Why Israel must hold itself to account
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Economist
4 days ago
- Economist
Why Israel must hold itself to account
ON MAY 14TH 1948, in its Declaration of Independence, Israel embraced universal human rights 'irrespective of religion, race or sex'. This belief in individual human dignity is also enshrined in the Geneva Conventions, submitted to governments that same month. Today the founding vision of Israel and the laws of war are under attack in Gaza. In its bombed and barren landscape the fate of both lies in the balance.
The Guardian
01-08-2025
- The Guardian
Australia needs to act on Palestine recognition – even if that means standing up to Trump
Richard Marles was the guest of honour at the American embassy in Canberra on Tuesday night, braving the cold for a belated Independence Day celebration. After a striking speech about enduring ties between Australia and the US by Washington's chargé d'affaires, Erika Olson, the defence minister showed off his credentials as an American history buff, describing the Declaration of Independence as the foundation of modern democracy. Speaking without notes, he listed the 249-year-old document's self-evident truths: that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, including 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. 'That to secure these rights,' Marles recalled word-perfectly, 'governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' But the speech, and the whole celebration – complete with a dress code of cowboy boots and denim – took place against a backdrop of an increasingly uncertain alliance and a dramatically unstable global landscape. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Following months of tension over Donald Trump's aggressive trade tariffs and lingering doubt about the future of the Aukus submarine deal, the Labor party, and Anthony Albanese, appear to be preparing for their biggest foreign policy break with the US president: recognition of Palestinian statehood. After the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said his country would recognise Palestine in September, Albanese signalled plans for Australia to move to the same destination. He started the week saying appropriate guarantees were required about the viability of such a state, including the exclusion of the terrorist group Hamas, which is responsible for the 7 October attacks on Israel. Albanese said a Palestinian state must operate in a way that does not threaten the existence of Israel and that any two-state solution would need to include provisions for the rebuilding of Gaza and the West Bank, and a resolution to the issue of Israeli settlements. Any decision would not be 'a gesture', Albanese told David Speers on ABC on Sunday. Events moved quickly through the week. Albanese spoke with British prime minister Keir Starmer after the UK announced plans to recognise Palestine by September, unless Israel agreed to a lasting ceasefire in the bloody war. Trump later warned on social media such a move would reward Hamas. Despite months of unfathomable suffering, images of children starving due to Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid found renewed cut-through, and leading international voices objected to Benjamin Netanyahu's government blocking journalists' access to document the reality on the ground in Gaza. Then Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, said his government would recognise Palestine next month, if democratic reforms were achieved, including the Palestinian Authority committing to holding elections within a year, with Hamas shut out of the process. Labor MPs spoke up in Canberra too. The former minister Ed Husic showed determined clarity in a press gallery doorstop, describing a wave of 'moral momentum' around the world and urging action here. Husic sought to debunk a key argument against recognition, saying statehood would deprive Hamas of its power over Gaza. 'Hamas is built largely on grievance,' Husic said. In the Senate, Labor's Michelle Ananda-Rajah decried the humanitarian catastrophe and starvation. A medical doctor, Ananda-Rajah said it was unconscionable that anaesthesia, painkillers and antibiotics had run out in Gaza, while a few kilometres across the border, supermarkets were 'groaning with food'. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, confirmed it was a matter of 'when, not if' Australia would join the recognition push, coming as the foreign minister, Penny Wong, continued close international engagement on next steps. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Opposition to a change in Australia's position is coming from the Coalition and from Jewish community leaders. While Trump acknowledged for the first time this week that there is 'real starvation' in Gaza, the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, was unable to acknowledge the deprivation on Tuesday. Asked directly if the people of Gaza were facing starvation, Ley repeatedly said only that it was a 'complex situation'. She called for Hamas to surrender and release the remaining hostages. Frontbenchers Michaelia Cash and Dan Tehan spent the week clinging to scant talking points, tone deaf performances which even prompted internal criticism that the Coalition shouldn't be the last defending Israel's actions on aid at all costs. Mark Leibler, the chair of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, warned the government recognising Palestine would delay the release of Israeli hostages and extend the carnage in Gaza. But the biggest problem facing Albanese could be retribution from Trump. So far the pair haven't met face-to-face and the goodwill that exists in their relationship appears to stem only from Trump being flattered by public praise from the prime minister. After Carney's statement, the president threatened Canada with economic retaliation, saying a trade deal would be very hard. On Friday, Canada was slugged with a 35% tariff rate, a decision the White House blamed on fentanyl and other illicit drugs coming across the border into the US. Albanese said the US position would not be an effective veto over Australia, a recognition of Trump's close political relationship with Netanyahu and the particular sensitivities of Middle East issues in the American political context, including the Israel lobby's power within the Republican party. Some opposition is likely within Labor as well, including from within the Victorian Right faction, controlled by Marles. One MP told Australian Financial Review on Friday that right members were going 'soft' and should not be weakening in their hardline support for Israel. Australia will be right to act with Macron, Starmer and Carney, leaders Albanese has described as friends, and the informal coalition prepared to stand up to Trump. Institutions and alliances – which will be required well after Trump's term ends – need defending, and it's the responsibility of the international community to speak up against suffering, violence and human rights abuses. As the conflict in Gaza drags on, Australia adding weight to the cause of Palestinian statehood can help extend the unalienable rights Marles spoke about at the American embassy to one of the places where they are needed most.
The National
01-08-2025
- The National
How David Lammy went from human rights lawyer to genocide apologist
You would be forgiven for thinking that I'm quoting a frustrated political commentator – someone who has witnessed the deconstruction of international law by the Labour Government over the last year, and who is exasperated by their inertia. You'd be wrong. These are the words of Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, as he addressed the Bingham Centre for International Law in July 2023. During this speech, he said: 'There should be no power beyond or above the law. The law applies equally to all people.' READ MORE: Palestine Action gets green light for ban challenge He lamented that too many international crimes go unpunished, that too many dictators escape justice, and promised "wholeheartedly" to strengthen protections for humanitarian access and put the UK at the forefront of international legal debates. Well, he's certainly put the UK at the forefront of debates on international law. At best, because of his continued apology for Israel's war crimes. At worst, because of his active role in enabling these crimes. How does a human rights lawyer go from 'standing up for human rights and challenging impunity' to 'I am a steadfast supporter of Israel's security' after the state with which he so steadfastly stands has been accused of genocide, has murdered over 60,000 humans, and has gaslit many into thinking that it is the calling out of these atrocities which is the crime. Is he playing a geopolitical long game? The deep pockets of the Israeli lobby? Genuine callousness? As I write this, we have seen the bloodiest day in Gaza in 20 months. And yet, nothing from the UK Labour Government to suggest that this is a Cabinet which has 'international law fundamentally in its DNA', as Lammy once stated. When lawyers talk broadly about the UK breaching their obligations under international humanitarian law, they are usually referring to Geneva Conventions Common Article 1. This states that all High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and ensure respect for the convention in all circumstances. This means that states must act to prevent breaches of international law in every situation of armed conflict. However, the UK – along with two others – interprets this as meaning that they only have an obligation to uphold international humanitarian law when breaches occur in their own territory. The other states are Israel and the US. As well as Common Article 1, the ICJ confirmed that all states must act to prevent a genocide as soon as they are aware of a serious risk – mirroring the Genocide Convention – and reiterated by credible findings of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. However, during the Al-Haq case, Labour confirmed that the reason that they are not acting to prevent a genocide is because they have found no credible evidence to suggest a genocide is ongoing. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits transferring a population within occupied territory and Article 59 demands that occupying states allow unimpeded humanitarian aid for all civilians, while Additional Protocol I prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Yet, repeatedly Labour MPs and the UK Government have excused Israel's siege and failed to prevent the mass forced displacement of Palestinians. The latest announcement to airdrop aid into Gaza is simply a self-congratulatory distraction. READ MORE: SNP to press ahead with Palestine recognition vote The UK should have immediately and unequivocally suspended all Israeli trade arrangements, as they are prohibited from assisting situations created by breaches of international law, as per the ICJ and the ILC Articles on State Responsibility. Instead, Lammy and the Labour Government have sent a trade envoy to Israel, brag about their crucial trade partnerships, and still support Israel militarily. All of these obligations apply to the UK Labour Government. All of them are being breached. In January 2024, Lammy said that '…the rule of law requires compliance by the state with its obligations in international law, just as in national law. Labour agrees.' However, in July 2025, when speaking of Israel – a state accused of genocide –Lammy said he 'treasures the many connections between our peoples'. Despite their legal obligations and public and parliamentary outrage, the UK Labour Government could not be further from the vision that Lammy established in 2023. When Lammy gave his speech, there were echoes of Tony Benn's anti-war speech from 1998. Lammy ended his address by quoting the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations, as Benn had. Lammy spoke of the responsibility of governments to make the right decisions to protect people, as Benn had. He warned against the mistakes that led to the Second World War, as Benn had. He praised the legacy of Britain in pursuing the international rules-based order in the 1940s, mirroring Benn's calls for continued progression towards peace. Lammy's transition from Benn-to-barely-able-to-muster-up-a-sentence-without 'Israel's right to defend herself' is not just due to the grip of the Israeli lobby, but can be likened to a child who hasn't done their homework and is hoping that the teacher doesn't ask them a question in class. As though if his tone drips with enough condescension people will be distracted from the words coming out of his mouth. Lammy has spent a year trying to convince us that the mass atrocities being committed against Palestinian civilians is normal. He has gone from forging a 'foreign policy underpinned by a fundamental belief in the rule of law' to facing claims that he is perpetuating Israeli war crimes. David Lammy has reduced himself from an eminent human rights lawyer to a genocide apologist. The support for Israel's genocide will be this Labour Government's legacy, just as the illegal Iraq war was the legacy of the 1997 Labour government. David Lammy will always be the Foreign Secretary who forgot about international law because he was too busy trying to sound clever. The Foreign Secretary that condemned the Palestinian people to genocide because he liked the sound of a speech more than he liked the idea of implementing it. Lara Bird-Leakey is a senior policy researcher for foreign affairs in Westminster for the SNP group
