MAPW Statement, 17 October 2023
The Medical Association for Prevention of War renews its call of last week for the Australian government to express in the strongest possible terms that Australia supports the application of the rule of law impartially and in all circumstances, and explicitly condemns violations of it not only by Hamas but also by Israel in the horrific war unfolding in the Middle East.
While MAPW welcomes the government’s call for Israel to follow the rules of war, we deeply regret that the government’s words carry no message of shock or outrage at the suffering and terror being inflicted on Palestinian civilians, including the families and friends in Gaza of many Australians. Are Israeli attacks on health care, food, water and fuel not atrocities that should be named as such, just as we all recoil in horror at the atrocities committed by Hamas against young Israeli civilians? MAPW urges condemnation of Israeli crimes with language and demands that fit the scale of what is unfolding in Gaza.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has been collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides in the latest escalation of fighting. In addition to its condemnation of abhorrent crimes committed against Israeli civilians, the Commission states that it is gravely concerned with Israel’s latest attack on Gaza and its announcement of a complete siege on Gaza involving the withholding of water, food, electricity and fuel.
We call on the Australian government to withhold all political support from the Israeli government while the killing of Palestinian civilians and destruction of their infrastructure continue, and to stop any weapons exports from Australia to Israel.
Last week, the Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said “I ordered a full siege on the Gaza Strip. No power, no food, no gas, everything is closed… We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly“. The Minister was in effect announcing plans to commit war crimes, as the protection of civilians everywhere, along with their access to life’s essentials, is fundamental to the rules of war. Similarly, he also said that the Israeli military is “prepared to eliminate Gaza”. The issuing by the Israeli government of evacuation warnings is meaningless if the warnings are impossible to comply with.
The Israeli Defence Minister’s words sound perilously close to, if not in fact, incitement to commit genocide. The Genocide Convention lists specific acts, any of which, if committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, constitute genocide. They include “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
Allies of Israel have a particular duty to unequivocally and explicitly condemn the indiscriminate attacks on and siege of Gaza, just as we unequivocally and explicitly condemn war crimes committed by others.
There have been repeated calls over decades for Israel’s military occupation, and the displacements, deprivation, poverty and humiliations of the OPT, to end. There can be no peace without justice. The UN Commission, cited above, “emphasises that the only path towards ending violence and achieving sustainable peace is through addressing the root causes of the conflict including through ending the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and recognising the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination” It is time for Australia to state the same.
Statement 11 October 2023
MAPW utterly condemns the recent attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians, which were brutal, illegal and clearly designed to lead to escalation. The prospect of a further full-scale war enveloping the Middle East is to be deplored, and it must be prevented by every available peaceful means.
We should not equate Hamas with the civilian population in Gaza, who, along with Israelis, are paying the price for Hamas’ reprehensible actions. However nor should we consider the recent actions of Hamas in isolation from the brutality of Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories which has been allowed to fester for over five decades. The suffering caused by that occupation has been severe, and little reported.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that from 2008 to September 19 this year the number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli armed forces is 3705, while 33 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian armed groups in that period. Deaths caused by delayed access to medical treatment and other inhumane aspects of the occupation were not included; nor do these figures show all the despair and suffering caused by daily deprivations, poverty and humiliations, correctly labelled by many as apartheid.
On 10 July this year, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory, said in a new report to the UN Human Rights Council, that “Israel’s military occupation has morphed the entire occupied Palestinian territory into an open-air prison, where Palestinians are constantly confined, surveilled and disciplined”.
The current escalation in bloodshed reflects the fact that peace cannot be built on decades of oppression; it can only be built on justice. MAPW condemns not only the recent attacks, but also the failure – despite concerns expressed by many leaders and governments around the world – to address the oppression directed over a long period towards the Palestinian people. We condemn the arming and political support given to the oppressor, including by Australia. In December 2022, Australia voted against a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly expressing deep concern about Israel’s gross violations of human rights and international law.
MAPW urges the Australian government now to assert the right of all peoples – including Palestinians and Israelis – to defend themselves, and the right of all people to live in dignity, with life’s essentials provided. Essential services must be restored to the people of Gaza as a matter of urgency, and Australia must unequivocally demand this. Australia must also make clear to the Israeli government that we support the rule of law in all circumstances, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations and their infrastructure, no matter who commits them.
To assert the rights of only one side in this conflict will simply add fuel to the fire that threatens to engulf the Middle East and beyond, yet again.