The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ) and the Zionist Fed­er­a­tion of Australia (ZFA) are deeply concerned by the incon­sist­ency in Australia’s decision to vote in favour of a UN General Assembly res­ol­u­tion calling for a ceasefire shortly after issuing a joint statement together with Canada and New Zealand that called for the removal and dis­mant­ling of Hamas.

The joint statement condemned Hamas’ heinous acts of violence including sexual violence, the unac­cept­able treatment of hostages, and Hamas’ use of Palestini­an civilians as human shields. It called for Hamas to lay down its arms and stip­u­lated that there is no role for Hamas in the future gov­ernance of Gaza.

We welcome this position.

However, the UN General Assembly res­ol­u­tion demands an immediate ceasefire, and does not call for Hamas to surrender or disarm.  It also implies that Hamas can somehow be defeated without there being any large-scale impact on the civilian pop­u­la­tion, behind which Hamas delib­er­ately hides.

We acknow­ledge the statement issued by the Aus­trali­an Ambas­sad­or to the UN, H.E Mr James Larsen that refers to the call for a human­it­ari­an ceasefire as a call for more human­it­ari­an pauses and the fact that Australia supported the United States’ attempt to unequi­voc­ally condemn Hamas for the 7 October terrorist attacks.

However, the fact that the res­ol­u­tion omitted these critical issues and appears to call for a ceasefire should have been enough of a reason to vote with Australia’s closest ally, the United States and oppose this res­ol­u­tion.

The decision to vote in favour of this res­ol­u­tion has created uncer­tainty and confusion and is a departure from the clearly prin­cipled position that Australia adopted following Hamas’ attack on 7 October.

The Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment cannot have it both ways. Either it stands by its position in the joint statement that recog­nises that Hamas must be removed from power and return all the hostages or it supports a ceasefire which would allow Hamas to remain in power and deliver on its promise to repeat the attacks of 7 October at the earliest possible oppor­tun­ity.

Sincerely,

Daniel Aghion KC, President Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry

Jeremy Leibler, President, Zionist Fed­er­a­tion of Australia