End Australian complicity in genocide

Israel’s genocide in Gaza is now approaching the three-year mark, with no sign of slowing down. Yet, the federal Labor government continues to side with the United States and Israel, refusing to support Palestinian self-determination, despite giving lip service to a “two-state” solution.

Labor teamed up with the Liberals and One Nation on September 17 to vote down an Independent Senator-initiated senate inquiry into the Red Lines Package to ensure Australia complies with international law.

Days later, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fronted the United Nations (UN) in a bid for Australia being given a seat on the Security Council. He bemoaned the “breakdown in international rules” and said countries must “lean in … to build peace and promote economic development and sustainability”.

Israel has murdered more than 1400 Gazans since the so-called “ceasefire” began in October last year. The genocide is still happening, albeit at a slower pace, because the United States is appeasing Israel. In August, Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for nightly killings of 30-40 Gazans including those who do not “pose a danger… at that particular moment”.

Gazans are also dying because the health care system has been destroyed, economic life has been decimated and the blockade has not been lifted.

A new report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said Gaza has experienced “the world’s most severe economic crisis on record”. It found that Gross Domestic Product last year was $US0.58 per day, “equivalent to 83 per cent below the already low level in 2022”.

Israel also continues to shift the “yellow line” confining Palestinians to an ever shrinking part of Gaza. Palestinians report that they wake up to find that they can no longer access their own land because Israeli troops are occupying it. The Guardian reported on September 27 that the “area still accessible to people and aid workers is barely 30% of the whole Gaza Strip”.

Google maps satellite depictions of Gaza, updated in September, laid bare Gaza’s utter devastation. Al Jazeera reported the “number of destroyed structures across Gaza has increased by 9%” since the so-called “ceasefire” began. This takes to 82% the proportion of structures in Gaza that have been damaged. Two thirds of all buildings have been completely destroyed.

Israel is also extending its ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Palestinian West Bank. This includes the Israeli parliament allowing 200 new settlement outposts over its term, leading to the forcible displacement of more than 100 Palestinian communities.

Israel is also pushing ahead with a plan to establish the E1 “settlement scheme” — “not just another colony” — which would divide the West Bank in two. Amir Dawood, head of documentation at the Palestine Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said: “This plan is one of the most dangerous settler-colonial plans in the entire occupied West Bank.”

A UN Commission of Inquiry found last year that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Its June report found that Israel is deliberately killing children. “The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar.

The federal Labor government is complicit in the genocide by allowing the supply of weapons components to Israel, supplying signals intelligence from Pine Gap and by muting its criticism of Israel, among other things.

It is also seeking to isolate the movement against genocide by promoting the Zionist smear campaign that solidarity with Palestinians amounts to a hatred of Jews. Its extremely biased royal commission into antisemitism is expected to recommend more restrictions on freedom of speech, including restriction on using the word “genocide”.

Australian international law expert and UN Commissioner Chris Sidoti, a supporter of the Red Lines Package said Australia “has obligations under international law” and that “unfortunately we seem more and more to be ignoring many of those”.

The International Court of Justice made several rulings in 2024 imposing “provisional measures” to prevent genocide on all countries including Australia. Sidoti said Australia’s response has been “far less” than the minimum of “what is required of us under international law”.

Sidoti affirmed “the fact” that Australia is “providing weapons components and dual use items that can be used for military purposes” to Israel, pointing to its manufacture of components for the F-35 fighter jets. “We know [that F-35s] have played a critical role in the saturation bombing of Gaza that has involved the deaths of tens of thousands of people.”

Sidoti said that the F-35 program is “only one example” of Australia’s failure to uphold its responsibilities under international law.

The Red Lines Package was initially introduced into the last parliament by Senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman.

The current package has been expanded to four bills that, together, aim to ensure that “Australia doesn’t fund, arm, or invest in illegal settlements, war crimes, or genocide anywhere in the world”.

Proponents say that “passing this package will have an immediate impact and stop Australian arms exports and investments from contributing to human suffering”.

Albanese was the first world leader to endorse the US and Israel’s illegal war against Iran. He was also the first to send an E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft, that would have fed information to the US and now he wants to lecture the world about the “breakdown in international rules” as he pitches for a seat at the UN.

Attending the October 11 national day of action against Israel’s genocide is the next big chance to show that federal Labor does not speak for you.