Greens leader Adam Bandt accuses Israel of genocide, says Australia is complicit in Oct 7 anniversary statement

The minor party leader used a statement acknowledging the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks to accuse Israel of genocide, and said Australia was complicit.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has marked the first anniversary of October 7 attacks in a statement accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing a “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.

In a statement shared on Monday, the Melbourne MP said Australia was “not just a bystander” and is “complicit in this appalling conflict,” denouncing Labor’s decision to not support UN resolutions on Palestinian statehood, and continuing to engage in two-way arms trades with Israel.

“By refusing to support UN resolutions on Palestinian statehood, refusing to support South Africa’s International Court of Justice case on the genocide in Gaza, refusing to sanction the extremist Netanyahu government, by continuing to import Israeli weapons used on Palestinians and to export weapons parts including for the F35 fighter jet to be used by the Israeli military, Australia is complicit in this appalling conflict,” he said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt used statement acknowledging the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks to say that Australia was “complicit” in the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

While Mr Bandt said the events of October 7 deserved “nothing less than our most full condemnation as a community,” but added the same should apply to the attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“The very same commitment to compassion, honesty, peace and justice required of us in response to those attacks of Hamas requires us as Greens to call out the war crimes and genocide that is being carried out by the State of Israel right now in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories and the bombing and invasion of Lebanon,” he said.

“The extremist Netanyahu government’s campaign of genocide in Gaza has claimed over 40,000 lives, reduced entire communities to rubble and displaced millions of people.”

Marking the first anniversary of the attacks, in which Hamas militants launched a series of attacks against Israel, including the massacre of 364 Israeli civilians at the Nova music festival, Australian political leaders have acknowledged the hurt and sorry suffered by the Jewish community.

On Monday, former prime minister Tony Abbott said he believed too many Australians were on the “wrong side” in Israel’s fight against Hamas and Hezbollah, stating that the “wellbeing of mankind” was being “threatened by a new axis of dictatorships united only by their hatred of the West”.

In a strongly worded statement marking the anniversary of the attacks, he said Israel should be applauded for its fight against terrorism organisations, adding that Israel was “fighting for everyone because ‘death to the infidels’ Islamism is potentially coming for all of us”.

“Right now, the wellbeing of mankind is threatened by a new axis of dictatorships united only by their hatred of the West,” he shared on Twitter.

“Along with Ukraine and Taiwan, Israel is in the front line of freedom and deserves the backing of all free countries and their citizens.

“Israel, indeed, has shown the rest of us how to fight and how to win.”

Statement on one-year anniversary of October 7 attacks pic.twitter.com/RsEv1GO3HQ

— Tony Abbott (@HonTonyAbbott) October 6, 2024

Mr Abbott also shared his support for Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, despite public concerns from US President Joe Biden stating America would not support such an escalation of events.

Mr Abbott said the world would be a “better place” if the Iranian nuclear program was terminated.

“As for the current warnings to Israel not to retaliate against Iranian nuclear facilities, does anyone seriously think that these aren’t the precursors to nuclear weapons?” he said.

“Israel has every right to deny the means of a new Holocaust to a country bent on bringing it about,” he said.