Sadly, the situation in the strife torn region between Jordan and the Mediterranean throws up a new tragedy each day and as such warrants attention in this slot all too often. But it is for more positive reasons that I raise the matter today.

Recently the Sydney Peace Foundation unanimously voted to award this year’s Sydney Peace Prize to Palestinian peace activist Dr Hanan Ashrawi. The decision represents a positive move within the Australian community to recognise those seeking a genuine peace in Israel and Palestine, and has raised the profile of this issue beyond its usual audience on a note of optimism and hope. The Greens welcome this move.

Dr Ashrawi has distinguished herself through an unwavering and principled commitment to finding peace with justice, not only for her Palestinian people but for all those suffering from the ongoing injustice and violence that blights the region. Some have criticised the Sydney Peace Foundation for their decision to award the prize to a former Minister in the Palestinian Authority. In their criticisms, they miss the point. Peace prizes are not awarded to individuals of unassailable purity, or saints or angels. Peace prizes are awarded to those who consistently rise above the failings of human character and, in difficult and complex circumstances, move the objectives of peace forward, sowing seeds of hope in fields of despair. This has been the distinction of Dr Ashrawi and as such she is a worthy recipient of this prize.

But more important than the individual is the fact that the prize has gone to someone who is articulating a message of peace and hope in relation to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

The timing is particularly important in light of recent escalation of violence in the Palestinian Territories and the seemingly unbridled willingness to kill innocent civilians coming from both the Israeli Government and the suicide bombers. The time for a major shift in the political balance in the Middle East is long over due. The message of peace and dialogue that Dr Ashrawi brings simply must be heard if there is to be any hope for the children of Palestine and Israel into the future.

Hope remains while brave voices on both sides of this conflict are prepared to criticise the dogma of war and call for practical justice and peace. Recently the former speaker of the Knesset in Israel, and former chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Avraham Burg, wrote in Israel’s main daily paper Yediot Aharono about the need for this change.

And I quote, “Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centres of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated. We could kill a thousand ringleaders and engineers a day and nothing will be solved, because the leaders come up from below – from the wells of hatred and anger, from the ‘infrastructures’ of injustice and moral corruption.”

He continues, “The time for illusions is over. The time for decisions has arrived. We love the entire land of our forefathers and in some other time we would have wanted to live here alone. But that will not happen. The Arabs, too, have dreams and needs.”

These voices of peace are struggling in a world deafened by the drums of war, drums beaten loudly by the key allies of the Israeli government in the United States administration and foreign policy establishment. It is for this reason that it becomes all the more important that international voices are raised in solidarity with these messengers of peace, and remain unafraid to condemn the culture of violence whether it be from stateless splinter groups or from well financed States and their military machines.

The Greens are a worldwide party founded on four clear principles. One of those principles is the commitment to peace and non-violent resolution to conflict. This is the perspective we bring to the conflict in Palestine and Israel. At the national conference of The Australian Greens, held just two weeks ago here in Canberra, we passed into policy the Greens position on the conflict in Palestine and Israel.

This policy has been developed over a long period of time with the benefit of much expertise from Greens members from the Israeli and Palestinian communities. And it gives The Greens the opportunity to do what all concerned with peace in the Middle East should be doing and that is speak out for a just peace, just as Dr Ashrawi, and Avraham Burg do.

What do we mean by a just peace? Well the Greens policy focuses on the legitimate rights of Palestinians and Israelis to live in their own respective independent sovereign states – in peace and security. It also recognises the ongoing injustice that has been done to the Palestinian people and opposes the continued occupation of Palestinian territories, and the illegal establishment of settlements on this land.

The Greens policy calls for the respect of international law, the Geneva Conventions and the resolutions of the UN as a first step towards a fair resolution of the conflict. Of course there must also be a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories and the removal of all Israeli settlements in those territories and an immediate dismantling of the separation wall.

These should be no impediment to the commencement of these actions, but The Greens recognise that just as these actions are necessary so is the cessation of all violence against civilian populations, including state targeted assassinations and suicide bombings.

These are obvious measures but none the less difficult to achieve because of that obviousness. The Greens policy is informed by that difficulty in calling for the establishment of an International Commission under the auspices of the UN to effect a settlement of the conflict, and calling for peace negotiations to be facilitated by the Commission leading to a schedule for the implementation of the goals I have discussed.

The Greens know that by articulating our position we will attract the scorn of those who react to any criticism of the actions of the State of Israel with accusations of anti-Semitism. But we will not be cowed by such outrageous and unwarranted accusations any more than we resile from our condemnation of those who target civilians with suicide bombers.

The need for courageous calls for peace in Palestine and Israel is too important to let the aggressive lobbying of loud but not necessarily representative voices silence it.

I can not continue to hear the deprivations of the Palestinian people and remain silent, its simply unacceptable to see the use of military force against children and civilians and remain unconcerned, its simply not right to stand by and watch a State with one of the most powerful military machines in the world wage war on an occupied people, who are stateless and many penniless, and brutalised, without calling for justice.

Just as the world quite rightly voices its outrage when bombs destroy buses and cafes killing and maiming civilians, so we should condemn similar acts of violence when perpetrated by a State. Indeed that fact that these actions are perpetrated by a State, not some shady fanatical group, should leave us all the more incensed.

Our democratic tradition includes the expectation that States and executives within them up hold the rule of law. The fact that violent political groups inside and outside a State have no interest in this principle does not absolve States of that responsibility.

This expectation, enshrined in international law, is currently under strain - largely from the actions of the US administration. The US’s obstinate refusal to sign up to the International Criminal Court, their refusal to ratify the international convention against torture, and of course their willingness to invade and attack other nations against the will of the UN undermines the standing of international law. Whilst this state of affairs continues, the Israeli government will continue to also flout international law and international bodies such as the UN.

The Australian government as one of the closest allies of the US administration has a responsibility to do all we can to turn this situation around. We must speak against the US continued flouting of international law. An important first step in the Middle East would be to add to our condemnation of suicide bombers, a strident and determined criticism of the Israeli leadership for their aggressive actions in the Palestinian territories and the region at large. The Australian Government should also be adding our voice to the call for a UN brokered peace in the region, doing something positive to end the violence and return the rule of law.

Australians should be proud that the only international peace prize originating in this country is going to Dr Ashrawi. As a tireless advocate for justice and peace (an advocacy which has seen her attract significant criticism from her own people) she sets an apt example to our political leaders in how to deal with these most fundamental of issues.