Last week the federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was asked by a journalist about the process for making Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based political and militant group, a proscribed terrorist organisation. As is usually the case for a politician caught out because they dont know the answer, he became aggressive and sought to belittle the journalist.

A pity because there is an obligation on our politicians to ensure the community understands how laws work, particularly those that are as serious as making it a criminal offence to advocate for, or associate in some way with an organisation that is involved in an overseas conflict.

It is equally important however that our laws are applied to sanction human rights abuses, whether they be committed by non-government actors or nations.

This is a point made by Ali Kazak, the seasoned commentator and former Palestinian ambassador to Australia, in Pearls and Irritations. Kazak observes that the labelling of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Arab and Palestinian liberation movements as terrorist organisations by the US, Australia and some Western countries has enabled the Israeli regime to carry out the war of genocide against the Palestinian and Lebanese people and facilitated Israels violation of international law, under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

In December 2021, Australia announced that all of Hezbollah had been added to the countrys list of designated terrorist organisations. Previously, in 2003, Hezbollahs external arm has been added to this list.

The reasoning behind the listing of the entirety of Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code from December 2021, was the Australian Governments assessment that Hezbollah is directly or indirectly engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting in or fostering the doing of terrorist acts.

The proscribing of an organisation is made, as noted above in the context of Hezbollah, under the Commonwealth Criminal Code. Under that law a ’terrorist organisation’ is defined as any organisation that is:

• Directly or indirectly engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting, or fostering the execution of terrorist acts; or
• Listed in official regulations as a terrorist organisation.

The government employs a detailed process for listing such entities, which involves both legislative and non-legislative criteria. While legislative criteria are typically straightforward, non-legislative factors tend to introduce nuance. These include links to Australia, threats to Australian interests, or whether the organisation is listed by the United Nations or other like-minded countries.

The purpose of proscription is that it is, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has observed, pivotal to the criminalisation of activities that provide political and economic support to organisations that use terrorism as a strategy to advance their political, ideological or religious cause. It also plays a role in deterring those sympathetic to the organisations goals from becoming more deeply involved.

However to make a criminal offence the wearing of insignia, or written and oral advocacy, enters dangerous territory in a democracy like Australia where freedom of thought, speech and other forms of expression is a bedrock human right.

This makes it even more important that in a democratic society like Australia, underpinned by the rule of law, there must be consistency in the way the law and legal principles are applied.

Yet when it comes to the way Australia deals with organisations like Hezbollah on the one hand and allies that commit serious breaches of international law on a routine basis such as Israel, the application of the law is starkly different.

In short and to put it in the vernacular, while Hezbollah has been dealt with under Australian law to date Israel is off the hook, despite the latters horrific actions over the past 12 months towards the Palestinian people.

Since October last year when Israel began its genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, in a grossly disproportionate response to horrific killing of 1200 Israelis by Hamas on October 7, there have been a number of significant international legal events of relevance to what Australia should be doing about those in this country who support Israel at the moment, including those 1000 odd Australians said to have fought, or who are fighting with the Israel Defence Force. To be clear we are not suggesting any of those individuals has committed offences against the Criminal Code or other Australian laws. But it is important that we can be assured if there is any evidence suggestive of this, the Australian security and police agencies would investigate the matters.

The legal actions and events concerning Israels Gaza invasion include the International Court of Justice issuing measures on 26 January, and further measures in March and May this year ordering Israel to prevent the commission of all acts within Article II of the Genocide Convention. And on May 20 the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court indicated he would file applications for arrest warrants against three Hamas officials and Israels Prime Minister Netanyahu concerning war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In May this year the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR) reportGenocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israels Military Actions since October 7, 2023, found that after reviewing the facts established by independent human rights monitors, journalists, and United Nations agencies, we conclude that Israels actions in and regarding Gaza since October 7, 2023, violate the Genocide Convention.

The recent actions of Israel in causing the deaths and serious injuries to many in Lebanon by exploding their pagers have been held to be acts of terrorism and murder by UN experts in astatementon September 19.

Despite all of this there is no talk by Canberra of sanctions against Israeli government officials, leaders or military personnel. There is no discussion of the imposition of broader sanctions that would make it an offence for Australians to invest in, export or import products from the illegal settlements Israel has built over many years.

There does not appear to be any policing of Australian companies that are supplying, indirectly, products or services that are being used to manufacture weapons, including dual use products and services, to the IDF.

The Australian governments much boasted about autonomous sanctions regime, supposedly to punish individuals and organisations for serious violations or serious abuses of human rights, has not been mentioned by the Albanese government in relation to Israels genocide and war crimes.

And we hear nothing of any suggestion of investigation into the activities or Australian lobby groups, individuals or other agents who might be seeking to influence Australian policy on Israel. The Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act, passed in 2018, apparently only applies to the Chinese and the Russians.

So yes, media and politicians go ahead and warn people about advocating for, or being linked in any way to Hezbollah because it is a proscribed terrorist organisation.

But when the same media and politicians refuse to even entertain the idea of the Australian government using the considerable number of international and national legal weapons at their disposal to punish the nation that has caused unprecedented misery and inhumanity to the most oppressed people in the world, one can understand that the ideal of the rule of law applying in Australia to all equally appears to be honoured in the breach when it comes to allies like Israel.