Urge ceasefire as families grieve

CANTERBURY Bankstown Council has joined world-wide calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens.
The council will write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to get them to call for a ceasefire “to allow for innocent people to return to their homes and support a long-term peaceful resolution”.
“We cannot sit idly by and watch as the blood of innocent civilians is being spilled. I cannot stay silent at the retribution bearing down on the people of Gaza,” Mayor Bilal El-Hayek said.
“The peace rallies and prayer vigils for all the victims of this war are growing day by day, and we have seen that here in our city … we have also seen an increasing number of people experiencing vicarious trauma caused by the constant images and distressing stories being shared.”
The Mayor will be calling on both leaders “not only on behalf of the people in our City, but for more than one million Australians with cultural links to the region, that they make a definitive statement, as they did with Israel, and declare that they also stand with the innocent people of Gaza”.
Last night, the council was also expected to approve the flying of the Palestinian flag at Paul Keating Park in Bankstown and near its customer service centre in Campsie.
“It’s about freedom of speech, it’s about letting the rest of the world know there are two sides grieving,” he said.
“The support from the tens of thousands of people in our city to fly the flag has been overwhelming.”