The Australian Government has paused contributing to the distribution of aid to Gaza, a decision likely influenced by our toxic allegiance to the USA. Dr Jennifer Wilson reports.
AUSTRALIA HAS JOINED nine other countries in withholding aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) because Israel has alleged that 12 of its employees took part in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
The agency, which is the principal agency overseeing the distribution of aid in Gaza, has terminated the contracts of those accused and is conducting an investigation into the Israeli allegations.
This comes as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner accuses Israel of mistreating thousands of Palestinian captives in a manner that could amount to torture.
Despite the UNRWA’s prompt action, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that Australia would “pause” funding, in effect imposing collective punishment on more than 2 million Palestinians in a disproportionate and ruthless retaliation for unconfirmed Israeli allegations against the 12 UNRWA staff.
Wong made this announcement on the same day the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on allegations of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel.
According to The Guardian:
‘By an overwhelming majority, the court found a “plausible” case that provisional measures were needed to avoid “irreparable prejudice” from further Israeli acts in Gaza that could jeopardise Palestinian rights under the genocide convention.’
The six orders made by the court included the following:
‘4. Israel was ordered to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Approved in a 16-1 vote.’
In withholding funds from UNRWA, Australia and the other nine withholding countries including the U.S. and UK, are in effect undermining the orders of the ICJ as it is virtually impossible to ensure the provision of urgent services and humanitarian aid to Gaza without that agency.
Indeed, the withholding states are giving the Netanyahu Government a way out of complying with the ICJ orders by crippling the only agency capable of distributing aid.
It is difficult to imagine a more diabolical decision than withdrawing funding from the agency needed to comply with ICJ orders.
It is not unreasonable to consider that this action by Australia and others is calculated to both distract from and undermine the orders of the ICJ.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister and administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Helen Clark, described the decision to withhold funding as “catastrophic” on ABC radio on Monday:
“...if UNRWA [the only agency distributing aid Israel allows in] is crippled financially it has devastating impacts for the families living in Gaza... [and] major implications for around 5.6 million Palestinians...”
On the strength of Israel’s allegations against 12 UNRWA employees, Australia has decided to put the welfare of around 5.6 million Palestinians in refugee camps in and outside of Gaza who are supported by UNRWA, at varying degrees of risk, from starvation, sickness and death to homelessness, hunger and lack of emergency aid.
American human rights lawyer and professor of International Law Francis Boyle claims that withholding States (including Australia) are directly violating the Genocide Convention article 2(c) by “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part...”
Australians have become used to our successive governments’ contempt for United Nations conventions we have signed, for example, the complete disregard of both major parties for the Refugee Convention over the last decade.
However, few of us would have anticipated a similar contempt for the Genocide Convention, which indeed we helped craft. Even fewer of us would have anticipated this degree of contempt from a Labor government, particularly given Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s insistence on the importance of a “global rules-based order”.
According to the UN:
‘A concept gaining increasing currency both in Australia and internationally is that of a “rules-based international order”. This means a shared commitment by all countries to conduct their activities in accordance with agreed rules that evolve over time, such as international law, regional security arrangements, trade agreements, immigration protocols and cultural arrangements.’
It is impossible to reconcile Albanese’s stated commitment to a “rules-based order” with his undermining of the ICJ’s order to Israel. It is also impossible to reconcile this collective punishment of Palestinian civilians with international human rights law and our obligations under that law.
The catastrophic moral collapse of Australia’s current government can be largely attributed to our toxic relationship with the United States, though this in no way exonerates Wong and Albanese and the politicians who support their decisions.
There can be little more morally degenerate than the enabling of and cooperation with what the ICJ has warned is Israel’s “plausible genocide” in Gaza. Wong and Albanese have lost all moral authority and should prepare themselves for their every public utterance to be greeted with contempt, derision and scorn.
Dr Jennifer Wilson is an IA columnist, a psychotherapist and an academic. You can follow Jennifer on Twitter @NoPlaceForSheep.
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