Almost 30,000 deaths: How you can protest the killing of Palestinians from Ballarat

It's something Free Palestine Ballarat member Mark Oughton-Nicholls likens to having the entirety of Delacombe, Sebastopol and Alfredton wiped off the map.

"In 133 days, the equivalent of half of Ballarat's babies, children and teenagers have been killed in Gaza," he said.

"The equivalent of 60 per cent of Ballarat children have been orphaned, the equivalent of every single family in Ballarat has lost at least one child."

Concerned by what he sees as inaction, Mr Oughton-Nicholls and members of the Free Palestine Ballarat group are calling on the Australian government, and local federal MP Catherine King, to take a stronger stance in relation to genocidal acts by Israel.

Since December, the group has been holding monthly walks and picnics in Ballarat to garner support for Palestine, and have also been travelling to Melbourne every Sunday to join tens-of-thousands of people protesting the violence.

In the coming weeks, Free Palestine Ballarat will hold a film night on March 7, 2024, a walk of solidarity on March 12, and a peace picnic on March 23.

The Ballarat events are free, and Mr Oughton-Nicholls said anyone wanting to join their weekly train trips to Melbourne, could contact the group via their Facebook or Instagram pages.

At the events, Mr Oughton-Nicholls said the group would be campaigning for the government to cut all ties with Israel, as it had in the past, with nations such as Russia when it committed war crimes.

He also likened the situation in Israel to that of South Africa in the 1990s, and how apartheid was ended through boycott, divestment and sanctions from countries such as Australia.

"An internationalist approach of people of conscience leads to change, and it is possible as South Africa shows," he said.

FREE PALESTINE BALLARAT UPCOMING EVENTS

While the government has called for a ceasefire, Mr Oughton-Nicholls said this was not enough, and is now demanding Ballarat's federal MP use her position as a senior government minister to help protect civilian lives by calling for a boycott of Israel.

"The thing I want from Catherine [King] is a public commitment to doing everything we can to uphold our obligations under the UN Convention on Genocide," he said.

"Calling for a ceasefire, it falls well short, Israel has shown complete disregard for international law.

"They want the complete eradication of Palestinian Arabs, both Christians and Muslims, living in Gaza in order to steal their land."

Since Hamas fighters carried out an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, at least 29,092 Palestinians have been killed and 69,028 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

In the wake of the mass killings, Israel were ordered by the United Nations International Court of Justice to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinian people, but in the three-and-a-half-weeks since, the state has killed about 4000 more people.

On February 19, the United Nations also released a statement condemning "egregious human rights violations" towards Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank.

The statement said they have been subjected to arbitrary executions, sexual assaults and rape at the hands of Israeli armed forces.

Despite happening more than 10,000 kilometres away, Mr Oughton-Nicholls feels the devastation being experienced in the Middle East is relevant to Ballarat.

"We have Palestinians living in Ballarat as a result of their homes being stolen," he said.

"So we very much see it as a local issue for them, and we're doing everything we can to make sure the local community are aware of the horrors of this."

Ms King was contacted in relation to the situation in Palestine but declined to comment, her office directed The Courier to comments made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his recent visit to Ballarat.

On February 11, Mr Albanese said his government valued every innocent life and condemned the October 7 actions of Hamas.

He also reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself, but said how it did so matters.

"We have also very clearly called for a humanitarian ceasefire and have expressed our concern about what has occurred in Gaza and the loss of innocent lives," he said.

"We will continue to work through these issues. But I just ask that we take a bit of a step back, because I'm very concerned about the disharmony that we are seeing in this country."

In relation to disharmony, Mr Albanese particularly condemned targeting of the Jewish community, and said harassing people based on their ethnic or religious background had no place in Australian society.

This rejection of anti-Semitism is something Mr Oughton-Nicholls wholeheartedly agrees with.

He said the Free Palestine Ballarat group stands with the Jewish Council of Australia in its fight against both Zionism and anti-Semitism, but it's not anti-Semitic to oppose the genocidal acts in Palestine.

"Following the Jewish Council of Australia's line, legitimate criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust should not be weaponised to perpetrate a genocide against Palestinians," he said.

"The Holocaust is awful, it is sickening that tragedy is being used to repeat the same on Palestinians."

While he agrees with the Prime Minister's stance on anti-Semitism, Mr Oughton-Nicholls, as a life-long Labor voter, will have to see more from Mr Albanese than the "very polite" calls for ceasefire he has made.

"They're meant to be the party of conscience, and right now, we're just riding the coattails, doing what's in the interests of American weapons companies and American oil companies," he said.

"Until [Ms King] is out there publicly condemning the genocide, as a Labor voter, I will be remembering that at the ballot box."