Lidia Thorpe, an Australian Senator and a proud Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman, has urged the Australian government to recognize the sovereignty of the Palestinian people over the lands illegally occupied by Israel since 1967. She also demanded that the Israeli government end its violent and brutal occupation of Palestine, which she described as a “state-sanctioned murder”.
In a speech delivered in the Australian Senate, Thorpe said that the Australian government must “recognize sovereignty abroad and at home” and follow the example of almost 140 nations, including the Vatican, that have recognized Palestine as a state. She also praised the Australian government for changing its language this week to acknowledge the illegality of the Israeli occupation under international law, and encouraged it to “continue on this path to truth”.
Thorpe condemned the Israeli forces for killing more than 170 Palestinians in 2022, including 53 children, and 160 Palestinians in 2023, including 35 children. She said that three more Palestinians were killed by Israel only four days ago. She expressed her solidarity with the Palestinian people, saying that as an Indigenous woman, she knows “how it feels to be on the end of a slow pervasive violence that claims more and more lives as time goes on, with no one blinking an eye”. She also said that she knows “about apartheid, and about being occupied by a power incapable of recognizing the truth”.
Thorpe concluded her speech by saying that “colonial powers are brothers in blood and have a common problem with recognizing sovereignty both at home and abroad”. She called on the Australian government to stand up for justice and human rights, and to support the Palestinian cause for freedom and dignity.
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