Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has supported the plea and called on the Albanese Government to act to end Israel’s killing, destruction and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and promote a lasting peace in which Palestinians have a leading role.

The Plea for a Common Humanity urges the Australian Government to:

• Join 139 countries in implementing the decision of the Labor Party general conference to recognise the State of Palestine

• Implement the rulings of the International Court of Justice

• Demand a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege of Gaza

• Insist on return of all hostages

• Consider expulsion of Israeli Ambassador to Australia, recall of Australia’s Ambassador to Israel

• End any Australian military support for Israel

• Develop plans for peace with justice in which Palestinians from all walks take a lead.

• Consider proposals for an international peace conference to address Palestinian rights to self-determination and the inalienable right of Palestinians to return to their homes.

• Support for a UN led emergency humanitarian program to address the immediate medical, food and housing needs of Gazans.

Quotes attributable to Lidia Thorpe, Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman and independent Victorian Senator.

“The fact that Palestinian people have to make a plea for their humanity to be recognised is a shame on this government"

“Millions of people in this country are feeling hurt and let down by the government for their hollow words and lack of real action to prevent genocide.

“The requests of this plea simply ask the Labor Government to stop abusing their immense power through their complicity in genocide. 

“It urges Prime Minister Albanese and Minister Wong to recognise our common humanity with the people of Palestine and place the rights of Palestinians above their own political interests.”

Quotes attributable to Nasser Mashni, President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network:

“A plea for humanity should be a shame on Australian political humanity. 

“The fact that Palestinians have had to rely on their allies to call for the humanity of Palestinians 173 days after the Defence Minister of Israel said that ‘we are dealing with human animals, we will starve them, deny them food, electricity, gas and water’. 

“173 days later, tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women and children are laying unburied in the streets of Gaza being feasted upon by Israeli attack dogs.

“That Palestinian Australians, our supporters and friends alike, are having to plead for humanity, is a shame and a stain on this parliament. It’s a stain on our government that we continue to follow blindly US imperial interests as well as Israel’s settler colonialism and their genocidal campaign in Palestine.

“Enough is enough. Australians, be they Muslim, Arab, or Christian, and people of good conscience, are standing with the Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank and saying enough.

“And it’s time for our parliament to reflect the views of those Australians and demand a ceasefire and act on the reasonable and principled demands of this plea.”

Quotes attributable to Professor Stuart Rees, architect of the Gaza Plea for a Common Humanity:

“We implore Australia’s leadership to consider principles of a common humanity, which include reference to Israeli lives, and to the moral imperative to prevent genocide.

“The Plea is about Australians speaking truth to power, and that means acknowledging the history of ethnic cleansing in Palestine, which has turned into a genocide worse than the Nakba expulsion in 1948.

“We’re calling on the Australian Government and our representatives to have the courage to cease ignoring Israeli atrocities, and to expose the cruelty of the US parachuting food to starving Palestinians simultaneous with supplying arms to Israel.

“Unless governments, politicians, media and citizens are outraged by injustice, they lose touch with their own humanity.”