rcbrk, 3 months ago

Excerpt from the communiqué:

[…] Specifically, this Communiqué analyses Australian government policy and the actions of individual members of the Australian Parliament to show that the Australian government and its most senior officials have both failed to prevent or respond to the genocide committed by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and been complicit in the carrying out of this genocide in a manner which falls squarely within Article 25 (3)© and/or (d) of the Rome Statute of the ICC. The evidence compiled herein amounts to a reasonable basis for the OTP to conduct an investigation into such conduct of Australian nationals, and to seek the authorisation of the Pre-Trial Chamber for the same, alternatively, to consider the contents of this Communiqué in the context of the OTP’s ongoing investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine.

Following 7 October 2023, when Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas attacked Israeli settlements and military installations, killing 1,200 Israeli civilians and military personnel while capturing over 250 individuals, Israel launched a devastatingly violent campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. Over 27,000 Palestinians have since been killed, and more than 1.7 million people in Gaza have been internally displaced. The Gaza coastal strip has been blockaded by the Israeli military, leading to food scarcity, sanitation concerns, the spread of communicable diseases, and widespread despair. Communications have regularly been cut, and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have instituted a devastating bombing campaign that has almost completely destroyed Gaza’s residential stock, places of worship, food outlets, cultural institutions, and educational facilities. Concurrently with this material destruction, officials of the Israeli government and military have increasingly voiced their intention to “wipe out” Palestinians living in Gaza and have explicitly employed genocidal rhetoric consistently and publicly. As this Communiqué highlights, a wide range of respected scholarly and legal sources have determined that such circumstances amount to genocide.

Since 7 October 2023, the Australian government and individual government Ministers and political figures, such as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Defence Minister Richard Marles, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, have provided explicit political, rhetorical, moral, military, and material support for Israel’s genocidal attack, despite their indisputable knowledge of the extent of the violent attacks. These actors have sought to provide political cover for Israel in international forums, justifying Israel’s bombing campaign as a legitimate right to self-defence that it does not, in fact, enjoy, and refusing to take any action that may positively contribute to stopping the genocidal campaign in Gaza. The Australian government, and its individual members, has, moreover, taken actions that further aggravate the ongoing genocide in Palestine through its cessation of funding for vital aid and humanitarian support. […]

The rest of the document makes for a well-referenced timeline on the actions by various Australian political figures in relation the the recent Israel-Palestine conflict.