Australian Opposition leader Peter Dutton – a friend of Israel who was recently here on a solidarity visit – has argued palestinian Arabs fleeing Gaza should not be granted entry to Australia, citing national security fears.
For what it’s worth, I agree with him. We see many of the rabid protesters in Australia are actually pro-terrorist, and one should be concerned there are refugees from Gaza and elsewhere who might be planning more than peaceful protest. They should be screened more thoroughly before being allowed in.
In this context, Mariam Dawwas, a relatively articulate and presentable refugee from Gaza, has appeared in the media to argue how unconscionable this position is, arguing Gazans like her fleeing the conflict just want to live in peace in their new countries. And this might be the case for many, and perhaps also in Mariam’s case.
But some of her comments are concerning.
For instance, when asked if she supports Hamas, she does not simply say no. She skirts around the question, claiming she couldn’t be a supporter of Hamas since she was not old enough to vote for them in the last elections (as if support for them can only be shown at the voting booth). Furthermore, she goes to pains to explain how Gazans are ordinary people in ordinary professions, as if this also precludes them supporting Hamas, whose members include doctors, dentists, journalists, and people from all walks of life. Plus lets be brutally honest: plenty of these “normal people with respectable professions” have aided and abetted Hamas.
Also tellingly: she refers to them as a “political party” and says she is not here to tell people whether they should or shouldn’t support Hamas.
Hardly reassuring, and in fact makes me think she might sympathize with Hamas – something that doesn’t change after her answer to being asked about the October 7 attacks. She starts by saying they were expected, before dialing it back a bit to say she does not support the killing of civilians, and then continuing to say the clock did not start with October 7:
In the same interview Dawwas claims she just wants to live a “normal, peaceful life”
and this might be the case, But she also says she wants “to help present the Palestinian case” in Australia, which might mean she’ll be involved actions adding to the frictions we are already seeing within Australian society, when it comes to the anti-Israel crowd stoking hatred. She does, after all, use the inflammatory and false term “genocide” to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
So while I am not alleging that this woman is a definite terror supporter who would pose a security risk, I am saying there is enough there to justify her and other fleeing Gazans to be screened carefully.
Which is ironic, given she has appeared on television to argue the exact opposite.
Update: When the Sky News Australia host mistakenly calls her a “mother of 5”, she makes out like this is correct, even though she is the mother of one.
But she might just have misunderstood him and thought he meant she is the mother of a 5-year-old.
As to her claim of being a widow, this could be true, but in 2017 she had a husband and she left Gaza to join him in Algeria. Assuming her story checks out, this means he died at some point and she returned to Gaza.
