aida, which is just a very small fraction of Palestinians that were expelled from the greater areas of Palestine during the horrific Nakba, upon the creation of the new State of Israel in 1948.
I was very impressed that mainstream media presented a report on your visit to Aida and that the reporter referred appropriately to the occupation. However, you did not. You only expressed your sympathy for the people of Aida camp, and implied that their situation was the result of “thousands of years of violence”. Mike Baird, let me stop you right there, please. Prior to the British Government signing over Palestine in 1917 to British Banker, Lord Rothschild, and prior to the subsequent establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the people of this region, of all religions, were living in peace with one another. More importantly, please recognise this conflict for what it really is, a world class military against an oppressed civilian population, that is subject to institutionalised racism and a bone fide system of apartheid, overpowered by an inhumane and illegal occupation.
Mr Baird, I noticed in an article by The Australian Jewish News that you were emotionally affected by Yad Vashem, and in particular “a red sandal that caught my eye and immediately I imagined a young girl like one of my daughters who innocently dreamed and laughed and played”. Of course it is expected that you would be moved by such an extravagant presentation of human atrocity. However, did the scale of one atrocity blind you from the exact type of extermination that has continued on that very land now for 68 years. Beyond the $100,000,000 memorial, were you given any presentation on the atrocities of Nakba, or Deir Yassin? Please tell me that someone described to you the recent horrific 51 day military assault on Gaza just over one year ago and the many devastating attacks preceding, in which an astonishing majority of casualties were civilians. During this last horrific attack the Israeli military annihilated complete neighbourhoods, wiping out in many cases, entire families. Did you know that one of the targets was a UN run school and that the UN correspondent told the Israeli Government 17 times that this school contained no weapons or militants, that it only held families with children looking for a safe haven from constant civilian bombardment, including the use of White Phosphorus. Did you see that same correspondent crying on International television over the innocent children that were killed in this heartless attack? I did. It broke my heart into small pieces. Regardless of the continued pleading and warnings not to bomb this specific school, the Israeli Military bombed it anyway, showing no regard for human life whatsoever, and referring to these people as nothing more than collateral damage.
Without having visited Gaza, do you feel that you can comprehend the devastation being experienced by this population every single day? You would be aware that within this small area of about 45km by 10km, lives 1.8 million people, mostly UN classified refugees, the majority who have never been permitted to leave this enclosed area. Were you aware that during your recent visit, the population of Gaza only had 4 hrs of electricity each day, which only came on at midnight. Many people there are still living in the rubble of their homes or in shipping containers, because the horrifically cruel siege restricts anything from going into Gaza, including sufficient building materials to rebuild homes and schools. I would have asked you why you didn’t make the effort to visit Gaza, except, as we both know, you would not have been permitted through the siege. Basically nothing, is permitted through the siege.
Were you shown a multi-million dollar memorial for the 532 children from Gaza whom lost their lives in July/August 2014 because the Israeli Government bombed their homes, their schools, their playgrounds and hospitals. Because Mike Baird, remember that moment of despair you had whilst you looked at the image of the red sandal at Yad Vashem; please multiply that by, I can’t quantify a figure, for the images I saw of child after child, with missing limbs and horrific burns from Israeli bombs and illegal chemical warfare. There is no figure to multiply your devastation for the playground of children that were bombed, whist they celebrated Eid in their brightly coloured dresses, falsely believing that the Israeli Government had granted them a ceasefire for this occasion. I know that no one showed you a million-dollar presentation of this, but can you imagine the number of shoes that belonged to the innocent children of Gaza that lost their lives in this unprovoked, disproportionate attack on human life.
Please, I urge you to look up a Norwegian doctor called Dr. Mads Gilbert. He has written a book called ‘Night in Gaza’. Believe me, ‘nothing can prepare you for’ the knowledge of what happened during that 51 day attack on the oppressed civilian population of Gaza. ‘Nothing can prepare you for’ the knowledge of what happened to those children, and the civilian population in general. Did you know that even now, more than 50% of children in Gaza suffer from psychological illnesses such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety and depression?
It appears to me that you are a compassionate man, but compassion alone never helped anyone. It is only actions that will help. If you have any genuine desire to contribute to the peace process in this region, you will not expand any trade relationship with Israel until they begin to comply with their human rights obligations under International law. This means that they must end the debilitating and cruel siege on Gaza, release their administrative prisoners and approximately 400 children from their jails, and cease the expansion of Internationally condemned illegal settlements. Did you know, that on just one day during your recent visit, 124 people lost their homes as a result of Israeli demolitions near Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Ramallah. This amount included 60 children, who one day had a home, and then the next day had nothing. The rate of demolitions is the highest that it has been in about 8 years. You must be aware that the Israeli Government has announced new settlements in these areas and will invite foreign Jewish settlers to live in the newly established, internationally condemned illegal settlements, whilst Palestinian children remain refugees on their own land. This is the single greatest obstacle to peace in this conflict; the home demolitions and displacement of refugees, which are making it more and more impossible to realise the Two-State peace agreement under the Oslo Accords.
I have read in The Daily Liberal, that our State will be investing $18 million into a joint venture between Elbit Systems and the Royal Flying Doctors. This is a huge slap in the face for the many people who have been supporting a peace resolution between Palestine and Israel. I don’t expect you to comply with BDS, but it has been proven to have been a key contributor towards the cease of apartheid in South Africa. It has also been proven to be putting pressure on the Israeli Government as the most peaceful form of protest against the occupation, apartheid and decades of ethnic cleansing.
This is not just a question of divesting in an Israeli Company. Elbit Systems is a manufacturer of military, security and surveillance equipment. The products of this Company have supported the building and maintenance of the apartheid walls in the West Bank. However, the most contentious products produced by this Company, are the Drones. Drones that buzzed loudly and relentlessly throughout Gaza during the 51 days of the 2014 attack, psychologically terrorising a population already in fear from constant, unpredictable bombardment. These Drones can carry up to two medium range missiles and have the capabilities to attack anyone in sight. Detailed in a report by Human Rights Watch, Drone attacks increased significantly during the last attack on Gaza and have been contributed to an increasing number of civilian casualties, including children. Furthermore, as a direct result of this attack, the shares for Elbit Systems increased by around 7%. This is a Company Mike Baird, that under no circumstances, do I want my tax money invested.
I appreciate that the Royal Flying Doctors would benefit greatly from the technology of the proposed world class flight simulator, but not at the expense of our social conscience. Just because the technology exists, it does not mean that we need to have it. We have survived this long without such extravagant technology, and we will survive a little longer. I ask that you tell your new friends at Elbit System that you love their amazing flight simulator and that you would love to purchase it, once Israel complies with its human rights obligations and at the very least, ceases illegal settlements and home demolitions in the West Bank.
We should also welcome assistance from world leading researchers in Medicinal Cannabis, but not in this moment. It is only recently that Professor Jake Lynch, from Sydney University, has had to defend himself, all the way to the High Court, for refusing to endorse a researcher from Hebrew University, because his peaceful actions were labelled anti-Semitic. Opposing an illegal occupation and the ethnic cleansing of the Semitic Palestinian population, is not anti-Semitic. In this instance I refer you to some Israeli authors such as Miko Peled, who wrote ‘The General’s Son’, or Ilan Pappe, who wrote ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’. The first author being the Jewish son of an Israeli Military General, the second, a Jewish Israeli Historian. From these books, I trust you will get the full perspective of the decades of injustice, genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population that has caused extreme poverty, displacement and irreparable devastation to the entire race of people.
I ask you on behalf of the good citizens of this State, of the people who crave social justice and mourn the countless, unnecessary deaths of innocent children and civilian populations in general, please don’t proceed with the multi-million dollar deal with Elbit. Please stand up for the people of Palestine, and for the good people of Israel, who will never see peace until the International community demands it. I am demanding this of you, please demand this of them. It is possible to end the intergenerational misery and hardship of the Palestinians, but this relies on people like yourself to make a stand against injustice, as opposed to ignoring it for the benefit of having a fancy flight simulator.
http://www.jewishnews.net.au/baird-nothing-can-prepare-yad-vashem/53178
http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/reviews/book-review-night-gaza-137...
http://nwttac.dci-palestine.org/report_no_way_to_treat_a_child
http://english.pnn.ps/2016/04/09/ocha-124-people-made-homeless-by-israel...
http://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/3839099/rfds-to-benefit-from-an-18-...
https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/06/30/precisely-wrong/gaza-civilians-kil...
http://justworldbooks.com/the-generals-son-ebook/
https://www.oneworld-publications.com/books/ilan-pappe/the-ethnic-cleans...
