Israel holds the power and responsibility of ceasing the violence - including that of Israeli mobs rampaging through Palestinian areas
Bishop George Browning, President of the Australia Palestinian Advocacy Network.
Overnight Australian time, Israel destroyed a residential apartment block in Gaza, and destroyed another high-rise building housing local and international media. Horrifically at least 65 Palestinians and 6 Jewish people have been killed this week.
"This campaign of violence might currently serve as a distraction from Netanyahu's domestic failures to form a government after four failed elections, but ultimately, this doesn't begin or end with Netanyahu - Israeli policies for decades have entrenched their military occupation."
"The whole East Jerusalem Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah is on the cusp of being taken over by extremist Jewish settlers, enabled by Israeli government policies and discriminatory laws."
"To stop violence, we need to address the root cause of violence. Israel must be held to account for the human rights violations it is continually committing against the Palestinian people, including what global human rights organisations have called the crime of apartheid, otherwise face sanctions."
"Palestinians are living under a brutal military occupation, and in Gaza a crippling blockade. Netanyahu's words and actions have emboldened settlers who are not just rampaging through the streets screaming 'Deaths to Arabs', they are taking over Palestinian farmlands and in East Jerusalem are seeking to displace a whole Palestinian neighbourhood."
APAN calls on the Australian Government to demand Israel stop illegal evictions in East Jerusalem, cease its provocations in the Al Aqsa mosque, and cease its attacks on Gaza which will inevitably kill many."
