In defiance of international rulings to boycott Israel for its ongoing violence and brutal occupation of Palestinian lands, Kellie Tranter says Australia has continued exports to Israel.
Tugboats in the Port of Melbourne, September 2016. (Bernard Spragg/Flickr/Public domain)
By Kellie Tranter
Declassified Australia
This month Israel unilaterally breached its U.S. “guaranteed” ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Without a trace of humanity, it resumed its wholesale murderous slaughter of Palestinian civilians, including killing 174 children with bombs in one night with countless others requiring amputations without anaesthesia.
It also launched policies calculated to deprive all residents of Gaza of essentials including food, water, sanitary services and electricity.
Every human being with a trace of morality or humanity should be appalled, and most people of the world probably are, yet the Australian government doesn’t seem to be so afflicted. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data Australia’s exports to Israel throughout the genocide — everything from coal to copper — have continued.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) export data obtained by Declassified Australia show that the value of Australia’s exports to Israel in the year 2024 continued at $212 million.
On Jan. 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that there was a plausible risk of Israel committing acts of genocide in Gaza. The Genocide Convention obliges state parties to take action to prevent genocide.
The ICJ has clarified that this obligation arises from the moment states are aware of a serious risk that acts of genocide are being committed. The Australian government was made aware of the risk of genocide in Gaza by the ICJ’s Jan. 26, 2024, order.
On July 19, 2024, the ICJ determined that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime and the annexation and use of Palestine’s natural resources. The court made clear that third party states must “abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel … which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory.”
Furthermore, third-party states must “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Declassified Australia has examined the latest export data from the ABS and UN Comtrade from January to December 2024, with Australian exports including:
- coal, coke and briquettes, whether or not pulverised, but not agglomerated ($29,406,000);
- chemicals and related products ($4,883,000);
- iron and steel ($3,719,000);
- non-ferrous metals including copper ($14,000);
- transport equipment including aircraft and associated equipment, spacecraft (including satellites) and spacecraft launch vehicles and parts thereof, agricultural machinery ($821,000);
- arms and ammunition ($1,534,000);
- along with insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc.
Breaching ICJ Energy Embargo
A street in northern Gaza on Feb. 22 after the Israeli siege and during the initial phase of the 2025 ceasefire. (Jaber Jehad Badwan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Many Palestinian organisations have been calling for a total global energy embargo against Israel, recognising that Israel controls energy access in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, that the denial of access to energy and destruction of energy infrastructure have been used as part of the genocide in Gaza and that energy discrimination forms part of the apartheid system.
In December 2024, SOMO, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, located in Netherlands, published its report, “Powering injustice – Exploring the legal consequences for states and corporations involved in supplying energy to Israel” which noted that:
“Energy, or fuel to produce energy, plays a significant role in Israel’s military operations and unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“Israeli military vehicles, including jets and tanks, which have been used in the commission of crimes under international law in Gaza, require substantial amounts of fuel to operate. Israel has considerable dependency on imports of fuel, particularly military jet fuel and crude oil, which is refined in Israel and supplied to the military, amongst other end users.
“Israel’s electricity grid directly incorporates illegal Israeli settlements located in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Israeli settlement of Homat Shemu’el, East Jerusalem, 2016. (Ronan Shenhav, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)
The report concludes that “foreign governments have an obligation to end the supply of fuel to Israel unless they can guarantee it will only be used for non-military purposes” and that “states should end the supply of coal to Israel where there is no means of ensuring it does not end up supplying electricity to settlements, on the basis that this constitutes trade dealings with Israel which may entrench its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
On June 8, 2024, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his country would “suspend coal exports to Israel until it stops the genocide.” The Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism’s Decree 1047 of 2024, imposed the immediate prohibition on coal exports to Israel, remaining in force
“until Israel complies with certain interim measures of the International Court of Justice. Companies involved in the coal trade with Israel should take note of this prohibition and adjust their operations accordingly”.
In November 2024, Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s minister of environment and sustainable development, unequivocally stated
“We realised that Colombian coal was fueling 70% of Israel’s energy capabilities, President Petro has signed a decree to forbid the export of Colombian coal to Israel…We are calling other countries to not supply fossil fuel energy used in genocide..”
Colombia’s position reflects the reality that “fossil fuel energy” used in an electrical grid does not distinguish between military, industrial or commercial use, noting that the 99.85 percent state-owned Israel Electric is the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel and the Palestinian territories, holding about 75 percent of the total electricity production capacity in the country.
Israel Electric Company tower in the outskirts of Haifa, 2006. (Sambach/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.5)
Such realities did not stop Australian coal exports to Israel in 2024.
One bulk coal carrier, “Captain Veniamis”, was tracked from Newcastle in NSW to the Israeli port of Hadera, departing on Sept. 12, 2024, arriving on Nov. 8, 2024. Hadera, on the Mediterranean coast near Tel Aviv, hosts Israel’s largest power station, the state-owned Orot Rabin Power Plant.
The voyage via the Cape of Good Hope and the Mediterranean Sea took 52 days instead of the 32 days it would have taken if it had successfully defied the Yemen Houthi’s Red Sea blockade of cargo being shipped to Israel. (The Houthi’s solidarity with the Palestinians has increased their popularity across the Middle East, and across the globe).
Israel Electric’s coal-fired power plant in Hadera. (xor74/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
At the time the cargo of Australian coal arrived in Israel, the death toll in Gaza already exceeded 40,000.
The Australian government has been quick to endorse the U.S. maritime mission to protect Red Sea trade routes to Israel from Houthi militants, and to provide an Australian Navy captain to “internationalise” a U.S. Navy task force assigned to protect shipping heading to Israel.
But it has been less forthcoming with information about the number of vessels en route to Israel carrying Australian goods, including goods like critical minerals and coal.
Redefining ‘Arms & Ammunition’
ABS data says that the total value of exports from Australian to Israel in 2024 in the Arms and Ammunition category amounted to $1,534,000, but of course exactly what was exported under this heading is impossible for the public to know. Representatives, from Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong down to Defence secretaries, ignore the statutory definitions by continually speaking of “weapons” or by questioning the accuracy of embarrassing statistics.
In a June 2024 Senate Estimates hearing, David Nockels, first assistant secretary, defence industry policy, sought to defuse media reports about data appearing on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website relating to the export of “arms and ammunition,” with a statement of which [the TV Show] Yes Minister’s Sir Humphrey would have been proud:
“The data that you’re referring to that’s been public, I think is the data that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade publishes on its website. I think it’s useful to understand where that data is drawn from, then I’ll talk to how we assure ourselves that, even though the headline is arms and ammunition, that is not the fact the case.”
After a convoluted description of the data-collection process and a deficient drop-down menu he continues:
“We have assured ourselves that what has been publicly put forward in the media is in fact incorrect and that it is not arms and ammunition; it is in fact related to … goods and technologies that normally would flow. In particular, the most recent figure that has been referred to as $1.5 million is for a single item that is a return to Australia item that falls under the category of what we’ve just been talking about, in that it supports Australian defence capability.”
There is no mention that exporters are required to declare an actual “goods description” on each Export Declaration form. This is particularly important when it is stated the drop down menu on the website is not reliable and not specific enough. Neither was it revealed whether Defence had inspected all the export declaration forms which are required to actually describe goods within its remit being exported to Israel.
Declassified Australia requested details of communications between Defence and Border Force on their gathering of consistent numbers on the exports to Israel. The heavily redacted Freedom of Information documents obtained show lengthy email discussions taking place between Defence and the Australian Border Force arranging for data to be supplied to Defence to account for the discrepancy in export numbers.
In Senate Estimates on Feb. 26, Defence officials said that since Oct. 7, 2023, Defence has issued 22 permits to Israel, four of which have expired, with the remaining extant [still active] export permits being for the benefit of the Australian Defence Force and Commonwealth capabilities.
For defence export permits issued prior to Oct. 7, 2023, it was determined that no action was required in relation to 35 of them, and 16 were amended or lapsed (which related to Part 1 and 2 of the Defence Strategic Goods List).
The other 13 permits remain under review with Defence still conducting scrutiny around those permits and providing advice to government accordingly. We aren’t told whether or not goods approved for export under those 13 permits are permitted to leave the country while such departmental review is taking place.
Shoebridge in 2022. (Australian Greens, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5 au)
In response to questions put by Sen. David Shoebridge, Defence officials confirmed that Part 1 of the Defence Strategic Goods List related to items that were inherently lethal or items adapted for use by defence, for example night vision goggles, body armour, software, and that they have no other use outside of a defence context, but that aren’t necessarily inherently lethal in and of themselves.
Part 2 of the Defence Strategic Goods List covers goods that could be used by defence or completely unrelated industries but nevertheless need to be controlled.
A senior Defence official, made the point [emphasis added] that:
“The Australian government conducts a modest defence relationship with Israel when it comes to Defence exports principally it is usually one way. That is to say we are importing from Israeli Defence Industries capabilities to support the ADF. There’s not a lot going the other way but we would not regard them as in and of themselves as conventional arms.
The permits we grant do enable us to export items that might contribute to military capabilities and we make sure that where those export permits are granted we need to be confident when we’re exporting the items or granting a permit to export those items that it doesn’t contribute to violations of our responsibilities.”
When pressed by Shoebridge as to whether on June 14, 2024, Australia was providing to the State of Israel either directly or indirectly conventional arms and parts and components of conventional arms as defined by the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the official responded:
“We classify weapons as full systems so battle tanks, aircraft, so this is what we’re talking about when we say we’re not exporting weapons and the export permits we have where Israel is a destination country relate to parts, component parts, or full systems that relate to DSGL (Defence and Strategic Goods List) list 1 or 2.
The government has been particularly clear on this, that it has not supplied weapons or ammunition to Israel since the conflict has begun and for the past five years. That is with the definition used in the ATT. What that means is that if we are providing an export permit where Israel is listed as a destination country it will include items that could be list 1 or list 2 of the DGSL but it’s not what we would categorise as a weapon.”
The emphasis on using the word “weapons” rather than the statutory “items” is obvious.
It’s worth noting that modern weapons and military equipment cannot be made or maintained without their parts and components. Even if the items being exported are not “full systems” or inherently lethal, like “body armour, software or night vision goggles,” their export to Israel during a genocide enables their use in lethal actions and is clearly prohibited under international law which Australia has expressly adopted by treaty and legislated specifically to implement.
By all appearances Australia has effectively tried to circumvent its clear international obligations and its own laws during a genocide by creating a non-existent ambiguity in statutory verbiage.
In the interests of trade and geopolitics the lives and safety of our fellow beings, from infant to aged, are ignored or sidelined, along with our morality, our national reputation, our respect for international law, and indeed our self-respect.
Kellie Tranter is a lawyer, researcher, and human rights advocate. She tweets from @KellieTranter . View all posts by Kellie Tranter.
This article is from Declassified Australia.
Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Excellent article exposing the tricks used by the sold out politicians sitting in offices in which they should have never been allowed to get near.
Circumventing the law to support their genocidal sponsors and partners in crime, pretending to be ignorant of facts which already are in the public domain, or playing dumb when asked questions, are things which politicians can no longer be permitted to do, as their tricks and behavior, as it demonstrated, has brought us to the , close to 18 months now, most horrific warcrimes and Genocide ever video recorded in world’s history, as well as further threatening and indeed assaulting the peace and stability of the entire world, pushed by their insanity and criminal behavior almost irremediably towards a world war.
Similar thing have happened and are still happening in many other countries around the world and journalists and indeed people, must raise up to denounce and to hold those responsible account for their crimes, and to put an end to the insanity.
Only the light can show what was hiding in the darkness, and only the light shined by honesty and self respect can show us the path out from the darkness of fear, ignorance and belief.
Thank you for sharing.
No doubt none of the duopoly party candidates will even mention this in the coming federal elections. And if asked, they will weasel their way out of answering or give the usual lip service to supporting Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ (how many times have we heard that one?).
The silence of Australia’s direct complicity in the Gazan genocide is/continues to be deafening!
Search American corporate news for “Qatargate.” Its a big story today, but I don’t see much of it in America.
Haaretz is reporting on it, but its behind a paywall to me. (News for wealthy people only) I saw this from PressTV (Iran) …
“Netanyahu left his corruption trial at a Tel Aviv court abruptly on Monday to give evidence in a separate investigation into possible ties between his aides and Qatar.
Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, Netanyahu’s senior staffers, were arrested earlier on Monday over the alleged unlawful financial ties with Qatar.
Netanyahu’s testimony would be given as someone with knowledge of the affair
The probe was launched following revelations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman Feldstein worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories.”
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Qatar was an Israeli ally in overthrowing the government of Syria for some time now. Al Jazz would regularly give the people who wanted to overthrow the government (to Israel’s benefit) lots of favorable press.
“news for wealthy people only” well am far fae bein wealthy..Scots pensioner on fixed limited inccome and yet I subscribe tae Ha’aretz. It’s less than £2 per week. It aw depends on yer priorities.