I would nev­er crit­i­cise any­body who is gen­uine­ly moti­vat­ed by com­pas­sion and con­cern for the suf­fer­ing of peo­ple caught up in con­flicts in oth­er parts of the world. I only won­der why such com­pas­sion and con­cern can be so selec­tive­ly applied. Hours before the Syd­ney Har­bour Bridge march took place on Sun­day, Hamas released images of a young Israeli hostage held in one of its tun­nels. He showed obvi­ous signs of being ema­ci­at­ed through star­va­tion, and was made by his cap­tors to go through the motions of dig­ging his own grave. It remind­ed me of World War II images of the walk­ing skele­tons of Aus­tralian POWs in Chan­gi prison and among the sur­vivors of the Nazi con­cen­tra­tion camps.

Yet not a sin­gle plac­ard on the Har­bour Bridge called for the release of the remain­ing Israeli hostages whose cap­ture by Hamas on Octo­ber 7, 2023 sparked the cur­rent war in Gaza. It seems that even peo­ple who pride them­selves on their com­pas­sion can be remark­ably cal­lous.