Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians: is Australia complicit in war crimes?
Israel has killed more than 7000 Palestinians since the brutal Hamas attacks of October 7 sparked the war on Gaza. Human rights lawyer Greg Barns SC examines Australia’s complicity in war crimes.
That Israel and Hamas have – and are – committing war crimes in the Gaza, is the view of many scholars and lawyers around the world. For Australia, the issue is whether in supplying material assistance to Israel, is our government aiding and abetting war crimes?
Clive Baldwin, a senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch last Friday neatly summarised the current situation with respect to war crimes in this terrible conflict. Baldwin writes that “over the course of the past 20 days, multiple war crimes have been and continue to be committed in Israel and Palestine, with grave concerns that Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups are carrying out unlawful indiscriminate attacks harming civilians.”
Baldwin cites Hamas’ killing of around 1400 Israeli citizens since October 7 as a war crime. He also catalogues the Israeli war crimes, which include the following:
Israel’s continuous bombardment of the Gaza Strip where “7,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, including almost 3,000 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.”
Israeli forces use of “white phosphorus, a chemical that ignites when in contact with oxygen, causing horrific and severe burns, on densely populated neighbourhoods. White phosphorus can burn down to the bone, and burns to 10% of the human body are often fatal.”
Israel’s “collective punishment of Gaza’s population through cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel. This is a war crime, as it is wilfully blocking humanitarian relief from reaching civilians in need.”
The displacement of the population of Gaza which, if they are not allowed to return as soon as possile, means permanent displacement which is a war crime.
The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect takes a similar view to HRW. It noted, also last Friday, that “until a ceasefire is reached, populations in Gaza remain at risk of continued war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Netanyahu: collective punishment of Palestinians
The intent of Israel to commit war crimes is evident in the incriminating statement of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said Israel’s response to the Hamas October 7 attacks “reverberate…for generations.” Further, Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) Daniel Hagari said, in the context of the bombardment of Gaza, “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy”.
So far the Albanese government has committed to sending a small number of troops and aircraft to the Middle East for the purposes, at this stage, of assisting evacuations. However, government ministers have refused to state the obvious, which is that Israel is committing war crimes on a daily basis.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong refused to acknowledge, during a Senate Estimates hearing last week, that Israel’s conduct in the Gaza amounted to the war crime of collective punishment despite overwhelming evidence this is the case.
https://michaelwest.com.au/israels-bombardment-of-palestinians-is-australia-complicit-in-war-crimes/