Foreign Minister Julie Bishop informs me that: ‘Australia provides generous support in response to the development and humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people: $43.6 million in 2015-16. Following the 2014 Gaza conflict, Australia provided more than $25 million in humanitarian assistance to Gaza. This included funding to cover the repair of infrastructure and to help communities rebuild’ (letter, November 2, 2016).
What Ms Bishop does not tell us is the cost to Australian taxpayers of all the Palestinian aid projects which have been trashed by the Israeli military.
Israel’s 2014 blitzkrieg on Gaza deliberately targeted schools, hospitals, United Nations facilities, and NGOs. Why wasn’t Israel pressured to pay for the damage?
ActionAid Australia funded a health clinic and a preschool in Susiya, West Bank (both operating out of tents). In 2011 the preschool catered for 35 children and the health clinic provided 60 medical consultations a week for women and the elderly.
Read the article by in Echo Netdaily by Gareth W R Smith, Palestine Liberation Centre, Byron Bay.
[The publishing of partisan articles like this in the Byron Bay press demonstrates the strength of the pro-Palestinian camp in the area.]