Former Human Rights Commissioner and member of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, Chris Sidoti, told Green Left the commission found Israel is committing genocide and there is no military necessity behind their actions, designed to “kill as many Palestinians as possible”.
It found Israel is committing “extermination” against Palestinians, according to four acts under the 1948 Genocide Convention. They are killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to cause destruction; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
“Our Commission was established in 2021, two years before the events of October 7, 2023, by a resolution of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in response to the escalation of violence in Gaza,” Sidoti said.
The commission was tasked to investigate human rights, humanitarian law and international criminal law issues arising in the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole and also in Israel.
Sidoti noted the commission had produced eight reports in 15 months with the focus since October 7, 2023, on what has happened in Gaza. The report covers the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, sex and gender-based violence, the destruction of the education system and of cultural property.
“We’ve [also] examined the nature of the Israeli military operation, the killing and injury that has resulted directly from that ... [and] the total destruction of housing. We have [then] been able to bring all of our work together in this more comprehensive examination of the question of genocide.”
Sidoti is adamant that the federal government must act now on Australia’s legal obligation to prevent genocide, rather than wait “another two or perhaps three years” for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to make a ruling.
The ICJ in January last year already indicated there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza, describing conditions as “apocalyptic”, a finding Sidoti said is sufficient to trigger Australia’s legal obligations under the Genocide Convention.
“That requires us to take specific steps right across the spectrum of the relationship between Australia and Israel, including diplomatic, political, economic, military and cultural areas.
“The secondary obligation is to not to take any steps that, in any way, aid or assist Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, or its illegal settlements within Palestine. So that means a prohibition on the two-way arms trade,” Sidoti said.
“There is two-way trade going on, and it needs to be broadly examined,” Sidoti said, backing up the findings of NSW Senator David Shoebridge as well as independent investigators such as Kellie Tranter in Declassified Australia.
“Australia has rightly prohibited the provision of ‘weapons’ to Israel but not components ... or the trade in surveillance technology,” Sidoti said. “We justify the provision of components because it’s an international system and we may provide them through a third state, like the United States, although there is some evidence that we are providing the components directly. But whether we provide them directly or indirectly, we shouldn’t be doing so.
“We [also] have a trade and defence office operating in Jerusalem. We should be closing that. We should not be cooperating with the Israeli military [or] promoting trade with Israel.”
Palestine recognition
Australia recognised Palestine as a state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 21, joining 157 of 193 UN member states having now done so. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the move was a recognition of “the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the Palestinian people”.
But with Gaza in ruins and the West Bank being destroyed by illegal occupations, why did Labor wait until now?
Sidoti said he thought it was because “the situation is now so bad and so obviously totally unacceptable, the government felt compelled to act, led by other member states such as the UK and Canada. I think the step of recognition should have occurred years ago. But the fact that it’s occurring now can only be described as a good step.”
Asked if he holds real hope for a two-state solution?, Sidoti said “yes, if for no other reason than there is no alternative. At some point the fighting and killing will stop and there will be no alternative but to negotiate a basis for peace. And the only basis for peace to begin with is the establishment of two states.
“The only question is when and how many more people must be slaughtered before the inevitable process of peace is seriously undertaken.”
Highwire
Labor is yet to publicly support the UN commission’s findings of genocide against Israel. Nor has it confirmed if it would carry out arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant if they landed here, as signatories to the International Criminal Court are required to do after it issued a war crimes warrant last year.
“We should be prepared to act [unequivocally] on the warrants to arrest the two of them and send them to The Hague,” Sidoti said.
Asked about why the UN hasn’t been able to force an end to the genocide, Sidoti replied that it the UN has a structural problem; the Security Council allows veto powers for permanent members and cannot be relied upon to take relevant action. He said he hoped the UN General Assembly in New York will take action, adding, “It falls to the General Assembly in an institutional sense, but also to individual states.”
“The obligations of the Australian Government are the obligations that lie on every member state, individually, with or without any collective decisions in the UN.”
Western leaders staged a walk-out during Netanyahu’s UN address in New York, but with the notable exception of Italy, Spain, Canada, and threats from Germany, the rest continue their weapons trade with Israel. Australia’s Defence Department recently signed a new $10 million contract with Elbit UK, according to Crikey’s Bernard Keane.
Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said the almost complete destruction of civilian infrastructure and the lack of medical and food aid means that the last remaining lifelines for civilians in Gaza City are collapsing.