Barnaby dismisses genocide claims against Israel, but Senator pressures Labor
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is urging the Albanese government not to back legal action accusing Israel of genocide.
Hearings have begun in The Hague as the International Court of Justice considers South Africa’s genocide case against Israel for its actions in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack.
Mr Joyce said the government shouldn’t support the case brought against Israel, before taking a swipe at South Africa for violence within its borders that amount to “basically a form of genocide”.
“Hamas is not a country, it’s a terrorist organisation and unfortunately, it has instigated a process,” he told Sky News.
“It has to be eradicated, it has to be removed … there is nothing in its DNA that says they were going to be reasonable. So what would you do?”
Mr Joyce said Australians would want immediate action to remove a terrorist threat if a similar attack had been launched against the nation.
“Hamas can take it upon themselves to release the hostages and remove themselves but they choose not to,” he said.
“Because they choose to continue on as a terrorist organisation, then what alternative has Israel got?”
Independent senator David Pocock is calling on Labor to support the ICJ application, pointing to the “extraordinary scale” of human suffering and deaths of children, medical professionals and journalists.
More than 1200 Israelis were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas, according to Tel Aviv officials.
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More than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, and half the territory’s 2.3 million residents are at risk of starvation due to Israel’s military action, according to the local health ministry and the UN.
In a statement, Oxfam said Israel’s military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day, which “massively exceeds” the daily death toll of any other major 21st century conflict.
