election in the genocide
We are 60 days into the total starvation of Gaza, a trapped civilian population that is being relentlessly bombed, murdered by snipers and drones, and rounded up into torture camps. 57 children have been starved to death by this evil siege. An initiative called the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a ship full of humanitarian aid that aimed to sail to Gaza and provide food, was bombed in European waters by Israeli drones; unlike the last time an effort was undertaken to break the forced starvation of Palestinians, nobody was killed. A new article in Counter Currents puts the number of Palestinians killed so far at 553,000.
“If we consider the various calculations by leading academic and other researchers across the world who take into account avoidable deaths; that is, deaths from deprivations that would otherwise not have occurred in peacetime circumstances, then the Gaza death toll, as of 20 January 2025, is around 553,000 (23 percent of the pre-war Gaza population). This figure is necessarily an estimate, albeit carefully extrapolated from data presented in a series of recent articles in the leading medical journal, The Lancet. It is based on the estimated violent killings of 64,260 Palestinian people by IDF forces in the first 9 months of the present conflict, which began on 7th October 2023. The extrapolated death toll includes 393,000 children, 51,000 women, and 113,000 men.” For more on The Lancet study, and the scale these numbers are based on, I wrote about that here.
In the midst of this genocide, Australia had a federal election. It’s worth remembering that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was re-elected last night, is the only Western leader (so far) who has been referred to the International Criminal Court for complicity in these war crimes and crimes against humanity, an application which the court accepted. It’s worth remembering that it was only weeks ago his Zionist Attorney General flew to Israel to shake hands with various war criminals overseeing this extermination of Palestinians, and the starving of children to death. Here he is smiling and shaking hands with Israeli Minister for Justice, Yariv Levin, who defended Israeli soldiers that brutally gang-raped a Palestinian held captive in the notorious torture camp, Sde Teiman. He described this gang-rape as “holy work.”
The Labor government was re-elected in a landslide victory, in large part due to the extreme ineptitude of the cartoon villain Peter Dutton, who has all the charisma of a cursed turnip, but there’s more to this story than that. What we saw over the past few months was an extraordinarily coordinated campaign by the establishment, from Labor to the LNP and fringe far right parties, to try to lock out the minority Greens party (of which I am a member, and ran as a candidate in this election). Zionists, some of whom are Labor party members, worked alongside conservatives and far-right groups, putting $15m into a “Put the Greens Last” campaign.
They were clear in their intentions and their focus, even admitting to putting the majority of their funds into anti-Greens ads instead of anti-Labor ads. From a political perspective, this makes no sense whatsoever and quite obviously led to the worst outcome for the Liberal party in electoral history, with party leader Peter Dutton losing his own seat and Labor taking on a large majority. With the Greens preferences going to Labor, and Liberal preferences as well as the far-right Libertarian and so called “anti-establishment” fringe parties also preferencing the sitting government, there was literally no other outcome possible except a supersized Labor majority.
Across the board, this “put Greens last” strategy from all the far-right parties like One Nation and Trumpet of Patriots hilariously exposed just how aligned they are with the establishment. Sadly their voters are undoubtedly too ignorant to notice this fact. We call the ALP and LNP the “duopoly” for a reason, and more than ever, they move in concert to protect the interests of their corporate donors and that of the American-Zionist genocide. The concentration of media and political power in the hands of the few has led to this deeply alarming moment, all of it determinedly on the side of an apartheid state that’s killed hundreds of thousands and is starving civilians to death. It’s also determinedly on the side of the fascist Trump-led US, which has been disastrous from the outset, particularly to its supposed allies.
So what did the entire mainstream media apparatus, and the Labor and Liberal and far-right coalition, manage to achieve against the minor Greens party? The Greens look set to lose 1-2 of their 4 seats in the House of Reps, and have retained 11 senators in the Upper House, which along with an independent cross-bench means we still have a strong position. Some seats remain too close to call and they may still have 3 seats in the House of Reps. At current count, the overall Greens vote was steady at 12% or 1.5m votes. It did not change at all. In NSW, it’s the highest it’s ever been. Considering we do not allow corporate donations, and have very few resources, while opening calling for billionaires and corporations to be taxed more, this is a positive outcome. This election outcome will not be replicated: the awfulness that is Peter Dutton and the intensity of the fear he provoked in the majority is all that saved the Labor party.
In my own seat which is not fully counted, I achieved a positive swing for the Greens, growing their vote to 7.5% in the House and 15% in the senate. Considering we had no money, and I have two jobs and two baby boys, so couldn’t really campaign much, I can’t be unhappy with this outcome. There was still a swing against incumbent Jason Clare, who had to throw millions of dollars at community orgs to fracture the vote and get them on side, while the movement for independent Ahmed Ouf achieved huge gains, beating the Liberals to come second. The work ahead of us is vast. It was never going to be resolved at the ballot, this is just one of the tools available to us; we must use every single strategy we can to fight this nightmare.
Some people think this majority win for Labor will mean they finally feel safe enough to listen to us. They are entirely wrong. Labor will continue to do the absolute least, the path of this Albanese government has always been one of profound cowardice and complicity; it will remain so now. They will maintain the rut and the rot. Things will worsen. I hope and pray I’m wrong. I articulate this because I believe that we must be clear-eyed about what we’re facing and the depth of the challenge ahead of us. I take comfort in the community I’ve found on this road of solidarity - we did so much with so little that I’m genuinely hopeful about what we can do in the months and years ahead.
Salaam,
Omar
My new book, The Nightmare Sequence, is out now. Author royalties are being donated to Palestinian charities - so far, we’ve donated $10,000. There is a solid review of the book here.
This Wednesday, myself and co-author Safdar Ahmed will be in conversation with Associate Prof Lucia Sorbera and Prof Michael McDonell at USYD.
Lastly, shoutout to the students of Dartmouth who read out one of my poems from The Nightmare Sequence at their recent protest encampment! These actions give me hope that this work can do all that I hoped it would, and more.
Thank you for running a courageous campaign. Your words on an interview I saw online last week really struck me. Feel the feeling but don't leave it there, let it lead to action.
Last night was hard seeing the Greens go backward in terms of seats. Appreciate this clarification which makes absolute sense.
I have the book. It's brilliant. Also the artwork. So good.
Omar, this is exactly the kind of analysis and truth that needs to reach every voter. As you rightly point out — and it bears repeating loudly and clearly — we don’t have the support of an independent, critical press. That’s why we need to build our own spaces and media.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your clear—eyed, powerful words and for running. I remember how happy I was when I first read the news that you would be the Greens candidate.
Losing Max and Stephen in Griffith and Brisbane is pretty devastating — people truly love them, and they have worked incredibly hard. Their absence will be deeply felt and they leave huge shoes to fill.
Thank you for your courage, your clarity, and for never forgetting about Palestine. I hope you get some rest now and enjoy precious time with your little family. I’ve ordered your book — looks incredible, congratulations! — and become a paid subscriber.