Australia relies on Israeli weapons, which means it now relies on genocide

A month after the UK suspended 30 arms licences out of 350 on account of the weapons being used in violation of international law in Gaza, Australia has announced its own review of its arms sales to Israel. Australia says that it has not supplied weapons to Israel since the genocide started last October; indeed, it has not done so for the past five years.

However, in questions addressed to the Department of Defence in Canberra in June this year, it emerged that the Australian government approved eight other permits which it says are related to items required by the Australian Defence Force. Guardian Australia reported that 12 export permits to Israel have been issued since October 2023. Export permits were issued “for items other than weapons or ammunition, and this goes to, for example, dual-use technologies and components.”

Out of 247 permits since 2019, 66 have remained active which are now under scrutiny. In response to questions asked during a parliamentary session regarding the nature of the permits approved since October 2023, Australia’s Deputy Defence Secretary Hugh Jeffrey stated, “We don’t go into the individual content of the permits themselves,” and maintained that the permits are related to exports.

Chris Deeble, Deputy Secretary of the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) then went on to expound on Australia’s reliance on Israeli military technology. “We do so because they provide world-leading and world-class capability and we want to ensure that our soldiers, sailors and aviators get the best capability,” he said. No mention was made, of course, about how Palestinians are the collateral damage when such weapons are “field-tested” in occupied Palestine, and how Australia’s reliance on Israeli technology is thus also a reliance on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Australia is part of the network that provides parts for the F-35 aircraft which Israel is using in its genocidal bombing of Gaza.

In its assessment of arms licences, the UK excluded the F-35 parts so that the global supply chain would not be affected. When asked if the Australian weapons parts were used on the F-35 jets used to bomb Gaza, Jeffrey answered, “We can’t speak for the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] and how it engages in force employment.” According to Jeffrey, the Memorandum of Understanding regarding the F-35 programme “requires Australia to provide those contributions in good faith.”

In keeping with its usual secrecy in the name of national security, the Australian government’s report for 2023-2024 does not indicate the countries with which it has weapons export permits, only the continents. Nor does Australia specify the military supplies in its report.

While Australia may not be a major weapons arms supplier to Israel, the fact remains that it still maintains agreements with a settler-colonial entity that is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, which makes Australia complicit in the genocide, along with other countries.

Australia itself, of course, is a settler-colonial entity, so none of this is too much of a surprise.

Nevertheless, to rely upon feigned ignorance of any part of the weapons supply chain, on good faith and on wanting the Australian military to benefit from “the best capability” only shows Australia to be actively pursuing violence, just like other countries that have military and weapons agreements with Israel.

If civilians around the world can see the truth and call it a genocide, governments should have led the way earlier in calling out Israel rather than supporting the annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza. Former colonialist countries supporting the current colonisers only illustrates that the world operates on the same politics of extermination as it has done for the past few centuries.

Australia relies on Israeli weapons, which means it now relies on genocide