Good evening everyone, 

As Ramadan comes to an end (happy Iftar & Eid Mubarak to those practicing), sadly - the same cannot be said of the Israel-Hamas War we come to Day 186 of the devastation in Gaza. 

Our Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, along with her counterparts from France, Egypt, Jordan (and others) met in Cairo in the last 24 hours to aid in ceasefire negotiations. Unfortunately, the IDF has not agreed to negotiations nor a ceasefire in spite of mounting international pressures. 

Today was also the second day of Nicaragua's case against Germany before the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Nicaragua is alleging Germany has violated international conventions such as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide via arms deals worth approx. €300M. The first hearing was held yesterday with the next scheduled for 1st March; you can have a read of the press release here. 

Closer to home, Senator David Shoebridge has requested for the release of the Australian Government's arms deals contracts with Elbit Systems which provides arms to Netanyahu's IDF. However, the Freedom of Information request has been denied, allegedly vetoed by the State of Israel, despite being of high public interest (read more here).

In light of this, a petition to ban aforementioned contracts has been submitted to be voted on by the House of Representatives. It already has approx. 29,000 signatures and there are only 9 more days to add yours here!

Lastly, with dismay I regret to inform you that my email to Dr Monique Ryan on Sunday (which marked 6 months of conflict) remains in the lurch. If a response does arrive - I will certainly keep you updated. 

In solidarity,

Qiqi