Genocide in Gaza: Australia has a Responsibility to Protect

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry issued a grave and historic finding: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It concluded Israeli has committed four of the five acts defined under the Genocide Convention: including killing civilians, inflicting serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately imposing conditions designed to destroy Palestinian life. Senior Israeli officials’ statements, taken alongside systematic acts, were deemed evidence of genocidal intent.

This is not a fringe opinion. It is the conclusion of the UN’s highest-level investigative mechanism on Palestine. It puts the world and Australia on notice. In the face of genocide, neutrality is not possible. Indifference is complicity.

So what’s our duty?

The international principle of the Responsibility to Protect - or R2P - offers a clear framework. Endorsed by all UN member states, including Australia, R2P holds that sovereignty is not a licence to kill. It’s a responsibility. First, to protect populations from mass atrocity crimes. Second, for the international community to assist states in that task. And third - and this is where we are now - when a state is unwilling or unable to protect, or is itself the perpetrator, the world has a duty to act.

Israel is failing to protect Palestinian civilians. In fact, it’s systematically harming them. So under R2P, this means Australia has a responsibility - not just a choice - to act.

And we must be honest about what’s at stake. Our credibility, for one. We claim to champion human rights and the rules-based international order. But if we continue to turn a blind eye, what do those values mean? And R2P is not just a theoretical construct for faraway conflicts. It’s a global norm. The idea is that if one day we face crisis - whether environmental, political, or military - we would hope the world will act to protect us too. To demand protection tomorrow, we must provide it today.

What should Australia do?

First, we must acknowledge the UN’s findings and name what’s happening in Gaza as genocide. Words matter. Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have consistently avoided this. Then, we must back international legal processes. Australia should actively support the genocide case at the International Court of Justice, support the International Criminal Court, and assist UN investigations. And third, we must immediately end military exports to Israel and implement comprehensive trade sanctions. That means stop kidding ourselves that fighter jet components are ‘non-lethal’.

Diplomatically, we should be leading calls for an end to Israel’s genocide, not just echoing US talking points. And we must ensure Australian funding to humanitarian agencies like UNRWA continues without political interference. Crucially, the government should also be educating Australian citizens to understand what R2P means - and that genocide is unfolding in our lifetime.

To do anything less is complicit. Genocide doesn’t happen in silence. It happens when the world looks away. Now is the time to look straight at what’s happening. And act.

Photo from ABC News.