Pearls and Irritations
John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
Our media refuse to call out genocide in Gaza
August 1, 2025
Through its love affair with Israel and intimidated by the Zionist lobby, our legacy media has enabled the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s apartheid regime and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land over the past century.
Paul Heywood- Smith KC in this journal described the criminal behaviour of Israel:
Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The International Court of Justice has so found, and has ordered that that occupation must end immediately, and that all settlers must evacuate Palestinian lands. The ICJ has found that Israel has established an apartheid state on Palestinian lands.
An apartheid state is a criminal state and cannot be allowed by the international community to exist. Ergo, Israel has no right of self-defence against resistance to the illegal occupation. Israel cannot both occupy Palestinian lands, and then launch an attack on those lands by citing “self-defence” when occupied populations resist. Neither can Israel treat those resisting in occupied territories as enemy combatants. Israel has the right to protect its citizens within its own borders, but it does not have the right to use overwhelming military force against people under its occupation. Nor, under international law, does Israel have the right to wage a war of collective punishment on the West Bank, Gaza, or, indeed, Lebanon, when it resists the illegal occupation of Lebanese territory — the Shebaa Farms — or when it comes to the aid of its brothers in Gaza and the West Bank.
To enable the genocide in which more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, the legacy media refuse to use such terms as “genocide, apartheid or occupation".
But let’s look particularly at how the term “genocide” is either entirely erased or severely restricted by our legacy media.
The ABC, with its shameful performance on Gaza, limits how the word “genocide” must be blunted in order not to offend the Zionist lobby.
The ABC on November 17, 2023, reported the ABC boss, David Anderson saying_…”Not our place to use terms like genocide and apartheid… the ABC won’t report using them ourselves. What we do report other people using them… for instance, genocide is a claim that has been made. It’s a serious crime. The IDF and Israel reject that.”_
What he didn’t say, but what he assumes are the words of Benjamin Netanyahu and the propaganda machine of the IDF are credible despite all the evidence to the contrary. It’s like reporting the bubonic plague and giving equal coverage to the rats.
Together with our media, other important institutions, governments, parliaments, political parties, universities and churches have been complicit in the genocide.
The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including killing, causing harm, preventing births and forcibly transferring children. And the intent is clear from the words of Netanyahu and his criminal ministers.
Numerous reputable organisations, academics, and legal experts have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Here are some key voices:
United Nations officials & experts
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, released a report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide” (March 2024), concluding that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide under international law.
Craig Mokhiber, former director of the UN Human Rights Office in New York, resigned in October 2023, stating that Gaza was “a textbook case of genocide”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned of a potential “risk of genocide” in Gaza, though he stopped short of an outright accusation.
Former UN aid chief Martin Griffith said: **“**I am absolutely convinced that what is going on in Gaza is a genocide because the thing speaks for itself."
The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls characterised the attack on women and girls as “femi-genocide”
International legal scholars and genocide experts
Ilan Pappé an Israeli historian and political scientist known for his work on the Israeli-Palestine conflict said “(Genocide) is the only appropriate way to describe what the Israel army is doing in the Gaza Strip”.
Avi Shlaim an Israeli-British historian says that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.
Amos Goldberg, the Jonah M. Machover Chair in Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said: “It is thus my opinion, tragically, that a genocide is indeed being perpetrated in Gaza."
Daniel Blatman, prof, Holocaust historian at the Hebrew University, said: “There’s no Auschwitz in Gaza. But it’s still genocide.”
Uğur Ümit Üngör, a professor at the University of Amsterdam and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, speaks of “genocidal violence". There are “certainly still scientists who say it is not genocide”, says Üngör. “But I don’t know them.”
Dr Shmuel Lederman genocide and political theory scholar who teaches at the International MA Program in Holocaust Studies and the University of Haifa said, “what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocidal in every sense".
Raz Segal (Stockton University), an Israeli historian and genocide scholar, described Israel’s assault on Gaza as a “textbook case of genocide” in Jewish Currents (October 2023).
John Quigley, author of *The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis*, has similarly argued that the situation in Gaza qualifies as genocide under international law.
Omer Bartov a Jewish genocide scholar from Brown University and published an op-ed in The New York Times titled “I’m a genocide scholar. I know it when I see it.”
Melanie O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, said Israel’s deliberate blockade of food, water, shelter and sanitation convinced her the Netanyahu Government was carrying out genocide.
Human rights organisations
South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice in December 2023, accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention. The ICJ issued provisional measures in January 2024, ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have not used the term “genocide” explicitly and have documented war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. It described deprivation of water and attacks on aid workers as “acts of genocide”.
Amnesty International declared that key acts — such as deliberately starving civilians — constitute genocide.
Médecins Sans Frontières stated that what its medical teams witnessed is “consistent with genocide”.
Two Israeli human rights organisations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have labelled the country’s actions in Gaza as “genocide”.
B’Tselem compiled testimony as well as details of mass killings, destruction of infrastructure, forced displacement, mass arrests and alleged abuse of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Prominent individuals & public figures
Pope Leo XIV referred explicitly to the “ongoing genocide in Gaza”.
Noam Chomsky (linguist & political analyst) has described Israel’s actions as genocidal.
Norman Finkelstein (political scientist) has argued that Israel’s policies meet the criteria for genocide.
Chris Hedges (journalist & former war correspondent) has repeatedly called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.
Notable lawyers
Helena Kennedy KC: A prominent British human rights lawyer, Kennedy publicly stated in July 2025 that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide, emphasising the UK’s complicity if it fails to oppose these actions.
William Schabas: Author of the textbook *Genocide in International Law*, stated that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide, pointing to the intent and scale of destruction.
Despite all the credible evidence outlined above, our media and so-called leaders of our key institutions will not face up to the Gaza genocide. They accept the lies of the IDF which has turned food distribution points into killing fields.
For 20 months, across Australia there have been large peaceful rallies against the genocide directed against the brave Palestinian people. But our legacy media scarcely give these rallies a mention. It is just another means to block out any sign of support for the Palestinians in their agony.
And Premier Chris Minns in NSW does not miss any opportunity to support the pariah state of Israel. On cue, he leapt in to oppose any blocking of Sydney’s Harbour Bridge by protesters against genocide and starvation.
Demonstrations are essential if politicians and other so-called leaders show no concern about the industrial scale killings and starvation in Palestine. Demonstrators are much more in touch with community attitudes than supine politicians. Essential Polls in its latest report reveals that only 15% of Australians believe that Israel is justified in continuing its military action in Gaza. Our “leaders” in Church and State are badly out of touch with this terrible tragedy.
I thought the ALP had concerns about the rights of all people and our common humanity. Or I thought that’s what the ALP believed when I joined the Party 70 years ago.
No wonder many Australians feel helpless when they read and see each day a live streamed genocide, knowing that the great and good of Australia are turning their backs. Olive-skinned Muslims don’t rank in their concerns.
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