Much of what we thought we knew about the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 has turned out to be false or only partially true. We owe it to ourselves and, above all, to the Palestinian people, to understand both what really happened that day and why it happened.  

If we wish to live in a world where international law is applied fairly and is not simply a sham tool deployed by the powerful to bludgeon the weak then we must address the inconsistency of calling Israel (a state committing genocide) our ally whilst banning Hamas.

All over the world more and more people are taking direct action, stepping in because of the criminal failure of governments to fulfil their legal obligations under the Genocide Convention to “prevent and punish the crime of genocide”.

Leaders like Macron, Merz, Kallas, von der Leyen and Starmer have abandoned diplomacy, so vital in dealing with your adversaries – even hated ones – and spend their time grandstanding, insulting adversaries, and endlessly hugging each other.  How long this can go on for is uncertain because they are simultaneously kicking  down the pillars of their own economies and democracies.

Is the future of Australia and New Zealand really as NATO forts, armed to the teeth glaring menacingly at an ever-rising China?  Are we risking what we cannot afford to lose by failing to see the world around us is changing rapidly and that we may be backing the wrong horse?  Our instinctive allegiance to a US hell-bent on escalation to maintain primacy risks the people of Down Under getting a Come Uppance of terrible proportions.

War crimes tribunals on the Palestine Genocide will be essential to restore international law. War criminals whether in Tel Aviv, London, Canberra or Wellington must one day face justice.

The world’s most important hostage – must be released. The powerful Western countries have signalled that in the face of the genocide they may recognise the state of Palestine. States need leaders. That’s why Marwan Barghouti – often dubbed the Palestinian Mandela – must be freed.

Israel’s key enablers, the G7, plus Australia and New Zealand, have succeeded in muscling Israel back onto the invite list for the commemorations in Nagasaki on 9 August.  Last year Israel was excluded, triggering a refusal by these countries to attend in 2024.  Does the ‘personal’ invitation that Nagasaki has just sent to Israel represent a triumph of Western diplomacy or a sick joke?

The British government has proscribed the non-violent direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Do they really bear resemblance to Al Qaeda or ISIS, or Israel’s Stern Gang or the IDF? Or, like the French Resistance, will they eventually be recognized as heroes of our time? Will Hollywood romanticize them in their usual tardy way in 50 years time? 

In conversatoin with Eugene Doyle, the Palestinian writer Yousef Aljamal says: “I see writing as an act of resistance, because in times of oppression and injustice, writing is a means of fighting back and resisting, but also documenting and remembering and healing.“