Q: Where do you think the Australian community sits on this issue at the moment? Are Australians at the point where they want to see greater action, maybe sanctions, if not against Israel, maybe against individual members of the Israeli government?

Murray Watt:

We of course have applied sanctions to some individuals within that government. But I do think the Australian community more than anything wants peace in the Middle East. They are not only sick and tired of seeing these sort of images on their TV screens, but they’re distressed by them, as they rightly should be, as human beings. We don’t want to see the continued loss of life with the continued intransigence from some of the parties involved and that’s why we’ve working with the international community to drive that peace, not just in the short term but in the long term.

More than 300,000 people across the nation marched with the explicit call for sanctions against Israel and for Australia to stop sending weapons parts.