TRANSCRIPT
VOXIE 1: "The Australian government is absolutely shameful. The lack of action and actually the complicity in the crimes that are being committed is really disgusting to me."
VOXIE 2: "Just really uninspiring. I feel like they use a lot of language that makes it sound like they can't actually do anything while still adhering to policies that are materially doing a lot of damage."
VOXIE 3: "We as a nation should be more vocal to hold Israel to account for what's happening. "
These are the voices of just a handful of concerned Australians who've been watching developments in the Gaza Strip over the last year and a half.
And after calling for a ceasefire, an end to attacks on civilians and progress towards a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, the Albanese government says they've done all they can.
"We remain incredibly concerned about the innocent loss of life, whether that be in Israel or whether that be in Gaza. But we're not major players in the Middle East, that's just the truth of the matter."
The most recent figures from the Gaza Health Ministry say over 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.
With human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch labelling the war a genocide - which Israel categorically denies - for many Australians the government's response is simply not good enough.
And among Australia's Arab and Muslim communities, many say they feel a sense of betrayal by Labor.
"They've taken the Muslim community for a ride, that's for sure. Not providing any sort of consultation at all, trying to be invited to community events. In the last Eid, a lot of community members decided that's not on. I think they've been around long enough to show that there's not much they will do and there's not much that they are willing to do. So I feel like really their time's probably over from the Muslim community's perspective."
Groups such as The Muslim Vote and Muslim Votes Matter are seeking to punish Labor by encouraging their communities of 650,000 voting age Muslims to preference third-party and independent candidates ahead of the major parties.
Spokesman for Muslim Votes Matter, Ghaith Krayem, says a movement like this has been a long time coming.
"I think there's been a growing sentiment within the community around marginalisation politically. What Gaza demonstrated was the tangible outcome of what they had been seeing for some time around the political marginalisation and silencing of our community. We are a political advocacy and lobby movement primarily. The election for us is a stepping stone. It's not our focus. It's about centring our community politically so our voice is heard in the way we want it to be expressed and heard."
Their main objective this election is to see swings away from Labor candidates in order to achieve a hung parliament, with Muslim-backed candidates holding the balance of power.
Their main target electorates include the seats of Bruce, Wills and Calwell in Victoria and the Western Sydney seats of Blaxland and Watson, which have always been held by Labor.
Ahmed Ouf, an Egyptian-born pharmacist, is running as an independent against Education Minister Jason Clare who has held the seat of Blaxland since 2007, winning nearly 65 per cent of the vote in 2022.
Mr Ouf says for his community, which has one of the highest Muslim populations in the country at 32 per cent, the issue of Gaza has been a tipping point.
"If we keep doing the same thing over and over, we won't get anything different than what we have had in the last 20 years of Jason Clare. Gaza was the straw that broke the camel's back, let's say, because he didn't speak about Gaza inside the Parliament. He only mentioned Gaza once."
Beyond foreign policy, he believes Labor has taken the community's support for granted.
"There's a huge disparity between people of Blaxland in terms of education, healthcare and infrastructure and other divisions in Sydney if you compare apples to apples. And also there's that disconnect between the Labor Party and the people. And it comes from the fact that they felt too comfortable. It was an easy win every time and they felt like there's no need to do anything."
A statement from Jason Clare says, "I’m a kid from Western Sydney and it is the honour of my life to represent Western Sydney in the Australian Parliament. I work my guts out for my community every day and I don’t take anyone’s vote for granted. I never have and I never will.”
He also maintains that he has always opposed the violence in Gaza.
"My community - like anyone with a brain, anyone with a heart, would be saying - this war needs to end. The fighting needs to stop. The killing and the slaughter of innocent people needs to stop."
But Omar Sakr, the Greens candidate for Blaxland, says Labor needs to go beyond words and use all the tools at their disposal to hold Israel to account.
"International law requires that we place sanctions on Israel, that we stop trading with Israel, that we do everything in our power to prevent genocide by placing pressure on whichever state it is that's carrying it out. And we're not doing it. It's not good enough to put out a statement every now and then saying, we urge you to follow international law. It's not enough."
In the Western Sydney electorate of Watson, another independent candidate - Dr Ziad Basyouny - is attempting to unseat the 20-year veteran minister Tony Burke.
The Egyptian-born doctor says Labor's response to violence in Gaza as well as Lebanon, where thousands have been killed and tens of thousands remain displaced by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, is just the tip of the iceberg for Watson voters.
"When your rents have increased by 50 per cent since Labor came to power in 2022 and then suddenly your uncle, your auntie that you were chatting to yesterday had their home smashed on their heads and you're unable to contact them - it just compounds the feeling of they really don't care about us. Our area lacks infrastructure, whether it comes to health or education or you could choose your pick."
One of Dr Basyouny's volunteers, Az Fahmi, used to volunteer for his opponent Tony Burke.
She says Mr Burke's lack of action on Gaza alarmed her and pushed her to seek out a candidate who she felt was hearing and responding to the community's concerns.
"The catalyst was Palestine for sure, and as a constituent of Tony Burke, I emailed, I called, I sent a letter, you name it, and didn't even get a response. And as someone who's volunteered for him before, I thought the least I would get is a response."
SBS requested an interview with Tony Burke about the criticism he's received and how he plans to reassure voters but did not receive a response.
Dr Jamal Rifi is a doctor and prominent figure in Watson's Lebanese community.
He's also a big supporter of Tony Burke, starting the 'Friends of Burke' organisation.
He says this election will definitely see a significant shift but he doesn't believe the independent members will represent the community any better.
"Without any doubt there will be a protest vote, but is a protest vote enough for those candidates to win the seat? And if they did win the seat, what are they going to achieve for us? They're going to be a backbenchers. They can't actually make any decision that's going to impact - not on the Palestinian cause. And at the same time they think and they're promoting that they're going to have a hung parliament and their words are going to be decisive. They are dreaming, they are naive."
Labor MP for Parramatta Andrew Charlton did respond to some of the community's concerns, saying he understands Labor's response to war in the Middle East hasn't pleased everyone, but he welcomes the challenge from independents.
"They have a choice between Labor and Liberal, and they can see in that choice that Labor has been balanced. They might not agree with everything that Labor has done, but they can see that Labor has been much more fair and even-handed than Liberals on this issue. I think that everybody has a right to run for parliament in Australia. I think it's a good thing that people participate in our democracy and that's a positive for our democracy."
Dr Liz Allen, a demographer from the Australian National University, previously told SBS News that she believes incumbents like Mr Charlton are set to take an electoral hit due to the issue of Gaza.
"The incumbents, no matter who they are, are likely to cop a bit of a whacking from the electorate because they want people to pay and to be aware of that pain and that hurt. And so this out-of-touch, out-of-step political representation, this growing fear about tomorrow - a lack of hope - is bubbling to the surface in ways that feels almost explosive."
Activists like Josh Lees, from the Palestine Action Group, say Labor is underestimating the impact Gaza is having on electorates right around the country.
"We've seen in the protests over the last 18 months that I would say at least half of the protests every single week are not from the Arab and Muslim community. A majority of people in Australia oppose Israel's actions. We know amongst young people in particular, there is huge overwhelming opposition to Israel's genocide in Gaza and overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause for freedom and justice. So I think we can expect this to be an issue in every electorate in the country."
But this protest movement doesn't sit well with some members of Australia's Jewish community who consider this fervent opposition to the state of Israel to be antisemitic in nature.
In the year following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas in which militants killed almost 1,200 people and abducted 251, the Executive Council for Australian Jewry, reported a 316 per cent increase in reported anti-Jewish incidents.
The Islamophobia Register also found reports of Islamophobic incidents have more than doubled in the past two years, with girls and women bearing the brunt of the hatred.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the ECAJ, says Labor has failed to take a strong stance against antisemitism.
"We feel that our future in this country is at stake. And this will be the first election that Jewish Australians vote predominantly on the issue of antisemitism: which party will better keep Jewish Australians safe? And on the question of Israel, which party will continue to view Israel as an ally and which one will not? Our government has constantly made balancing statements rather than taking a firm moral position. I think that heightens frustration. I think the government thought that by taking what they feel was a balanced position, they could placate and satisfy both sides. But I think they've left both sides feeling actually quite aggrieved."
When asked about Australian Jews who have been critical of Israel and their war in Gaza he referred to them as contrarian voices who are contributing to antisemitism.
"The Jewish community, like every community, has always had what we might call contrarian voices or people who are nominally within our community, but actually fight against it and turn against it, particularly in such a difficult time and have contributed to antisemitism. I think that's lamentable, but it's something that's always been in the Jewish community."
One of those Jewish-Australian voices is Sarah Schwartz, Executive Officer of the Jewish Council of Australia.
She says treating the Jewish community as a monolith is dangerous and says Jews should feel empowered to criticise Israel where necessary.
"I think it's really dangerous to flatten any community and to say that an entire community holds a particular political view in support of Israel, particularly in this moment where Israel stands accused of committing the most serious of international crimes. I think that that view is really dangerous, and I think it actually spreads a form of racism against Jewish people by linking us all to Israel, and it's just not true."
So, election day is fast approaching and theories of the Muslim or Jewish communities shifting away from Labor will soon be put to the test.
But for Western Sydney residents distressed by what they're seeing in Gaza, many are choosing an unconventional path.
VOXIE 1: "I'll probably go for Labor, but the Greens always get a look."
VOXIE 2: "I really don't even want to vote for anyone at this point but definitely gonna be voting in line with parties who are going to at least try to take some level of action on this."
VOXIE 3: "I do put independent candidates first and then the Greens, and then actually the Libertarian person, and then I'll be doing major parties."
VOXIE 4: "I'd definitely go toward the Greens. They have for quite some time actually spoken out for all the atrocities in Gaza and the genocide very specifically or perhaps some independents, it depends."
