Barnaby Jones says genocide case against Israel shouldn’t be backed

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Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is urging the Albanese government not to back legal action accusing Israel of genocide.

Barnaby Joyce
Photo: Facebook

Hearings have begun in The Hague as the International Court of Justice considers South Africa’s genocide case against Israel for its actions in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack.

Mr Joyce said the government shouldn’t support the case brought against Israel before taking a swipe at South Africa for violence within its borders that amount to “basically a form of genocide”.

“Hamas is not a country, it’s a terrorist organisation and unfortunately, it has instigated a process,” he told Sky News.

“It has to be eradicated, it has to be removed … there is nothing in its DNA that says they were going to be reasonable. So what would you do?”

Mr Joyce said Australians would want immediate action to remove a terrorist threat if a similar attack had been launched against the nation.

“Hamas can take it upon themselves to release the hostages and remove themselves but they choose not to,” he said.

“Because they choose to continue on as a terrorist organisation, then what alternative has Israel got?”

Independent senator David Pocock is calling on Labor to support the ICJ application, pointing to the “extraordinary scale” of human suffering and deaths of children, medical professionals and journalists.

The executive director of The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Dr Colin Rubenstein, said: “David Pocock’s comments on the ICJ case suggest he is out of his depth – given that he seems to repeat Hamas propaganda, such as the implicit claim that every person killed in Israel’s defensive war in Gaza is a “civilian” (‘23,000 civilians” he says) and regurgitates doubtful Hamas-produced statistics about the number of women and children killed.  The approach in this case misinforms and misapplies law to effectively deny Israel any right of self-defence, and thus, presumably unintentionally, aids and abets Hamas’ bloody terrorism and war against Israel.

Like David Pocock, many people are concerned about the obvious high humanitarian cost of the Hamas-initiated war against Israel. However, in supporting this South African case accusing Israel of “genocide”   going ahead, Pocock appears not to comprehend that legal concept or the actual circumstances of genocide..

Unfortunately, this case undermines the meaning, role and integrity of the Genocide Convention. It also damages the broader function and framework of international law. Instead of helping to make the world a better place, it helps to subvert and politicise the legal order and global security architecture on which Australia depends.  It is to be hoped Senator Pocock will reconsider his ill-conceived approach, which unfortunately jeopardises Australia’s national interest in the international rule of law.”

More than 1200 Israelis were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas, according to Tel Aviv officials.

AAP with J-Wire