arrest warrant: netanyahu and Gallant

Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant

When recently sacked by Netanyahu, Gallant, in an emotional speech said: “Israel has fallen into moral darkness”. Despite prosecuting Israel’s war in a savage manner as minister for defence, it was still not enough for Netanyahu.  Gallant’s view is that bringing hostages back was not and is not a priority to him. Investigating how and why October 7, 2023, occurred Netanyahu will not allow. 

Gallant’s words could well apply to the global community in 2024. Needless, senseless and cruel wars have engulfed much of the world: while the world not at war produces armaments and makes profit from those that are.  Monies spent on armaments grossly eclipses monies committed to addressing the climate change threat.

The 29th global (COP) in Baku, Azerbaijan has again failed to set fossil fuel reduction targets which will safeguard the future of the planet and life upon it; this, despite irrefutable evidence of the precipitous path upon which we have embarked.  Added to that the US has elected a leader who derides environmental responsibility.

But let me stay with Gallant and Netanyahu.

The lie, personified in recent comments from Senator James Paterson, the Australian shadow minister, is that Israel is righteously defending itself, indeed defending democracy.  As Netanyahu’s actions have amply demonstrated, this ‘war’ is not about defending the right of the State of Israel to exist, it is certainly not about the defense of democracy; it is about attacking and eliminating those who get in the way of, or oppose, Israel’s annexing Palestinian land and diminishing Palestinian people. It is about treating every Palestinian as the ‘enemy’, simply because they exist.

It is ill-informed, or worse, for public figures to claim those who condemn Israel’s violence are antisemitic. Indeed, many Australian Jewish groups make the same criticism of Israel that I do.  The critique is of Zionism and its cruel agenda. The Zionist Federation of Australia most certainly does not speak for all Jews. Zionism, in and of itself is a threat to Judaism as amply demonstrated by the extra security good Jewish people worldwide have now needed to avail themselves.

No, this war is not about defending Israel, it is about crushing any opposition to its expansionist agenda.

Gaza is essentially a refugee enclave. While many are generational residents of this small strip of land many others are descendants of those who lost their homes as a result of Israel’s creation. The plight of Gazans and the lifting of the blockade should have been constantly on the agenda of the international community for resolution. No humans can live peacefully whilst enduring indefinite life sapping deprivation. The brutality of October 7 can only be condemned, but that it occurred should not have been a surprise.

Israel’s recognized international borders do not include the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The residents of Jenin, Nablus and Hebron are not terrorists. They are men and women boys and girl who endure daily privation. They have no civil rights; they live under military law imposed by hostile occupation. Do we seriously expect them to accept that this is their lot?  It is outrageous they are collectively called terrorists

Last week a resolution passed the UN General Assembly recognizing the inalienable rights of Palestinian people to their land and its resources. Australia supported the resolution, the US voted against.

The real terrorists are the right-wing messianic thugs of Israel and those who do their bidding. The real terrorists are those responsible for the death of Zomi Frankcom, as well as countless journalists, doctors, nurses, and aid workers.

Netanyahu needed the war; he also needs it to continue. While at war he is protected from judicial investigation. In some respects, he is a pathetic figure, slave to the consequences of his ego driven life and politically slave to those more theocratically extreme than himself. Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister for National Security and Bezalel Smotrich, Minister for Finance, have reason to fear they will also receive arrest warrants: their advocacy and demands have led to some of the worst abuses.
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The arrest warrants should be unequivocally supported by any nation which champions international law. As a trading nation, not only should we champion international law, but we depend on it.