In 2025, the crisis in Palestine brought international law to a breaking point. Australia’s response, marked by caution and inaction, raises hard questions about responsibility, principle and moral leadership.

The editor invited me to consider an article addressing the year in review. The obvious major issues are, of course, Palestine, Ukraine and alleged Russian imperialism, and the American government. As for this last, it embraces issues such as American domination and control of countries within the Western Hemisphere, Columbia, Venezuela, etc., as well as AUKUS, and where Australia should place the US in its spectrum of allies.

There are of course other events and issues that should be noted – the Sinophobia that is being thrust upon Australians, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

To me, Palestine is the most significant. Whilst the genocide in Gaza has received, rightly, the principal attention, it is clear that the West Bank is increasingly being occupied by settlers eager to eliminate every Palestinian that is there. It is now apparent that Israel is rapidly heading towards the annexation of the West Bank and such action will garner equal attention to that of Gaza.

The Palestinian issue necessarily embraces such matters as Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, alleged anti-Semitism in Australia, the failure of journalism and the media industry to properly present the conduct of Israel, and the failure of international law to meet the challenge that is confronting it, particularly such challenges as the sanctioning by US governments of judges of the ICJ or ICC. The ICC has in recent weeks been the subject of specific demands that it undertakes not to investigate or prosecute Donald Trump or members of his administration particularly after that administration ends in 2029.

Palestine has brought international law to a crossroads. The new international legal order that was fashioned following World War II can be summarised as: the prohibition of the use of force in international affairs, prohibition of territorial conquest, self-determination of peoples, and sovereign equality of states. Such a legal order has been shredded by what has happened to the Palestinian people over eight decades and now brought to a head by Gaza in 2023-2025. The international legal order is clearly at a critical breaking point.

That is not to say that international law has totally failed. The ICJ has made strong contributions on both genocide, when it granted South Africa’s request for provisional measures concerning genocidal violence, and also on illegal occupation with its advisory opinion of July 19, 2024.

Of course, Australia’s recognition of Palestine as a State must be acknowledged. One would have thought that by so doing, Australia would have committed itself to seeing a Palestinian state established and made effective. One would have thought that when Israel announces, as occurred in early December, that Israel intends to annex the West Bank and Gaza, that Australia would respond with an oral statement rejecting such conduct and indicating the substantive action Australia would take. But of course, Australia has not done that. The Labor Government’s inaction has been perhaps best described by Jaron Saffon, in his Pearls and Irritations piece _The politics of forgetting: Australia, Gaza and moral silence_.

One high point this last year was the delivery of the Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Adelaide by international journalist Chris Hedges. That high point was of course subsequently devalued when Hedges’ planned appearance at the National Press Club was cancelled.

What has Australia done?

The answer is simple: next to nothing of any substance. Consider the obligations placed upon it. The ICJ in March 2024 reiterated its decision from the previous January that Israel was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza. Signatories to the UN Genocide Convention, of which Australia is one, are committed to prevent and punish genocide (Article I) and not to be complicit in it (Article III).

Now consider what Australia has done.

In a general sense, standing back a moment, it has, along with its corporate and media functionaries, supported what it has described as “the only democracy in the Middle East”. It speaks of “shared values” and restricts its criticism, anxiously expressing its opposition towards anti-Semitism. Australia continues its participation in the global supply program for the Lockheed-Martin F35 fighter, supplying parts without which the F35 cannot fly and continue to bombard Gaza.

What hasn’t Australia done?

It has not recalled our ambassador from Tel Aviv. It has not expelled Israel’s ambassador from Australia. It has not sanctioned all trade and cultural, sporting, and other ties. These are substantive actions which would underpin – and demonstrate – a commitment to progressing the establishment of a Palestinian State and, ultimately, progress a much-needed peace in the Middle East.