There’s really not a lot I can say to capture the horror and scale of the stomach-churning weekend on Israel. Officials say more than 1200 Israelis were killed and 3400 wounded. Images and footage of people being shot in their cars or on suburban streets, or dragged from their loved ones and taken across the border to Gaza as hostages have filled me,andHerald readers,with a mix of despair and anger,and anxiety for what comes next.
The long conflict between Israel and Palestine is fraught terrain for the media. Regardless of how much thought and care we put into our coverage,we rarely please everyone and it’s naive to think we could,given the.
My approach on the weekend,and in the days since,has been to focus on first principles. And as I said in,there is absolutely no justification for slaughtering hundreds of civilians in a street or at a music festival. None.
I would like to think every person’s heart would be shattered by the footage of university student,pleading for her Hamas captors not to kill her. Or that everyone would feel for devastated father Thomas Hand,who that he was relieved to learn his eight-year-old daughter Emily had been killed by Hamas. “That was the best news of the possibilities that I knew,” he said. “She was either dead or in Gaza. And if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza,that is worse than death. They’d have no food. They’d have no water. She’d be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people. And terrified every minute,hour,day,and possible years to come. So death was a blessing. An absolute blessing.”
Unfortunately,utter revulsion is not a universally shared response to the weekend attack. As demonstrated,some people have made excuses for – or even worse,celebrated – what unfolded in Israel.
I believe Premier Chris Minns made the right decision to light up the Sydney Opera House in solidarity with the distraught Jewish community,but allowing pro-Palestinian protesters to march from Town Hall to Bennelong Point was a terrible mistake which will have lasting consequences.
Did the protesters really need to march to the Opera House? I don’t think so,but it does need to be pointed out that many hoped they would be attending a peaceful protest. Others,though,disgraced our city and country by chanting “f--- the Jews” and throwing flares onto the building’s steps. How the hell was this appalling public display of antisemitism allowed to happen? And why haven’t these people already been identified and arrested?
As we said in,Sydney was left in a horrible situation in which pro-Palestinian protesters were openly chanting antisemitic slogans at the Opera House while members of the Jewish community were told to avoid the central business district to guarantee their safety. To his credit, and said the buck stops with him.
We now wait for what happens next in the Middle East. I am also filled with dread and sadness for the Palestinian people,who are bearing the brunt of Hamas’ actions. Officials in Gaza say about 1400 Palestinians have been killed and 6200 injured by Israel’s airstrikes,and Israel has cut electricity,food,water and fuel supplies to the more than 2 million people living in the 40 kilometre-long strip. The United Nations has warned of an and estimates about 15 per cent of Gaza’s population has been displaced since the weekend. Many,many more will be killed,injured and displaced should Israel launch a ground invasion. The UN said this afternoon it had been told by the Israeli military that some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours. The UN warned it would be “impossible” for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those members of theHerald team who have worked extremely hard to tell a very complex,difficult and emotionally taxing story. This is the second war our newsroom has had to cover in two years.
International conflict is on the rise and I appreciate much of this week’s news will also be extremely distressing for our readers. To help,we have published this piece. You can also speak to organisations such as on 131 114 or on 1300 224 636. And if you feel in need of a dose of good news,you might like to.
Thank you for reading.
Bevan Shields sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week..