11 August 2023; MEMO: Aboriginal Australian Senator, Lidia Thorpe, has urged the Australian government to acknowledge the sovereignty of the State of Palestine and the territories that have been illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.
She additionally requested that the Australian government encourage Israel to put an end to its illegal occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land.
"This government must recognise sovereignty abroad and at home, recognise the sovereignty of the Palestinian people over all the land taken since 1967 and must call for the Israeli government to end the illegal occupation," said Thorpe in a speech before the Australian Senate.
She condemned "the violent occupation of Palestine, the brutality of the colonial power that is Israel and their state-sanctioned murder of the Palestinians."
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The Australian Senator highlighted that during the year 2022, the deaths of more than 170 Palestinians, including 53 children, were as a result of Israeli crimes.
She added, "Since the start of 2023, 160 lives have been taken, including 35 children. Three of these murders happened only four days ago."
"We know this grief, sorrow and anger, it binds First People and Palestinians together, we share a history and reality of attempted genocide and are both yet to experience liberation in self-determination, governance and sovereignty."
"We know how it feels to be on the end of a slow, pervasive violence which claims more and more lives as time goes on with no one blinking an eye. We know about apartheid. And we know about being occupied by a power incapable of recognising the truth."
Lidia welcomed the Australian government's decision to revive the use of the term "occupied Palestinian territories" in its official communications. Calling on it to go further and recognise the Palestinian State as have "almost 140 nations, including the Vatican".
"Unsurprisingly, colonial powers are brothers in blood and have a common problem with recognising sovereignty both at home and abroad," concluded Lidia.
