"MURDERING INNOCENT PEOPLE IS TERRORISM"

 

This is a transcript of Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick's address to Parliament on the Bondi Beach massacre.

TWO NIGHTS ago, hundreds of people gathered together on a beach in Sydney's Bondi to celebrate Hanukkah, along with millions of others across the world. Two men with guns opened fire on those who had gathered to mark their faith, mercilessly, killing 15 people. This was an act of targeted, racist, anti-Semitic terror towards the Jewish community. Murdering innocent people is terrorism.

Hanukkah carries the message of light over darkness. In this reprehensible darkness and senseless violence, there was a flicker of light. Ahmed Al Ahmed tackled and disarmed one of the murderers. As Ahmed sits in a critical but stable condition in St George's Hospital in Sydney, people over the world have seen what it means to be a light in the darkness. It means protecting innocent people from horrific violence. It means intervening in harm towards other human beings. It means risk and it means sacrifice. It means seeing the humanity in others, even those that you don't know and don't understand.

I don't profess to be an expert, but I know from our communities here in Aotearoa that the practices of both Judaism and Islam share the foundational principle that saving one life is the equivalent to saving all of humanity. In the past two days, as reports of both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have intensified, the world has been asked when we will see safety for persecuted communities. Our safety, like our liberation, is intertwined. This is simple. But if human history and this specific moment tells us anything, it is not easy.

Every human being deserves to live free of terror and oppression. Every human being needs water, food, shelter, and connection. Every human being deserves these human rights: those you love and those who you don't understand, and even who you don't like. This is what is means to be human. These rights aren't handed out for good behaviour. We get them because we are human. These basic rights are the basis of our solidarity. This is our common ground. These are the necessary building blocks for a safer world. Real freedom does not and cannot come from the oppression of other people.

In the past two days, Rabbis for Human Rights have said—and I quote—"Hanukkah teaches us that light is not passive. It is an act of courage. In moments of fear, violence, and injustice, we are called not to retreat into silence, but to increase the light through compassion [and] solidarity, and unwavering commitment to human dignity and the sanctity of every life."

We know what we stand against and what we unequivocally condemn. We condemn the murder of 15 innocent people—a child, parents, friends, partners, human beings—practicing their faith and their values. This House must condemn all such senseless violence, but more than that, we much know what we stand for. We stand for truth and peace and love and justice.

As we grieve the loss of these innocent human beings, and we send our love to their whanau, their friends, and their communities, it is the work of us here on Earth to build that real safety. This means understanding that all of our fate on this little planet is interconnected. We need each other; more than that—we are each other. That is the light that we must carry into the darkness.