A real friend to Israel would stand up for Palestinian rights

In these respects he could expect Australian support. In a meeting with the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, Julie Bishop confirmed Australia’s commitment to taking a pro-Israeli stance in international forums where, in Bishop’s words, ‘obviously biased, discriminatory and unfair resolutions are put forward.’

In December 2016, one of the supposedly biased UN Resolutions, 2334, was passed in the UN Security Council by a vote of 14-0 with the US abstaining. It condemned Israeli settlements as being in flagrant violation of international law. Prime Minister Turnbull said this was ‘one sided’ and that the Australian government would have voted against it.

The Australian and Israeli governments have much in common. Each seems determined to not care much for international law and to care even less about the suffering of Palestinians.

In an effort to appease the settlers evicted from the Amona outpost, and in so doing appear as nationalistic as the education minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the settler party Jewish Home, Netanyahu has just steered a Legalization Bill through the Israeli parliament. That prospective new law allows for the retroactive legalization of settler outposts and allows settlers to seize more Palestinian lands.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit opposes the Bill. So does a former Minister from the Likud Party, Dan Meridor who called the law ‘evil and dangerous’. Is the Australian Foreign Minister aware of such a judgement ?

On February 7^th, Nazareth based journalist Jonathan Cook wrote that this legislation ‘increases the pressure on prosecutors in the ICC to put Israeli officials – even Mr. Netanyahu – on trial for complicity in the war crime of establishing and nurturing the settlements.’ 

Secrecy over the details of the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit suggests that, in official circles, Julie Bishop’s claim that Mr. Netanyahu would be warmly embraced by the Australian public, is not widely shared.

If Mr. Netanyahu comes, the Australian government will also be on trial. Will the Prime Minister insist on an end to the siege of Gaza? Will the Foreign Minister advocate an end to the occupation of Palestinian lands?  Will each ask why anyone is held without charge in administrative detention and why hundreds of Palestinian children are in Israeli jails?

Will both politicians express their respect for the human rights of all Palestinians, including the estimated 1.5 million still stranded in wretched conditions in refugee camps?

Asking those questions and making those demands would be the most convincing way to demonstrate Australia’s ‘absolute and enduring commitment to the State of Israel.’