Letter to PM regarding Gaza, 19th January 2009

Here is a letter from Professor Fran Baum and Associate Professor David Legge, on behalf of PHM Australia and as Members of the PHM Global Steering Council, to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

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January 19 2009

Dear Prime Minister,

Subject: Gaza and the Australian Government's response

We write to express our disappointment at our Government's failure to condemn the atrocities being committed in Gaza. It is unacceptable that twenty Israelis have been killed by Hamas rocket attacks in ten years. But as of Thursday January 14, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) (and reported by the World Health Organization) on 14 January, at least 1011 people have been killed since 27 December, including at least 85 women and 311 children. 4650 Palestinians have been injured. The United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator reported on the 14th January:

"The total number of displaced people in Gaza remains unknown, because the majority of them have sought refuge in the homes of relatives and friends, including an estimated 20,000 people who reportedly left their homes in Rafah on 8 January. As of 13 January, UNRWA was operating 41 shelters with 37,937 people (an increase of more than 3,000 from 13 January). Following heavy bombardment during the night of 13 January in northern Gaza, there are reports that many people fled on foot to shelters in Jabalia (3km) and Gaza(5km)".

This scale of death, injury and displacement is retaliation on a scale that is unbelievable if only we didn't have eye witness reports. This is verging on genocide. It is unacceptable that the Australian Government is quietly acquiescing to the Bush/Israeli claim of acting in self-defense.

The People's Health Movement in Australia is receiving regular updates from our counterparts in the Palestine Medical Relief Society. The quote below is from their recent media release:

As the death toll is rising at high speed, Gaza is incapable of adequately responding to humanitarian disaster it faces. The already exhausted medical system in the Gaza Strip, resulting from nearly two years of siege, is incapable of coping with the overflow of death and destruction it faces today. The whole health sector in Gaza is currently in a state of collapse, with public hospitals full to overflowing; hospital hallways are overrun by hundreds of dead and thousands of dying. There is so much death and destruction that doctors can not even begin to cope. They have to choose who will be saved and who will die; who will be given a short time under their healing hands and who will be left screaming and bleeding on the floor.

Prime Minister, we are aware that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is (to quote you) "the man I most admire in the history of the twentieth century". He would surely have condemned Israeli for its current action against Palestine. We ask that you reflect on Bonhoeffer's likely response and search your conscience before continuing to support the US line with no public statement condemning the Israeli action.

In all likelihood Israel is succeeding in forging a generation of militant Islamists - young people willing to sacrifice their lives in the face of extreme injustice and strengthening the propaganda machines of Al Qaida and the like. And yet your Government sits on its hands. History will not treat us kindly for this shameful, amoral cowardice. Bonhoeffer would have spoken out. It is not too late for the government you lead to speak out against this madness.

Yours sincerely,

Fran Baum & David Legge