Mr LEO McLEAY (3:06 AM) —I seek leave to table a petition from 1,088 Australian citizens lamenting the failure of the state of Israel to honour UN resolutions and its obligations to the Palestinian people. I have sought the permission of the minister and he has no objections.

Leave granted.

Mr LEO McLEAY —It is unfortunate that 1,088 Australian citizens have to petition this parliament to try to get justice for their friends and relations in Palestine. Every night we watch the news, and at least once or twice—and sometimes three or four times— a week there are horrific stories about what is happening in Israel and Palestine. The intifadas that started in September last year—the second round—have caused terrible grief to people on both sides. There are many stories about them in the news media in Australia, but most of them make the point for the Israeli side. It is unfortunate that the mass media in Australia do not carry too many stories about the Palestinian side and the effects on the Palestinian people of the Israeli attacks against them. It really is a one-sided affair. The state of Israel is a modern, mechanised, military state. It has certainly the most effective army in the Middle East. The Palestinian people have a police force with light weapons and no armoured vehicles, no air force. We saw terrible pictures in the news and on the television recently when the Israelis used F16 jet fighters to attack Palestinian sites.

What is the human dimension to this with the Palestinian people? I would like the House to get abreast of some statistics tonight. Since September last year—in less than a year—over 520 Palestinians have been killed; 188 of those were children under 18 years of age, with the youngest a four-month-old child. We saw the latest round of this tit-for-tat murder recently when a Palestinian man that the Israelis said was a terrorist answered a public phone; the phone blew up and he was killed. Two children were wounded; those children were just innocent bystanders but they will carry the effect of that for the rest of their lives. We have seen 23,000 Palestinians wounded like this. In a year, 23,000 people have been wounded. I think there are only about three million people in Palestine, and 23,000 of them have been wounded; 42 per cent of the wounded were children under the age of 18. This is a war against children. These children are not being put in harm's way; they just happen to be the innocent bystanders. Ten per cent of those people who have been wounded have been permanently crippled by their injuries—that is 2,300 people who, for the rest of their lives, will carry this terrible problem with them.

Ninety-six paramedics have been shot while attempting to help the injured. We were all horrified by that television image we saw less than a year ago of the Palestinian paramedic who was trying to protect a child and was shot. Forty-four journalists have been shot during their attempts to cover the crisis; 44 people who want to report this story to the world have been shot. There have been lots and lots of arrests. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been arrested, bringing the number of Palestinians who are in Israeli jails for political crimes to 4,500 people. From the start of the intifada until April this year, 250 children were arrested, of whom 120 are still in prison—children in jails. The infrastructure in the Palestinian part of the country has been destroyed. Homes have been bombed. It is disgraceful and it is unfair. (Time expired)