2017-02-08
The Israeli Government’s most recent expansion further into the West Bank denies basic rights to Palestinians, and the government of Australia is conspicuously silent amid near universal international condemnation, the Australian Greens said today.
“This so-called “Regularisation Bill” makes settlement outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank retrospectively “legal”. It’s a Bill that decriminalises land theft. Amid huge international outcry, with even Israel’s own Attorney-General saying the Bill is unconstitutional, there’s been not a peep from the Australian Government,” Australian Greens Co-Deputy Leader and Foreign Affairs spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said today.
“This Bill sets the most appalling precedent, it removes any obstacle to more settlement expansion, expansion that has already stepped up since President Trump took office and removed the restrictions put in place by the Obama Administration.
“Every act of aggression makes the peace process harder. This is yet another step preventing the future creation of a Palestinian state. The Australian government should have loudly condemned this Bill, instead the government has stayed silent.
“Israeli President Netanyahu is failing his own country, and immiserating the Palestinian people, by supporting this illegal and unjust law. The Australian Government must add our voice to the dozens of nations holding him and his Government to account,” Senator Ludlam said.
Media Release Foreign Affairs