Reckless Gaza statement, amid silence on Druze slaughter

In Syria’s Sweida province, almost a thousand Druze have been killed in a brutal week of violence.

The local Druze community has suffered mass atrocities at the hands of government forces, including the reported execution of 182 civilians, many shot in the head at close range.

260 civilians have been killed as tanks shell residential areas and regime troops breach villages under false pretences. Survivors have described filmed killings and psychological terror.

The Australian Labor government – fresh from putting off the urgent action to implement the antisemitism plan that its own envoy has recommended, but we digress – has responded by ignoring the plight of the Druze altogether and condemning Israel.

First, in an interview while visiting the democratic and human-rights-upholding luminary that is China, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the democratic State of Israel’s actions in Gaza “completely indefensible”.