The ACT Greens' endorsement of a pro-Palestinian rally to be held on Friday raises serious questions about their moral and political judgement.
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The "snap rally", organised by Palestine Action Group Canberra, was promoted on Facebook in a listing that makes no mention of the weekend's horrific terror attacks by Hamas, believed to have claimed up to 1200 lives, including Israelis, Americans, Europeans, and at least one Australian.
The Greens shared the post promoting the event about the same time new, horrific reports were emerging of Hamas terrorists slaughtering children, including babies, during shock raids last weekend. Hundreds are being held hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas has acted worse than ISIS, a sentiment echoed by US President Joe Biden.
While there is widespread support within the ACT and the broader Australian community for the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, this is not the time to be endorsing an event many will see as validating and even celebrating the actions of Hamas.
People, no matter the strength of their belief in a cause, should be able to condemn the indiscriminate murder of people on dance floors, waiting for buses or even helpless in their cribs.
![Palestinian citizens inspect damage after an airstrike in Gaza. Picture Getty Images Palestinian citizens inspect damage after an airstrike in Gaza. Picture Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/pMXRnDj3SUU44AkPpn97sC/557f66b4-7f1b-4c98-aec9-4bc9e5896f48.jpg/r0_280_5472_3369_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
That some are so ideologically captured that they have been unable to express this basic humanity must seem inexplicable to the majority of Australians.
While Greens politicians elsewhere, including NSW, have taken similar stands in support of such rallies, in the ACT the party has a higher responsibility.
As coalition partners with Labor, they must have realised many would interpret this decision as an endorsement by the ACT government of an event over which it has no control.
The refusal by the Chief Minister Andrew Barr to condemn the Greens' action in supporting the rally has done little to dispel this perception.
Surely a peace vigil would have been far more appropriate than a partisan rally in the wake of the worst terror attack since September 11?
ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury has defended his party.
"We support peoples' democratic right to peaceful protest. We often share events and activities which may be of interest to our members," he said in a statement.
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"As we all seek peace and [an] end to the war crimes and fighting, there is no place for anti-Semitism or racism".
Canberra's history of peaceful protest suggests this event is likely to be far less extreme than the one in Sydney early in the week, which saw anti-Semitic chants on the steps of the Opera House.
One of the event organisers, respected multicultural leader Diana Abdel-Rahman, said organisers could not predict who would turn up and what they would say.
She defended the rally and said the attacks on Israel this week were the result of a a subjugated people "fighting back against their oppressor".
The Greens also tried to pre-emptively distance themselves from any ugly scenes, saying that "sharing an event is not an endorsement of the range of views of those who may attend".
What would have been far better, in this week of horror and grief, is to have left this rally alone or, even better, to have discouraged it.
It would have been easy enough to maintain long-standing moral support for the Palestinian cause while condemning in stronger words and actions this terror done in its name.