AU ELECTION: Israel has no right of self-defence against resistance in lands that are illegally occupied, says John Menadue.
Mother cries for her 4-year-old daughter, who lost her life due to malnutrition and lack of treatment, Aug. 14, 2024. (UNRWA /Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0)
In the midst of an election season in Australia criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza has been muted under the weight of a bipartisan consensus enforced by fear of running afoul of the Zionist lobby. Few politicians, journalists or public figures have spoken out. The following is an exception. It is the text of a speech delivered by the author, a former Australian ambassador and cabinet secretary, at a Palestinian rally at the Australian National University in Canberra on April 27.
By John Menadue
Pearls and Irritations
I first visited Israel in 1963 with Gough Whitlam [Australian prime minister from 1972-75]. I was very impressed. It was a pioneering country, modest and with features of a democratic state.
When I returned, I inquired from the Israeli ambassador in Canberra about the possibilities of some of my children, when they were older, taking a gap year living on a kibbutz.
I visited with Whitlam again in 1967, after the Six-Day War. I changed my mind.
The expanded occupation of Palestinian lands brought with it the arrogance of an occupying power.
Senior ministers boasted that the king of Jordan had become the mayor of Amman. People I met had become hostile, even contemptuous of Palestinians. I learned first-hand how occupation warps the heart and mind of the occupier.
As an Al Jazeera journalist put it, “The occupation doesn’t just kill people; it silences voices, erases images and buries the truth.”
Ignoring World Opinion
World opinion is clear about the genocide but most of the politicians, academics and journalists in the West have deliberately chosen not to notice.
As expressed in the U.N. General Assembly, U.N. agencies, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and numerous human rights agencies, most of the world’s governments and peoples agree that Israel is an occupying power, [at least plausibly] committing genocide [or other war crimes]. And that Israel is an apartheid state. Only the U.S. veto in the Security Council saves Israel.
The main supporters of Israel — the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the settler/colonial states — have all expropriated their indigenous populations. In its Frontier Wars, Australia inflicted genocide. [Australians] are reluctant to honestly face our own guilt. Ignoring genocide in Palestine is an echo of our own history.
Professor Ilan Pappe in The Palestine Chronicle of April 23 summed up the ugliness and cowardice in the West:
“Ignoring the genocide in the Gaza Strip and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank can only be described as intentional and not out of ignorance. Both the Israelis’ actions and the discourse that accompanies them are too visible to be ignored, unless politicians, academics, and journalists choose to do so.
This kind of ignorance is, first and foremost, the result of successful Israeli lobbying that thrived on the fertile ground of European guilt complex, racism and Islamophobia.
In the case of the U.S., it is also the outcome of many years of an effective and ruthless lobbying machine that very few in academia, media, and politics dare to disobey.”
Whilst this Zionist lobbying machine intimidates almost all before it, we will have no justice and peace in Palestine and the Middle East. This lobby must be exposed and countered.
U.S. President Donald Trump has boasted that because of the financial support of the Adelsons he “gave them the Golan Heights.” Is there anything more brazen than that? “Gave them the Golan Heights.” And what did the MSM say? Nothing!!
Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking over his shoulder, signs proclamation recognizing Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights, March 2019. (White House, Shealah Craighead)
This abuse of power by the Zionist machine has the blood of over 62,000 Palestinians on its hands.
Israel has become a pariah state and the IDF the most immoral army in the world as it bombs and shoots Palestinians in an open-air prison where there is no escape.
Israel and the murderous IDF seem incapable of telling the truth. Hamas we are told, time and time again, is hiding in hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, churches.
Hamas is hiding behind journalists, aid workers, medicos, children, the old, infirm, pregnant mothers and even premature babies in humidity cribs. The flimsy and untruthful lies are endless.
In the name of “balance,” our media give credibility to this Israeli propaganda. No one would think of giving equal treatment to those who deny the Holocaust. Neither should we give balanced media coverage to those who deny the holocaust in Gaza today.
Oct 7 Did Not Occur in a Vacuum
Destruction in the Zionist-captured Palestinian quarter of Manshiyah in Haifa, May 1948. (AP Photo/Malmed, Wikimedia Commons /Public Domain)
It was the result of decades-long Israeli occupation, never ending violence and oppression of Palestinians. The pressure cooker exploded!
This settler colonisation in Palestine has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba. In 1948, Palestinians owned 94 percent of all land; now they own only 18 percent. These figures tell the true story. Israel occupies stolen land. Nakba has evolved, step by violent step, into genocide today.
Supporters of Zionism highlight the horrors of Oct 7, to divert attention from the continuing genocide in Gaza.
Even Joe Biden retailed the false stories about Hamas beheading babies. Our MSM also failed to tell us about the “Hannibal Doctrine” which led to the killing by the IDF of many of their own soldiers and people on Oct. 7.
Media focus is on the hostages, but ignores the 8,000 Palestinians held in gruesome Israeli gaols.
Israel’s Damon Prison in Khirbat Al-Dumun, a formerly Palestinian village in Haifa that Zionist forces depopulated in 1948. (Hanay /Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attacks. The real reason and objective is to massacre Palestinians, drive out the population and destroy infrastructure. The Palestinian homeland is being prepared for Trump-type real estate.
Egypt and Jordan are coming under great pressure to absorb all Palestinians who are still alive. The U.S. and Israel have even contacted Sudan and Somalia to discuss the resettlement of displaced Palestinians.
Netanyahu repeatedly tells us about the Hamas threat. But from 2016, he was secretly channelling financial support to Hamas through Qatar. His motive was to build Hamas up as the rival to Fatah and President Mahmoud Abbas.
The weaponisation of anti-Semitism is designed to shut down free speech and to divert attention from the genocide
The Zionist Lobby has become tiresome in accusing its critics of anti-Semitism. Many Zionists in Australia put loyalty to Israel ahead of loyalty to Australia. Many Jews are appalled to be associated with such Zionists. And they are speaking out.
So much of [Australian] media, including the ABC, is intimidated by Zionist propagandists. In [the] MSM, Palestinians and Muslims are treated as much less human and less valuable than white Jews and white Christians. Just contrast the media coverage of Christian Ukraine and Muslim Gaza.
Our legacy media have decided that genocide of Palestinians is not newsworthy.
There is undoubtedly some anti-Semitism in the community, but the fraudulent campaign today is to silence those who are calling out Israel for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Many excuse their failure to take a stand on a great moral issue by hiding behind the deceit peddled about anti-Semitism. Many have told me that in all the Palestinian rallies across Australia there has been no anti-Semitism at all. But the lie about anti-Semitism continues.
A weekly pro-Palestine rally in the city center of Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 8, 2024. (Matt Hrkac / Flickr / CC BY 2.0)
Church Failure
I am a Catholic. But my church in Australia has turned its back on suffering Palestinians in what we used to call “the Holy Land.” If only Catholic Bishops and other church “leaders” heeded Pope Francis.
Pax Christi Australia described the Church’s failure:
“There have, in Sydney, been more than 70 rallies in solidarity with Gaza. Each one has been done under the shadow of either St Mary’s Cathedral (Catholic) or St Andrew’s Cathedral (Anglican). Ignoring the genocide, these buildings have stood in the background as cold, hard, stony, and silent edifices.
It seems that some lives are worthy of grief and solidarity whilst others are not. The West has shown that its commitment to human rights is conditional, selective, deeply politicised and deeply entrenched and subservient to Zionist propaganda. Those in authority are complicit in the continuing genocide.
The Josephite Sisters put it so well this Easter…’to speak out against the violence of the Israeli Government is not antisemitism; it is a cry for justice.’”
Playing the Victim
We are told to heed the hurt feelings of Zionists, some on university campuses, who support genocide or have willfully chosen to ignore it. They play the victim card. Since when have universities been a place that avoids robust debate?
These hypersensitive souls should not be surprised when peaceful demonstrators point out to them and others that the country they are supporting is committing criminal violence and genocide.
Surely the Palestinian mothers of 18,000 murdered children have more reason to be hurt than those in Australia who play the victim to divert attention from genocide? The real victims are in Gaza, not on Australian university campuses.
University vice-chancellors dare not disobey the Zionist Lobby.
I thought we believed that children should not be killed! Apparently not so with at least 18,000 children killed by Israel. And thousands orphaned and traumatised.
Terrorism, Occupation & the Right to Resist
A flag in support of Marwan Barghouti at a demonstration in Palestine in the West Bank town of Kafr ad-Dik in 2012. (KafrAdDeek /Wikimedia Commons/ CC0)
Under illegal Israeli occupation, Palestinians have a right to rebel. This was recognised in the Geneva Convention of 1949.
[Australia] joins the United States in calling Hamas a terrorist organisation when the real terrorists in Gaza are ministers in the Israeli government and leaders of the IDF. “Terrorist” is a grossly misused word. It suits lazy journalists.
“Terrorists” often become freedom fighters and heroes. Nelson Mandela, jailed for 27 years, was on the U.S. terrorist list for 10 years.
Marwan Barghouti has been in an Israeli jail for 23 years for “terrorism.” But he has consistently topped opinion polls which asked Palestinians whom they would vote for in a presidential election, ahead of both current President Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Hamas. Barghouti is unknown to [Australian] media.
Israel has no right of self-defence against resistance in lands that are illegally occupied. Israel cannot both illegally occupy Palestinian lands and then launch an attack on the people in those lands by citing “self-defence.”
If Australia had been occupied by Japan in World War II, would anyone seriously suggest that Australians would not have the right to resist Japanese occupation? Many would argue that we would have had a duty to resist.
Weaponisation of Anti-Semitism
Israel is an occupying, apartheid and genocidal state on Palestinian lands. Israel has no right of self-defence against resistance in lands that are illegally occupied.
[The Australian] government piously points fingers at many countries for human rights abuses, but says little about the egregious human rights abuses by Israel.
The weaponisation of antisemitism is designed to shut down free speech and intimidate those who call for justice for Palestinians.
Our legacy media has manufactured consent for genocide.
The lives of Palestinians killed in the Gaza holocaust are as valuable as the lives lost by Jews in the European Holocaust.
The heroism of the Palestinian people is breathtaking, but the so-called civilised West, including Australia, is turning its back.
The tree of Western civilisation is bearing very rotten fruit.
“Never again” is not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity.
John Menadue is the publisher, founder and editor-in-chief of the Australian public policy journal Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australian ambassador to Japan, secretary of immigration and CEO of Qantas. Read more about John Menadue here.
Republished with permission from Pearls & Irritations.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
As an American Christian man of second generation European descent (German, Polish, Dutch & English) born during the depths of the Second World War, I have been forced to learn more about my ancestry than I would otherwise have done. Without question, the single most important fact having come to light during my studies is, other than having stolen the name, 1948 “Israel” is not in any way, shape or form related to Biblical Israel… Israelis are NOT Israelites! Please, note the spelling of the two words and learn the difference.
Knowing who the bulk of Israelis racially are (predominantly Kharzar & Turk-o-Mongolian), allows for an understanding of why the rightful occupants of Palestine and surrounding Arabs reject the Israeli invasion.
Additionally, our American media and political system has been overtaken and controlled by that same racial group, their having made the word “Jew” sacrosanct. Deception is a powerful tool.
Thank you for this honest article. I am appalled that there is so little on the news about this horrific genocide. I am sick that my country is supplying the weapons for this horror to continue!
Among the serious casualties stemming from the rise of Zionist fascism in Israel are the “official” narratives associated with the Second World War and questions are now reasonably being asked by at least a few as to its real causes, and as to the identity of its real villains, and as to why questioning the foregoing is, in many instances, not only anathema but illegal. Historical research is only illegal when the official narrative is false and Israel’s conduct, not just recently but for over three quarters of a century, makes it clear that the official narrative concerning much of the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not just the present, is at best incomplete but probably utterly distorted; that initiating analysis in 1933 with respect to what eventually exploded into World War II is as inaccurate as analyzing the genocide taking place in Palestine since October 8, 2023 as having started on that date rather than concurrently with the evolution of Zionism in the late nineteenth century; and, that failing to see the relationship between the two world wars of the twentieth century and both Zionism and European colonialism makes truth impossible to discern. But then again, history has rarely if ever been about finding truth but rather, about justifying the unjustifiable.
I wish i’d said all that Snr. Mahé.
The Ashkenazi Jews originate in West Russia/East Europe – they never were SEMITES…and as such, they have NO rights in Palestine.
Thank you, John. Beautifully written. And, it is about time.
I’m an Australian now retired in France and I recommend “Pearls and Irritations” to all as an antidote to legacy media.
It is understandable that most people who criticise Zionists and Israeli policies and actions do so not because the perpetrators are Jews but because they are liars thieves and murderers.
A suitably righteous, much needed reality check from John Menadue on the rogue state that Ilan Pappe calls “fantasy Israel”.
It’s also a damning indictment upon all those who still continue to unthinkingly chant the tedious mantra ‘[Israel] has the right to defend itself’. This includes as he’s noted the vast majority of Aussie politicos.
On a slightly different note, it’s been mooted by any number of observers over the years that Israel is on borrowed time, and that eventually the world will awaken to its illegitimacy and its inherently criminal nature, and thereafter respond in kind.
However, try as I might, I’ve not seen a lot of evidence of that. Until now. Which is to say I’m starting to feel the tide may actually be turning. If not with the bought and paid for political castes in the West, then at a more grassroots level.
It’s further encouraging that more and more ‘right thinking’ Jews themselves appear to be stepping up and speaking out; though some might argue it’s too little too late, I say better late than never.
I noted when I first began writing about Israel several years back that such a shift of conscience in the broader Jewish community was not only a necessary precursor for change, but that it could signal the beginning of the end of Israel as we know it today, if not in fact that of the overarching Zionist project.
The enormous tragedy though that so many innocent lives have been lost or shattered will still remain, the legacy of which I believe will haunt Jewish people for a long time to come. At least it will for those Jews of conscience who embrace some measure of genuine remorse for what those whom they allowed to act and speak on their behalf perpetrated.
As for those who don’t willingly embrace such remorse, I expect there’ll be no shortage of others around to remind them. —/—??
ARTICLE: From the Yeast of the Pharisees (Come the Lies & Crimes of Zionism)
Part 6??: The Untouchable Tribe of Trial and Tribulation.
This is the sixth instalment of an ongoing series of stand-alone articles focusing on Zionism, the creation of Israel, and Israel’s relationship with the US and the West in general as the central theme.
I draw upon the work of both Jewish and non-Jewish authors, writers, researchers, journalists, activists and historians to present a critical, wide-ranging analysis of various facets of the mythos and the reality of Israel, its history, its origins, and the ideology that birthed it.
Thank you (from Utah, USA) for speaking out on this defining issue for our time. Solidarity across the planet!
The point is that in all countries the polls show how those who support Israel are quite rapidly decreasing while the dissaproval of Israel is rising, and these tendencies will keep increasing. In the Global South the empathy for the Palestineans is embedded in their own colonial experience. In the Western world (including Australia) politicans who support Zionism will be routinely laughed at or booed. The tendency is so clear.
So much truth and few will see it or read it. I am to a point that zi now believe only the destruction of IT will stop this evil. No one except a censor may read this but it feels wonderful to write it and fantasize about it.
I know those fantasies too. And i believe it will come to pass eventually.