In a submission to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Palestinian and Australian human rights organisations have called on the Australian Government to undertake an urgent review of all trade cooperation with Israel and implement effective measures to protect the Palestinian people’s fundamental human rights.
DFAT is undertaking a feasibility study into strengthening trade, and the possibility of entering into a Free Trade Agreement with Israel. The organisations point to stark evidence of Israel’s breaches of international law from which it derives significant economic benefits from its subjugation of the Palestinian people while implementing a settler-colonial apartheid regime that deprives the Palestinians of their own economic growth and prosperity.
The organisations are calling on the Australian Government to take a series of effective measures to end Israeli’s impunity including:
- calling on Israel to end its punitive and illegal closure of Gaza;
- banning the trade of settlement goods and services in Australia;
- ending its defence cooperation with Israel;
- imposing targeted sanctions against Israeli officials and entities who contribute to Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity;
- calling on the Victorian Government to immediately disengage from its partnership with Israel’s Elbit Systems, an arms firm which is aiding and abetting the commission of international crimes in Palestine;
- calling on the Australian Government to support the investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
All the ten detailed recommendations can be read in the joint NGO submission.
Read the Joint NGO submission to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade here.
