ICC charges akin to ‘holocaust denial’ say Indigenous Friends of Israel

Cairns group “Indigenous Friends of Israel” say the ICC’s decision shows international humanitarian agencies are being sucked into believing “Hamas propaganda”. Do you agree?Watch the interview.

Cairns group “Indigenous Friends of Israel” have called the International Criminal Court’s decision to apply for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant as “another form of Holocaust denial”, saying that international humanitarian agencies are believing false “Hamas propaganda”.

“This is just another form of Holocaust denial,” said Indigenous Friends of Israel co-founder Barbara Miller.

“The twisted logic, political posturing, and blame-the-victim response of the International

Criminal Court is ridiculous, disgraceful, and antisemitic” because she said it disregarded the events in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Norman and Barbara Miller from Indigenous Friends of Israel.

On Tuesday, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants against the Israeli politicians, as well as top Hamas leaders on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The prosecutor, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said he was seeking warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant for crimes including “wilful killing”, “blocking humanitarian aid” extermination and/or murder” and “starvation”.

He said he had “reasonable grounds to believe” the men are party to for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC also issued arrest warrants for two top Hamas leaders — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades who is better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader also for “extermination”, “murder” but also “rape”, “torture” and “taking hostages as a war crime”.

he International Criminal Court's prosecutor Karim Khan said on May 20, 2024, that he had applied for arrest warrants for alleged war crimes of top Israeli and Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, over their conflict, on May 21, 2024. (Photo by Luis ACOSTA / AFP)

“While of course we would like to see no lives lost in war, Israel did not start this war,” Ms Miller said.

She argued that Israel had issued warnings to Israel civilians to leave areas before they launched military invasions and “Israel has facilitated the entry of 542,570 tonnes of aid for Gazans carried on 28,255 trucks”.

Ms Miller argued that there is a “rise of antisemitism on a huge and alarming scale. On our streets, universities, schools, governments, media, unions, and boardrooms.”

“While I understand Indigenous people in Australia have a connection to holocaust and genocide, its very hard to see the connection between this and the holocaust,” Maja Amanita, who is involved in Free Palestine FNQ said.

“We say there is a genocide,” she said, suggesting the Albanese government consider “sanctions against Israel”.

MAY 17, 2024: Pro Palestinian signs at the tent cities supporting both Israel and Gaza that were pitched in the Great Court at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

“We see in the media pictures of children dying from starvation, premature babies rotting in incubators from hospitals that have been bombed, pictures of children with their brains hanging out, pictures of old men and old women snipered in the street in Gaza and the West Bank. We see all of this as evidence that these military actions are going beyond self-defence,” Ms Amanita said.

“The ICC exists for a reason and I think their processes should be respected – just like we respected the warrant they put out for Vladimir Putin,” she added.

The Australian government has backed the international criminal court more generally with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong say is in Australia’s national interest for international law to be upheld.

But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said last week that the Australian government must “put pressure on the ICC to make sure that they reverse this terrible decision” and to “stand with an ally and a country that was subject to barbaric attacks by a listed terrorist organisation”.

While the Greens and independent Senator David Pocock have put out a statement backing the ICC’s decision.

Originally published as ICC charges akin to ‘holocaust denial’ say Indigenous Friends of Israel