Photo: Left – A Gazan mother grieves over her twin babies killed in an Israeli airstrike, March 2024. Right – An elderly Bosnian woman prays among graves at the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Potocari, July 2020 — echoing a pain shared across generations.
Gaza continues the legacy of settler colonial violence and genocide. The atrocities unfolding in Gaza are not isolated horrors but the latest manifestation of a centuries-old pattern of settler-colonial violence —from the Reconquista of Spain to Stalin’s forced deportations in Crimea, from the Chinese destruction of indigenous culture in Tibet and East Turkistan to the Rwanda genocide, from the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica to the ongoing erasure of Palestine that has continued unabated for over 80 years. The only difference today is that this genocide is live-streamed—and yet, as in Bosnia, the West looks away.
The people of Gaza and Palestine face the same broken promises with treaties and agreements betrayed. In 1492, the Treaty of Granada pledged religious freedom to Muslims—only for Cardinal Cisneros to launch forced conversions resulting in the choice – convert, mass expulsion or death.
Today, Palestinians endure the same treachery. The establishment of the State of Israel was, stated by Avi Schalim “Zionism, the establishment of the State of Israel, involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians an injustice that is only being exacerbated over time and reaches its climax in Gaza today.”
The Oslo Accords, UN resolutions, and the “two-state solution” have been exposed as frauds. Since October 2023, Israel has:
- Dropped 75,000+ tons of explosives on Gaza (equivalent to three Hiroshima bombs).
- Destroyed 70% of homes, all universities, and every major hospital (Al-Shifa, Al-Ahli, and Al-Quds reduced to rubble).
- Killed over 360,000 Palestinians, either by direct killing or indirectly by stopping aid, cutting of water and food, the destruction of health facilities and the destruction of infrastructure and agriculture.
- White phosphorus used in densely populated areas.
- Mass executions of families in their homes (e.g., the Baroud family, wiped out in Jabalia).
- Starvation as policy: 93% of Gazans face acute food insecurity (UN OCHA).
This is not war. It is industrialised slaughter, violating the Genocide Convention’s prohibition of “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction.”
Echoes of Srebrenica and Crimea
In echoes of Srebrenica and Crimea the Palestinians are given the choice of exile or death. The Moriscos of Spain has three choices: convert, exile or death. Palestinians are given the choice only of death or succumbing to ethnic cleansing and flee but they have nowhere to go.
In Bosnia in 1995 the UN declared Srebrenica a “safe zone,” then abandoned 8,000 Muslim men and boys to Serbian death squads. Today, Gaza’s “safe zones” are bombed daily. In 1944 Stalin deported 200,000 Tatars to Central Asia; half died en route. Israel is now trying to push Palestinians into Sinai, while Netanyahu invokes “voluntary migration”—a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.
In 2024 Israel blocks all exits from Gaza bombs Rafah’s border, and shoots Palestinians waving white flags. The ICJ cites 500+ genocidal statements by Israeli officials, from Netanyahu quoting Amalek (“blot out their memory”) to soldiers filming themselves burning Palestinian crops while singing “May your village burn!”
The historical irony is that Muslim rulers provided sanctuary to Jews in history. In 637 CE: Caliph Umar ended Byzantine persecution, inviting Jews back to Jerusalem. In1187: Saladin invited Jews to return to Jerusalem after the Crusaders had slaughtered every Muslim and Jewish man, woman and child.
Today, Israel—founded as a refuge for Holocaust survivors from the oppression of Europe —replicates the very atrocities Jews once fled. The descendants of the persecuted have become the persecutors. And the perpetrators of the Holocaust are now supporting a new Holocaust of Palestinians with the support of America.
Western complicity: The machinery of genocide
The US, UK, EU, and Australia are not bystanders but co-conspirators:
- Weapons: The U.S. fast-tracked $14.3 billion in arms, including 2,000-pound “earthquake” bombs that level entire blocks.
- Diplomacy: Germany and the UK vetoed ceasefires at the UN; Australia hosts joint drills with Israel.
- Surveillance: Pine Gap (Australia) and RAF Akrotiri (Cyprus) provide real-time targeting data for airstrikes.
Arab regimes are equally culpable:
- The UAE trades $10 billion/year with Israel while Gaza starves.
- The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan provide a landline of supplies to Israel
- Egypt’s Sisi seals Rafah, trapping Palestinians
- UAE and Saudi offer Trump trillions of dollars of investment while he proposes the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and its takeover by the US
Western media is a weapon in this genocide and ethnic cleansing, erasing the evidence and distorting the facts. Western media parrot Israeli propaganda, just as they downplayed Srebrenica.
The propaganda which used to justify the onslaught on Gaza in articles in Sky News, the ABC, the BBC, Fox News, GB News and other media included the debunked “Hamas beheaded babies” and mass rape lies.
Meta censors 95% of pro-Palestine content and NYT fired Gaza journalists for criticizing Israel. The playbook is identical: deny, deflect, dehumanise until mass graves silence dissent.
Australia needs to meet its international obligations regarding the crime of genocide
And yet the Australian Parliament voted down a bill proposed by Lidia Thorpe to hold perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and other crimes against humanity, accountable to bring Australia in line with the UN’s Genocide Convention but the Attorney-General, a single politician, has power to veto any prosecutions made against Genocide and other atrocity crimes. This enables silence and protects individuals and governments with blood on their hands.
Australians should call for politicians to support the “Red Lines package” three bills designed to ensure Australia meets its international obligations regarding genocide, breaches of international law, and illegal settlements in occupied Palestine — a ‘litmus test as to the commitment of this nation’s political class to international human rights law’.
“If the Albanese Government supports a transparent and accountable Government, it must disclose whether it will refer inquiries to the Red Lines Package,” said the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network and Alliance Against Islamophobia in a joint statement.
The Red Lines package includes:
- Genocide Risk Reporting Bill: Requires defence businesses to report genocide risks in their supply chains and operations.
- Divesting from Illegal Israeli Settlements Bill: Prevents Australian funds from supporting illegal Israeli settlements.
- Defence Trade Controls Amendment Bill: Bans defence exports linked to genocide or war crimes
As Bosnian survivor Hasan Nuhanović warns:
“The world watched Srebrenica happen. Now they’re watching Gaza.”
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