I need to finish these emails… constructive feedback welcome… but I'm not looking for s heated debate.

THE LONG RANT VERSION…

Dear (Australian MPs or senators),

We need to revoke the permissions we have given Israel to wage a #war of total obliteration in #Gaza.

Thus #Australia should remove the political wing of Hamas from our designated #terrorist entity list. If we designate any related entity as terrorist, it should only include the divisions of the organisation that were directly involved in attacks on #civilians in Israel.

I don't like Hamas - I disagree with them on almost every issue - but the leadership of #Palestine should be chosen by Palestinians. Israeli or foreign imposed regimes will only exacerbate #violence.

Hamas is a political party, their militant wing is the Al-Qassam Brigades. Their relationship is roughly analogous to #SinnFein and the #IRA. The militant wing is the only division that is directly involved in attacks on Israel.

The rest of Hamas is a #civilian government. They were overdue for an election, but they have been in long term talks with the #Fatah opposition party to re-establish democracy in Palestine.

Designating the entire Hamas-led #government as terrorist lets the #IDF claim everything in #Gaza is a valid #military target. Including hospitals, police, banks, and every other facet of civilian rule. Even aid distribution efforts from Gaza's internal police force are being labelled "terrorist activity" by the IDF.

By designating the entirety of Gaza's governing party as terrorist Australia are effectively giving permission to the IDF to destroy everything in Gaza. Because everything is "Hamas infrastructure".

In in addition to the possibility of genocide (deemed "plausible" by the International Court of Justice) even the disingenuously alleged goals of this war - the total destruction of Hamas - will make the world less safe, and INCREASE the risk of #terrorism

If Australia's goal in shunning those listed entities is to reduce terrorism then including Hamas is unwarranted and possibly counter productive. In addition to the #undemocratic aspect of shunning an entire major political party based on the demands of outsiders.

Israel's current plan to completely exterminate the Hamas government is going to massively increase the real risk of #terrorism

The IDF are doing almost exactly what the #USA did (with Australian support despite massive public outcry) in #Iraq to the #Iraqi Ba'athist party. That disastrous attempt to completely dismantle a government and impose one from the outside ended up contributing to the rise of #ISIS

The IDF are using our excessively broad #terror designation (and others - by supposedly #democratic countries) to justify fighting the war in ways that would never usually be acceptable. They are looting millions of dollars "to stop it getting to Hamas" - #looting is a #WarCrime - they are systematically killing police officers who are not engaged in any offensive action against Israel, and they are trying to completely obliterate any #Palestinian civilian control of the Gaza Strip.

Arguably Australia should remove the special “terrorist” designation from #AlQassam military wing of Hamas as well. We can maintain normal measures (such as financial sanctions), like we would for any other violent organised crime network or a normal foreign military that has committed war crimes.But this giving them a special “terrorist” label, is acting like an endorsement of the IDF throwing out the rule book when fighting in Gaza.

The IDF have no intention of merely overthrowing Hamas or #demilitarising Gaza. They plan to execute nearly 40,000 suspected members of Hamas' militant wing, and the IDF are clearly willing to wipe out their entire families in the process. When the IDF talk about #HumanShields what this often means is the IDF barely bother trying to target actual combatants, they routinely kill their opponents by bombing family homes. Having a family is not “using human shields” it is simply being human!

Australia cannot claim to be unaware of the IDF using this strategy. The IDF killed two of our citizens this way in #Lebanon last year, Ali and Ibrahim Bazzi. Fighting for #Hezbollah is illegal under Australian law, and I am not saying we should change that, but summary execution for Ali's suspected involvement is in no way a #proportionate or morally acceptable penalty, especially when it directly causes the death of his brother Ibrahim in the process. Ibrahim was also an Australian citizen from #Sydney and he was due home shortly after he was killed, Ibrahim was not even suspected of fighting for Hezbollah.

We should not accept this total disregard for justice and morality. We ignored the summary execution of an Australian while he was at home with his family, meaning even Ali was NOT a #combatant, and now, predictably, it escalated to #Australian aid workers being murdered in Gaza.

We should hold Israel accountable for their violence. But ending the special terrorism designation of Hamas in Palestine and demanding justice for our citizens who were killed in Lebanon.

Sincerely,

(full name)

#auspol #auspol2024

cc @kirt @kirt@newsie.social @kirt@mastodon.social