“Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
To: The Honourable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister Australia.
Dear sir,
It has come to our attention that Mohammed El Halabi, a Gaza aid worker has been found guilty of several terrorism charges in a high-profile case in which his employer (Australian NGO, World Vision), independent auditors and the Australian government say they have found no evidence of wrongdoing.
As you are aware of this case conducted by Israeli authorities for a number of years, we ask that you intervene on behalf of Mohammed El Halabi. Most of the Israeli judicial deliberations have been conducted in camera. Mohammed El Halabi has been denied even basic natural justice, an anathema to what Australia boasts of supporting in the international arena.
Sadly Mohammed El Halabi joins the ranks of many thousands of political prisoners in apartheid Israel where justice is but a game where Israelis win and Palestinians lose. For too long Australian governments have been silent on Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Where Mohammed El Halabi worked in Gaza there are documented war crimes. For example Israel used phosphorous on Palestinians in Gaza in 2009/10 (pictured). We should not forget that the Gaza strip is regularly bombed by the Israeli airforce and over 36,000 Palestinians have been shot by Israeli occupation forces since the beginning of the March of Return in 2018. Those maimed and killed include children, medics and journalists.
The Australian government deploys peacekeepers each year under a UN Truce Supervising Organisation ‘to monitor the armistice between Israel and Arabian neighbors’. Australia is a major financial contributor to this effort as the graph shows.
Of course you know all this and more, it was a leader of your party, Doc Evatt, who helped set this all up when he was President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Isn’t it time an Australian Prime Minister finally stood up and called out Israel for what we have all known for a long time, it is an apartheid state that finally needs to be brought to account by the inernational community. If Australia won’t who will? Certainly our ANZUS partner United States has shown no interest in reigning in Israel.
You could start by insisting that Mohammed El Halabi be released to his family and friends. As former Labor Senator for Queensland, Claire Moore, and Labor for Palestine’s Wendy Turner point out in this interview Mohammed El Halabi was never going to get a fair trial in Israel.
So too should the many thousands of Palestinians illegally detained under Israel’s so called administrative detention provisions. Might I suggest that, in the same way, the Australian government has imposed economic sanctions on Russia, you do impose an economic boycott of Israel until its political prisoners are released.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Curr
Martin Munz
17 June 2022
PS I urge readers to support this plea in the comments section down below.
Please add my name to your Open Letter about Mohammed el Halabi’s conviction.
Thank you, Martin.
Please note I have added a graph and map that show Australia’s contribution to peacekeeping in and near Palestine since 1948.