GENOCIDE IS THE CRIME

 

Genocide might be Israel's policy but, apparently, opposing it is a crime. 

LAST MONTH a retired 83-year-old Anglican minister was arrested, along with twenty-nine others, because she was, allegedly, supporting 'terrorism'. Her crime? Merely sitting on a garden chair and holding up a sign in support of  protest group Palestine Action. It has been proscribed as a terrorist group by the British home secretary, Yvette Cooper.

Irish novelist Ronan Bennett, himself a victim of repressive terrorist legislation during the Irish Troubles, wasted no time to attack British Prime Minister Keir Starmer: 'Starmer can see red paint sprayed on warplanes and government buildings, but apparently not the blood gushing from tens of thousands of Palestinians.'

Just this past weekend, an elderly man was arrested in London for holding up a sign in support of Palestine Action. The sign read: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.'

US journalist Abby Martin has often been attacked by the US establishment because of her opposition to Israel's genocidal war. But she says that 'Every time I think America can’t stoop any lower, I look at what Europe is doing. Genocide is the policy, opposing it is the crime.'

In theory, former UK Labour MP Zarah Sultana could be arrested for publicly supporting Palestine Action. In a fiery parliamentary speech, she denounced the criminalisation of the activist group. Palestine Action's only 'crime', she said, was to expose 'the blood-soaked ties between this government and the genocidal Israeli apartheid state.' Sultana is on track to form a new left wing party with former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Over 100,000 people have already signed up.

Last week, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on United Nations expert Francesca Albanese over her documentation of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians during its war on Gaza. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Albanese of waging a 'campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel'.

Putting aside the absurdity of Rubio's claim that one person could single-handedly wage war against the United States and Israel, the sanctioning of Albanese is part of a sustained wave of repression against the pro-Palestine movement. This has ranged from detentions and deportation proceedings in the United States, to vicious policing of protests in Germany, to the criminalisation of pro-Palestine groups in Britain.

Abby Martin with Francesca Albanese

In Australia and New Zealand, the attack on opponents of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza is being conducted as a campaign against 'anti-semitism'.

In Australia, the Government's so-called 'Anti-semitism envoy' Jill Segal has called for a sweeping number of new policies, including the cancellation of funding to universities that tolerate 'anti-Jewish sentiment' and the screening of migrants for 'anti-semitic views'. She even wants the media monitored for 'anti-semitic views'.

What has largely gone unreported in the mainstream media is that Segal is a Zionist. She is attempting to define opposition to Israel's brutal war on the Palestinian people as 'anti-semitism'. 

Segal and her husband are one of the biggest financial backers of 'Advance', a far-right group. Australian journalist Anthony Klan writes:

'The far-right Advance aggressively spreads online disinformation and clinically disseminates hateful — often AI generated — material to its hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, including over 140,000 on Facebook alone.

'It has suggested immigrants in detention are “rapists, paedophiles and murderers”; claims the Indigenous Welcome to Country is part of a secretive plan by “elites” to “delegitimise Australia’s history”; and spread division ahead of Anzac Day, where the Indigenous Welcome to Country was booed.'

The anti-Zionist Jewish Council of Australia says that Segal's recommendations 'read more like a blueprint for silencing dissent rather than a strategy to build inclusion.'

Jewish Council of Australia executive officer Max Kaiser said in a statement said that 'Consistent with her past statements erroneously linking anti-semitic attacks with Palestine solidarity protests, Segal seems fixated on driving a pro-Israel narrative and repressing legitimate criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.'

The Zionist controlled New Zealand Jewish Council and Holocaust Centre of New Zealand have long tried to smear the pro-Palestine movement as 'anti-semitic.'  It comes as no surprise that it has welcomed Segal's report and wants to see similar measures introduced in New Zealand as well.

Ben Kupes, a spokesperson for the New Zealand Jewish Council, has tried to link the pro-Palestine movement with 'explicitly or tacitly endorsing violence or discrimination against Jews.' It's a false claim, but one that the Zionist lobby continues to make in its failing attempt to marginalise the pro-Palestine movement.  

While the New Zealand Jewish Council might claim to be concerned about hate speech directed against Jewish folk, it continues to defend the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children by the Israeli military. Ben Kupes lacks the moral depth to admit this is genocide, merely describing it as Israel's 'conduct of the war'. In one brief statement, he sweeps aside the atrocities and war crimes that Israel has committed. 

But there can be no denying the atrocities that Israel is committing in Gaza. It is denying the continuing genocide that should be made the crimininal offence. Indeed, that is why six New Zealanders, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, have been referred to the International Criminal Court.