Genocide in Gaza: Will Australia say the word?
Updated: 1 hour ago
There’s extraordinary aerial footage of Gaza circulating again on social media: street after street, neighbourhood after neighbourhood, flattened. Reduced to rubble.
It’s not new footage. It was filmed over a year ago in August 2025. But that’s what makes it more confronting. Israel’s destruction of Gaza has continued after these images were recorded. By June 2026, UN satellite analysis estimated that Israel had bombed over 82 per cent of structures in Gaza.
Israel has dropped over 80,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza - more than five times the 15,000-tonne TNT-equivalent yield of the Hiroshima bomb. So why is Australia still so reluctant to say the word genocide?
Genocide isn’t a label that should be thrown around casually. It has a specific legal meaning, including the requirement to establish intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group. But in September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, finding four of the five genocidal acts listed in the Genocide Convention.
And it’s not alone. Amnesty International concluded in December 2024 that Israel had committed and was continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Human Rights Watch has found that Israel’s deliberate acts in Gaza represent a crime against humanity and to acts of genocide.
Then, in July 2025, two Israeli organisations - B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel - both concluded Israel was committing genocide. B’Tselem cited the scale of killing, destruction, displacement and creation of conditions incompatible with Palestinian life.
Statements of Israel’s own senior leaders have also affirmed these assessments. Former defence minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” in October 2023 - no electricity, food, water or fuel - and referred to Palestinians as “human animals”.
So where then there is Australia? Well Penny Wong will tell you we’ve recognised Palestine, and sanctioned two Israeli ministers and a few other Israeli individuals and entities. Oh, she’s expressed lots of “deep concern”. But Australia has not imposed a sanctions regime or arms ambargo on Israel as a state.
Penny Wong says Australia hasn’t directly supplied Israel with weapons or ammunition for at least five years. But the word “directly” has been carefully inserted into this talking point. Because Australia’s weapons exports to Israel go indirectly - through the United States. Australia is part of the global F-35 supply chain accessed by Israel. More than 70 Australian companies having contributed parts and components to the jets that Israel is using. Defence officials also confirmed in October 2025 that 54 defence export permits relating to Israel remained active.
And while Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong continue to refuse to use the word genocide, Queensland has found the legislative urgency to criminalise public use of “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”. The offence carries up to two years in prison. More than 20 people have reportedly been charged. The law is now being challenged in the High Court and the NSW Government is backing Queensland.
Think about that contrast. Extraordinary caution about applying the word genocide after a UN Commission of Inquiry has done exactly that. Far less caution about using criminal law against Australians employing particular words while protesting what’s happening in Gaza.
No one needs to minimise Hamas’s murder of civilians and hostage-taking on 7 October to confront what followed. Nor does Australia need to pretend the ICJ has already ruled when it still hasn’t.
But neither should “we’re waiting for the court” become an excuse for refusing to engage with the horrific evidence already before us. When a UN Commission says genocide; when Amnesty says genocide; when leading Israeli human-rights organisations say genocide; when Human Rights Watch documents extermination and acts of genocide; and when more than four-fifths of Gaza has been bombed, Australians expect honesty, not weasel words from our politicians.
The question for Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong is straightforward: What further evidence is required before they’re prepared to say the word?
How many more times do these facts need to be aired? Thank you, Gregory for writing "my questions" that need ed answering ages ago. I feel sick/disgusted every time they are brought to my attention. And David Shoebridge was accused of "fuelling division"!!
So disappointed in Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong.
I was in the audience at a presentation by Chris Sidoti who explained in detail how the UN Commission of Inquiry determined that it is genocide.
It's not that Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong can't call it genocide - for whatever reason, they just don't want to call it genocide.