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Australia needs to speak-up
To say that Israel has been an occupying power since 1967 and has violated its obligations toward the occupied people of Palestine under international law is not an opinion. It is a fact.
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Thousands of people march down Washington Boulevard in downtown Detroit, Michigan, US, to call for a ceasefire and voice their support for the Palestinian cause on October 28, 2023. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians, have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip, entered southern Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza the following day. (AFP/Jeff Kowalsky)
U
nited Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is increasingly frustrated with Israel’s disregard for civilian lives in its pursuit of Hamas, and misrepresentation of facts.
In a statement on Israel’s bombardment of Gaza for more than two weeks, Guterres said he was "deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza".
Israel has imposed a complete land and sea siege on the Gaza Strip, cutting food, water and electricity supplies to the 2.2 million Palestinians.
Guterres also warned that Israeli military actions are unlikely to resolve the protracted conflict. He pointed out that the Oct. 7 attacks by “Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation”.
This enraged the Israeli UN representative who asked for Guterres resignation.
When the Australian acting Prime Minister Richard Marles was asked about the UN secretary-general’s comments, he replied there are “different opinions” on the matter, and he did not wish to engage with them.
What? Why is Marles belittling Guterres by reducing his statement on this bloody war as a mere opinion?
Guterres was referring to established facts that inform international law. Israel occupied Arab lands in 1967. Israel’s miliary rolled into the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula, prompting the UN to issue resolution 242 that called on Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders.
Israel did not comply. In subsequent decades, Israel built mini-towns all over the West Bank (dubbed settlements), with roads to connect them.
Coupled with the wall that Israel has built around most of the West Bank, Palestinian population have lost their freedom of movement, another contravention of international law.
International law prohibits the settlement of occupied land by the conquering power. This has been repeatedly confirmed by the international community (see UN Security Council resolution 2334).
Even the United States, Israel’s unwavering ally, has asked Israel to put settlement activity on hold lest it jeopardised the prospects of a future Palestinian state and peace. Israel has simply dismissed this request.
To say that Israel has been an occupying power since 1967 and has violated its obligations toward the occupied people of Palestine under international law is not an opinion. It is a fact. And it diminishes Australia’s international standing to suggest otherwise.
In fact, the Albanese government has taken important steps to bring Australia’s position in line with the international consensus on Israel. In August this year, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong declared that our terminology needs to be consistent with the United Nations and apply the term “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
Such clear terminology avoids ambiguity about who is the occupying power and what obligations need to be met under international law.
As Israel gears up to launch a ground offensive, the message about its obligations under international law is even more urgent. That message needs to be delivered clearly and consistently by Israel’s friends, who endorse Israel’s right of self-defence, but also ward off against future atrocities.
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The writer is convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), deputy director (International) at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (Doha), and the author of Middle East Politics and International Relations: Crisis Zone (Routledge, 2022)
