The defence of self-defence
Sep 14, 2024
As Israel’s genocidal rampage in Gaza continues unabated after 11 months, the Labor Government recites ad infinitum its talking point, borrowed from the Biden/Harris playbook, that Israel has the right to defend itself, thereby legitimising its carpet-bombing and indiscriminate mass killing of Palestinian civilians. Treating the atrocities of 7 October as an isolated event that came out of the blue buttresses the self-defence line, de-contextualising it from decades of brutal subjugation of Palestinians, which have fuelled their resistance against the settler-colonial apartheid state.
It defies logic that the self-defence trope is still being used to characterise Israel’s live streamed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions. However, support for Israel is axiomatic in the Labor Government as demonstrated by its recent appointment of Jillian Segal, an apologist for Israel, as Special Envoy to combat Antisemitism and promote “social cohesion”. Among other statements, Segal has supported the IDF’s bombing of hospitals, and declared — contrary to the recent authoritative finding of the International Court of Justice — that labelling Palestinian territory as “occupied” is inaccurate as it denies Jewish claims to the West Bank and Jerusalem. She has claimed that the Jewish community in Australia is engaged in a local war to defend Israel from disinformation and slander.
As Jewish philosopher and theorist Judith Butler has observed, accepting the Israeli narrative that Jews are always persecuted, and never persecutors, licenses a limitless recourse to aggression in the name of “self-defence”. Invoking the traumatic significance of the Holocaust, the descendants of victims of genocide conduct a genocidal campaign on another population and the world calls it self-defence.
Despite decades of dispossession, displacement, illegal occupation and immiseration of Palestinians, all of which have been condemned in numerous UN resolutions and reports of human rights organisations, any resistance by Palestinians is denounced as terrorism. They have no right to defend themselves from a belligerent illegal occupier and to seek justice, liberation and self-determination. Yet unless the root causes of their anti-colonial resistance are addressed, Palestinians will continue to oppose the illegal occupier as is their legal right, provided it is done within the parameters of international law.
A deep-seated culture of denial has Western governments adopting Israeli propaganda that it is defending itself, along with democratic values, even as it flagrantly violates international law with impunity.
By way of invidious comparison, consider the government’s respective responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus rightly called the invasion of Ukraine illegal and immoral, and accused Russia of committing egregious violations of international law. Announcing Australia’s intervention in support of Ukraine’s case against Russia in the ICJ, Dreyfus stated, “Our intervention before the International Court of Justice demonstrates Australia’s unwavering commitment to upholding fundamental rules of international law and the integrity of the Genocide Convention.” Dreyfus should have added an exclusion clause to the effect that Australia’s unwavering commitment to upholding international law does not apply to our ally Israel, which has violated all the provisional measures ordered by the court.
Explaining the government’s decision not to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said instead of intervening, Australia would focus on a political solution. Making a mockery of the government’s professed unwavering commitment to upholding international law, Albanese stated, “That’s the main game – not any court case”.
In the eyes of our government, Palestinians are not worthy of equal protection under the law.
The government has sold out Palestinians for domestic political reasons and in the interests of wagging the tail of its ally, the US, Israel’s principal protector and supplier of weaponry. It has failed to condemn Israel’s wilful starvation and slaughter and maiming of Palestinians en masse, and deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction by rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Instead, the government condemns protesters calling for justice for Palestinians and an end to the carnage. Hiding behind its mantra of “social cohesion”, the government criticises opponents of Israel’s genocidal actions for making Jews feel “unsafe”. False accusations of antisemitism are deployed to silence criticism of the ethno-nationalist, apartheid state’s systemic racism and disregard for international law.
It beggars belief that most Western governments continue to grant Israel impunity and diplomatic and moral cover even as it commits some of the worst crimes of this century. Their failure to confront what Israel is inflicting on Gaza will be accepted in time to come for what it plainly is – a deeply shameful episode in history.
What will it take for our government to stop parroting the ludicrous assertion that Israel’s genocidal erasure of Gaza and its people constitutes self-defence? When will our government fulfil its obligations under the Genocide Convention, and take meaningful, concrete measures to prevent further Palestinian deaths and ensure Israel’s accountability for its grotesque violations of international law?
Angela Smith
Angela Smith is a former lawyer with broad legal experience including in refugee law and the university sector. Her writing has been published widely and can be found in such places as The Guardian (online), Griffith Review, Meanjin, New Philosopher and Overland.
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