Senators and MPs encouraged to educate themselves on Palestine

A letter sent to all 227 Australian MPs and senators and signed by 90 ‘writers and literary supporters’ aims to encourage ‘wider reading on the origins of the Middle East conflict’.

Carefully worded and also very carefully publicised, the letter asks the politicians to become better informed about the ‘ghastly situation’:

‘We, the undersigned, are not asking anyone to change their personal opinions or public positions. We just ask that politicians consider reading one or more of these books in the hope that they might inform and illuminate discussion on the ghastly situation we have been watching unfold across the Middle East.’

The organisers include Melbourne architect Marcus O’Reilly, University of Queensland Press publisher Aviva Tuffield, who is also an executive member of the Jewish Council of Australia, writer Paddy O’Reilly and IT specialist Jol Blazey.

Named as backers of the campaign, which was funded by the signatories, are well-known writers including Tim Winton, Charlotte Wood, Chloe Hooper, Anita Heiss, Hannah Kent, Benjamin Law, Bruce Pascoe, Michael Robotham and Garry Disher.

Middle East genocide bears parallels to Australian colonisation

The atrocities being committed against Gazans bear similarities to the brutality carried out against Indigenous Australians during colonisation.

The books are also carefully selected and include ABC international editor John Lyons’s memoir, Balcony Over Jerusalem, and the just-published The Sunbird, by Australian editor/writer Sara Haddad.

A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict is the most recent book by the former Israeli politician Ilan Pappe, who is now a historian and political scientist at the University of Exeter.

Ireland-based writer, Kate Thompson, who is best known for her children’s books, is included with her Palestine A-Z, which covers everything from the Balfour Declaration to Where’s Daddy — the ‘key parties, organisations and issues which are lost behind the headlines’.

Also on the list is Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, first published in 2020, detailing ‘settler colonial conquest and resistance’.

Tuffield says the group personally delivered book packs to 30 MPs' offices in Parliament House and met some in person: Mark Coulton (Nationals), Julian Hill (Labor), Zoe Daniel (Independent), Bridget Archer (Liberal), Senators Mehreen Faruqi and David Shoebridge (Greens), Helen Haines (Independent), Ged Kearney (Labor) and Andrew Wilkie (Independent).

Tuffield said:

They were all very interested in the idea and asked intelligent questions about the books we’d provided. Fingers crossed they’ll read one or all of them.

Many said that it’s so hard to get any discussion about the Middle East up in parliament. So I think we need to ask our politicians why that is. Why we can’t discuss the unfolding events happening right now and gain an understanding from ‘both, or more, sides’ and then work out what Australia’s role and stance should be?

Palestinian plight humanised in Shakespearean story

What does the Palestinian conflict have in common with the works of William Shakespeare? One book merges the two worlds into a touching story.

Rosemary Sorensen is an IA columnist, journalist and founder of the Bendigo Writers Festival. You can follow Rosemary on Twitter/X @sorensen_rose.