Navi Pillay. Don’t be complicit in genocide Australia, warns former UN judge

Former Chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Australia risks complicity in genocide if we fail to act on Israel’s Gaza offensive, judge Navi Pillay has warned. Stephanie Tran reports.

Speaking at the National Press Club, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reiterated his call for the Australian government to uphold its obligations under international law in light of the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza met the threshold. genocide under international law.

‘We are all witnesses of the massacre’

Pillay emphasized that every government, including the Australian government, witnessed the livestreamed atrocities in Gaza in real time and that they could not claim they “didn’t know” what was going on.

“We are all real-time witnesses to the massacre unfolding on our television screens… 65,000 Palestinian civilians [have been] They were killed, including women and children, and it was all shown live on our televisions, so no one can say we don’t know what happened. No Australian MP can say we don’t know what happened. This was the defense put forward by the Nazis. …That’s what some white South Africans said.”

The experienced jurist who presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said the Commission’s findings were based on verified evidence collected over the past two years. Pillay said the panel applied the legal test set by the International Court of Justice in determining whether Israel had genocidal intent, and that genocidal intent was “the only reasonable inference” from the facts.

“We complied with UN rules and met the genocidal intent test… That is probably the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the actions.”

Commission in September concluded It noted that the “only reasonable inference” from Israel’s behavior was genocidal intent, that the military used heavy munitions in densely populated areas, systematically destroyed cultural and religious sites, and repeatedly defied decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering interim measures.

The report also stated that Israeli authorities committed four of the five acts of genocide defined in the Genocide Convention, namely killing, inflicting serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately disrupting the living conditions of Palestinians calculated to destroy all or part of them, and taking measures to prevent births.

Australia’s obligations under the Geneva Convention

Pillay criticized Australia’s muted response to the Commission’s finding that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

“Under the Genocide Convention, every state has a legal obligation…to prevent the commission of genocide, to deal with the commission of genocide, and to protect against genocide.”

He called on the Australian government to define and publicize its policy on genocide prevention, warning that the government’s continued ties to organizations complicit in genocide could leave the issue open to prosecution.

“Be careful what you do,” Pillay said.

“One day you may face charges of complicity in genocide.”

His comments come amid growing pressure on the Albanian government over defense ties with Israel through Australia’s F-35 program and contracts with Israeli arms manufacturers.

UN Commission warned the world: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza