Sydney University academics pursued for speaking out against Gaza atrocities - Michael West
michaelwest.com.au
Free speech under attack, with two Sydney University academics reported for 'racial vilification' for speaking out against Gaza atrocities.

A few Zionist colleagues of mine at the University of Sydney are currently trying to take me and fellow staff member John Keane to the Human Rights Commission for racial vilification, because we have dared to oppose this genocide. It’s classic ‘lawfare’, and it’s based on the baseless and absurd argument that when we say ‘Zionists’, we actually – so they tell us – mean ‘Jews’. We are, they claim, toxic antisemites.

If that’s what they thought, they could have come to my office at the university to talk about it. I would have bought them coffee, and made it clear just how far from the truth this is. Instead, they went direct to the Human Rights Commission, making a complaint that miraculously turned up on the front page of The Australian before it had even been acknowledged by the AHRC itself.

      • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
        417·
        1 month ago

        Just checking the experts

        The German government insists that there’s no genocide taking place in Gaza.

        👍

        Hamas is free to fight the IDF on the battlefield or give up hostages and surrender, it has chosen neither

        Last I saw they were being kicked out of Qatar after not seriously coming to the table for a cease fire

        It’s the only genocide in the world where the elected representatives of a people care less about them than the genociders apparently!

        • Joshi@aussie.zone
          191·
          1 month ago

          I am answering here assuming you are commenting on good faith. Please give me the same courtesy.

          The fact is that the Israeli government chose to respond to actions of a few dozen people by occupying a nation and routinely killing masses of civilians including the bombing of hospitals and schools.

          The initial attacks were abhorrent and arguably justified a strong response against the perpetrators, it is difficult for many of us to understand how you can justify punishing an entire nation for the actions of a few dozen people, it is this that draws claims of genocide

          The civilian death toll in Gaza is now estimated at more than 180,000. Any argument that this is a proportionate and appropriate response must be either ignorant or in bad faith.

          I am happy to respond if you disagree or want to challenge my response here.

          • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
            38·
            1 month ago

            The fact is that the Israeli government chose to respond to actions of a few dozen people

            You know the hamas charter explicitly outlines their desire to wipe israel off the map, from the river to the sea? remember? and they were elected by the Palestinian people who btw still poll numbers for Hamas that the greens dream of getting

            You quote “a few dozen people”, it’s clear where your thought process lies and i’m not sure we’re living in the same reality, especially after witnessing the actions of “a few dozen” taliban for the last 20 years

            i’m not discussing this further, i don’t have enough interest in this

            • Joshi@aussie.zone
              141·
              1 month ago

              Certainly there is a justification for a strong response against Hamas. What you need to grapple with is that the response has been against the entire Palestinian population and has caused an enormous death toll of civilian non-combatants.

              If I may take your example of the Taliban, a clearly reprehensible organisation. It would not be appropriate for opponents of the Taliban to indiscriminately attack the civilian population of Afghanistan in much the same way that it is not appropriate for the IDF to target the civilian population of Palestine using the crimes of Hamas as justification. Indeed during the Afghanistan war the US and allies took precautions to target fighters and minimise civilian deaths and were rightly criticised when they failed.

              Over 10 years of the War in Afghanistan the civilian death toll in Afghanistan was most years less than 4000, in Palestine the civilian death toll is 40 times that in 1 year.

              There is no double standard here, no one is saying Israel shouldn’t have responded in a proportionate way to the initial Hamas attacks but what Israel is doing is targeting the civilian population in response to the (admittedly reprehensible) actions of, yes, a few dozen people.

              I am genuinely interested in hearing your response here, please don’t take this as a personal attack but I hope you understand my perspective here.

          • Seagoon_@aussie.zone
            410·
            1 month ago

            The fact is that the Israeli government chose to respond to actions of a few dozen people by occupying a nation and routinely killing masses of civilians including the bombing of hospitals and schools.

            LIAR

            The attacks began early on 7 October with a barrage of at least 4,300 rockets launched into Israel[31][32][33] and vehicle-transported and powered paraglider incursions into Israel.[34][35] Hamas fighters breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in 21 communities, including Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Netiv Haasara, and Alumim. According to an IDF report that revised the estimate on the number of attackers 6,000 Gazans breached the border in 119 locations into Israel, including 3,800 from the “elite Nukhba forces” and 2,200 civilians and other militants.

            Hamas attack comprised six thousands of terrorists, many of whom live streamed the joy and pride they took in raping, torturing and murdering

            and Hamas in Gaza comprised many tens of thousands of terrorists

            • Drop Bear@theblower.au
              111·
              1 month ago

              Meanwhile, back in the real world @Seagoon_
              https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-21/icc-issues-arrest-warrant-for-benjamin-netanyahu/104633044

              The fact is that the vast majority of death, destruction and terror in the region have been inflicted by Israel and its Zionist progenitors. Zionists were the original middle-east terrorists and remain the most depraved.
              @Joshi

              #Zionism
              #Palestine
              #Israel
              #genocide
              #WarCrimes
              #CrimesAgainstHumanity
              #terrorism

            • Joshi@aussie.zone
              101·
              1 month ago

              Again. I am answering in good faith assuming you will do the same.

              I am perfectly willing to concede that I may have understated the size of the initial attacks and for the sake of argument I will concede your claim that there are 10s of thousands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

              The issue at stake here is that at least 180,000 civilians have been killed to say nothing of the injuries and other traumas. The IDF has deliberately targeted civilian populations who had nothing to do with the attacks.

              Again, I may not be opposed to a proportionate response but to killing hundreds of thousands in response to what you claim was a crime of 6000 people is not proportionate, it is brutal and unnecessary and likely to be counterproductive to any hopes of reducing violence from either side in the future.

              Do you have a position on this specially? Do you deny the death toll, or do you assume that all 180,000 killed were terrorists?

              I am genuinely interested in your response.

        • NaevaTheRat [she/her]@vegantheoryclub.orgEnglish
          152·
          1 month ago

          It is impossible to interpret this in good faith. The German government has obvious conflicts and should not be considered representative of international law. It’s as arbitrary as saying “Iran says the IDF eats babies”.

          The UN: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide

          The ICJ: https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192

          This instance is a joke. It’s apparently worse to insult someone like the above poster than to cover for an occupied people being systematically exterminated. Civility politics is a brain disease, it is substance not style that matters.

            • Walk_blesseD@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
              61·
              1 month ago

              Alrighty there champ, are you sure you really wanna do the whole “they don’t have enough ovens” bit? Jfc, it’s blatantly obvious that Benny from Cheltenham’s plan is to forcibly remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and parts of the West Bank to continue pursuing the Israeli state’s settler colonialist aims. Y’know, genocide.

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
      1·
      23 days ago

      “Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse. There is no room for you to pitch a tent; you have to set it up near the coast… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here.”

      • Mohammed, a 42-year-old father of three, speaking in June 2024 about his experience of displacement from Rafah to Deir al-Balah governorate

      Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza

      Israel's Genocide on Occupied Palestine

      On 26 January 2024, the ICJ said that it was plausible that Israel had breached the Genocide Convention. As an emergency measure, it ordered Israel ensure that its army refrained from genocidal acts against Palestinians.

      The ICJ reported, as part of its decisions in March and May, that the situation in Gaza had deteriorated and that Israel had failed to abide by its order in January.

      So, when we look at the actions taken, the dropping of thousands and thousands of bombs in a couple of days, including phosphorus bombs, as we heard, on one of the most densely populated areas around the world, together with these proclamations of intent, this indeed constitutes genocidal killing, which is the first act, according to the convention, of genocide. And Israel, I must say, is also perpetrating act number two and three — that is, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and creating condition designed to bring about the destruction of the group by cutting off water, food, supply of energy, bombing hospitals, ordering the fast evictions of hospitals, which the World Health Organization has declared to be, quote, “a death sentence.” So, we’re seeing the combination of genocidal acts with special intent. This is indeed a textbook case of genocide.

      More than 800 scholars of international law and genocide have signed a public statement arguing that the Israeli military may be committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as the total siege and relentless airstrikes continue to inflict devastation on the occupied territory.

      An independent United Nations expert warned Monday that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions keep up their support for the Israeli military, which stands accused of grave war crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

      Our documentation encompasses over 500 incitements of violence and genocidal incitement, appearing in the forms of social media posts, television interviews, and official statements from Israeli politicians, army personnel, journalists, and other influential personalities.

      Others: AP News, Time, Reuters, Vox, CBC

      Deliberate Attacks on Civilians

      Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so:

      Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.

      • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
        12·
        29 days ago

        it’s the easiest genocide to prevent, tell hamas to come out and fight on the battlefield and stop hiding behind women and children and in schools and hospitals

        • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
          1·
          29 days ago

          Urban warfare is central to anti-Colonialist resistance, just look at the Vietcong. You’re just justifying genocide.

          Hamas proposed a full prisoner swap as early as Oct 8th, and agreed to the US proposed UN Permanent Ceasefire Resolution. Additionally, Hamas has already agreed to no longer govern the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinians receive liberation and a unified government can take place.

          This isnt about the hostages, this is Israel engaging in Genocide to eradicate and forcibly displace the Palestinian people. Gaza has never stopped being under Israeli occupation since 1967. Hamas only exists because of the Apartheid Occupation of Israel and the daily violence that has subjected Palestinians to for generations. Israel has always been the obstacle for peace, and has been the one preventing a ceasefire.

          De-development via the Gaza Occupation

          Between July 1971 and February 1972, Sharon enjoyed considerable success. During this time, the entire Strip (apart from the Rafah area) was sealed off by a ring of security fences 53 miles in length, with few entrypoints. Today, their effects live on: there are only three points of entry to Gaza—Erez, Nahal Oz, and Rafah.

          Perhaps the most dramatic and painful aspect of Sharon’s campaign was the widening of roads in the refugee camps to facilitate military access. Israel built nearly 200 miles of security roads and destroyed thousands of refugee dwellings as part of the widening process.’ In August 1971, for example, the Israeli army destroyed 7,729 rooms (approximately 2,000 houses) in three vola- tile camps, displacing 15,855 refugees: 7,217 from Jabalya, 4,836 from Shati, and 3,802 from Rafah.

          • Page 105

          Through 1993 Israel imposed a one-way system of tariffs and duties on the importation of goods through its borders; leaving Israel for Gaza, however, no tariffs or other regulations applied. Thus, for Israeli exports to Gaza, the Strip was treated as part of Israel; but for Gazan exports to Israel, the Strip was treated as a foreign entity subject to various “non-tariff barriers.” This placed Israel at a distinct advantage for trading and limited Gaza’s access to Israeli and foreign markets. Gazans had no recourse against such policies, being totally unable to protect themselves with tariffs or exchange rate controls. Thus, they had to pay more for highly protected Israeli products than they would if they had some control over their own economy. Such policies deprived the occupied territories of significant customs revenue, estimated at $118-$176 million in 1986.

          • page 240

          In a report released in May 2015, the World Bank revealed that as a result of Israel’s blockade and OPE, Gaza’s manufacturing sector shrank by as much as 60% over eight years while real per capita income is 31 percent lower than it was 20 years ago. The report also stated that the blockade alone is responsible for a 50% decrease in Gaza’s GDP since 2007. Furthermore, OPE (combined with the tunnel closure) exacerbated an already grave situation by reducing Gaza’s economy by an additional $460 million.

          • Page 402

          • The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development - Third Edition by Sara M. Roy

          Blockade, including Aid

          Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid.

          After the ‘disengagement’ in 2007, this turned into a full blockade; where Israel has had control over the airspace, borders, and sea. Under the guise of ‘dual-use’ Israel has restricted food, allocating a minimum supply leading to over half of Gaza being food insecure; construction materials, medical supplies, and other basic necessities have also been restricted.

          The blockade and Israel’s repeated military offensives have had a heavy toll on Gaza’s essential infrastructure and further debilitated its health system and economy, leaving the area in a state of perpetual humanitarian crisis. Indeed, Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, the majority of whom are children, has created conditions inimical to human life due to shortages of housing, potable water and electricity, and lack of access to essential medicines and medical care, food, educational equipment and building materials.

          Peace Process and Solution

          Both Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a Two-State solution based on the 1967 borders for decades. Oslo and Camp David were used by Israel to continue settlements in the West Bank and maintain an Apartheid, while preventing any actual Two-State solution

          How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution

          ‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe

          One State Solution, Foreign Affairs

          Human Shields

          Hamas:

          Intentionally utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain areas immune from military attack is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International was not able to establish whether or not the fighters’ presence in the camps was intended to shield themselves from military attacks. However, under international humanitarian law, even if one party uses “human shields”, or is otherwise unlawfully endangering civilians, this does not absolve the opposing party from complying with its obligations to distinguish between military objectives and civilians or civilian objects, to refrain from carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects.

          Israel:

          Additionally, there is extensive independent verification of Israel using Palestinians as Human Shields:

          Deliberate Attacks on Civilians

          Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so:

          Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.