“Lies, damned lies and statistics” in Gaza
January 17, 2024 | Oved Lobel
Details will not stop anti-Israel activists and officials from building a facile narrative around unreliable casualty numbers and accusing Israel of “genocide”. But for those genuinely interested in how the war against Hamas compares t … similar operations, the figures available strongly suggest that it is neither especially deadly nor especially destructive.
Australia needs to join the US and UK in sanctioning Hamas and Iran
January 12, 2024 | Oved Lobel
Australia has not sanctioned Iran for its material support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since March 20 despite the drastically increasing levels of this support. Its most recent sanctions against Iran, for any reason, were imposed three months ago.
Propaganda and “Fake Journalists” in Gaza
January 10, 2024 | Justin Amler
When two Al Jazeera journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza this past Sunday, the predictable response from some was that Israel must be deliberately targeting journalists.
Hamas is the cause, not the effect, of Israeli policies
December 22, 2023 | Oved Lobel
Hamas is the cause, not the effect, of the policies they decry, and October 7 has no relation to settlements in the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza or any other Israeli policy. To deny this is to deny history and ignore Hamas’ description of itself and its ideology and motives.
UN embraces Iranian human rights abusers at refugee forum
December 15, 2023 | Alana Schetzer
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was set to attend the United Nations Global Refugee Forum, held in Geneva, Switzerland, on December 13… However, just hours before his plane was meant to land in Geneva, Raisi announced he had cancelled.
Article 51 and Israel’s inherent right to self-defence
December 12, 2023 | Oved Lobel
In a public address in Canberra on Nov. 14, Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, made the argument that Israel “cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from the territory it occupies – from a territory that is kept under belligerent occupation.” It is in the public interest to examine whether this sweeping assertion actually has a basis in settled international law.
“I went through hell”: What the released hostages say about their captivity
December 8, 2023 | Alana Schetzer, Aviva Winton
Returning hostages were forced to smile, shake hands with their captors and thank them publicly as part of Hamas’ propaganda. However, in one video a Hamas fighter is seen ordering captives to keep waving – and there are also reports that hostages were given tranquilisers prior to their release to make them appear happy.
News reports whitewash the crimes of Palestinian prisoners being released
November 29, 2023 | Ahron Shapiro
Some news reports have drawn an apparent moral equivalence between the completely innocent Israeli hostages and the Palestinian prisoners, including by whitewashing or downplaying the severity of the terror-related crimes many of the prisoners were found guilty of.
The silence about Hamas’ ongoing war crimes
November 29, 2023 | Oved Lobel
One either cares about the principle of IHL adherence or one doesn’t. Anyone who is unable or unwilling to mention Hamas’ countless and ongoing violations of IHL at the same time as they express concern, well-founded or not, about Israel’s conduct clearly belongs in the latter category.
The Big Lie: “Genocide” in Gaza
November 23, 2023 | Oved Lobel
The fundamentally unserious, grotesque and yet pervasive claim by Palestinians and their supporters that Israel is committing “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza should not really be dignified with a direct response. Yet it is once again necessary to emphasise that these words have specific meanings that have very little relation to how they are currently being used.
