War criminal Ehud Olmert welcomed in Canberra
Posted by John, November 27th, 2009 - under Australian politics, Ehud Olmert, Israel, Palestine, War crimes.
Former Israeli Prime Minister ordered the invasion of Gaza. He is a war criminal.
This is just not the ravings of a mad leftie like me. The UN Goldstone report found that Israel and Hamas had potentially committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
This is how Ian Black from the Guardian put it:
The development of universal jurisdiction has been boosted by the Goldstone report, which urged Israel to conduct an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes. Failing that, other governments were advised to try suspects using universal jurisdiction. Another option was for the UN security council to refer allegations to the international criminal court. Israel refused to co-operate with the report, which also accused Hamas of war crimes.
Universal jurisdiction just means that we could arrest Olmert and send him to The Hague for trial.
It won’t happen.
The Australian Federal Police spent $8 million pursuing Dr Haneef for supposed terrorist links. Yet when a real terrorist like Olmert visits our shores they do nothing.
Australia voted against the UN motion accepting the Goldstone report.
As a colonial settler state built on the dispossession of the original inhabitants this is not surprising.
Just as we supported apartheid South Africa, also a colonial settler state, we have consistently supported Israel, another outpost of western imperialism built on the genocide of the original inhabitants, the Palestinians in this case.
That genocide is ongoing as the concentration camp that is Gaza and the expansionist settlements in the West Bank show.
So instead of leg irons, Olmert got a warm welcome in the Prime Minister’s Office in Parliament House on Thursday, in between a scrum forming for news of the Turnbull destruction.
Australia has a long history of not only welcoming the war criminal leaders of ‘friendly’ nations – think George Bush – but of supporting the activities of the dominant imperialist power with our own troops to protect the insurance policy that is the Alliance.
Arguably every Australian Prime Minister since the second world war is a war criminal or has been a party to crimes against humanity.
Our support for war criminals, and our own war crimes, are not going to disappear even if we elect men and women of goodwill. As Barack Obama shows, that strategy just replaces one hated war criminal with a less hated (or even loved) one.
Our support for war criminals and ongoing invasions around the world is systemic. It arises from the nature of Australian capitalism in the region and the world.
Only a radicalised democratic mass movement of working people can overthrow the barbarism that is Australian capitalism and end our leaders’ war crimes.
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Pingback from All In One Information » En Passant » War criminal Ehud Olmert welcomed in Canberra
Time November 27, 2009 at 10:11 pm
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Comment from Arjay
Time November 27, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Obama will soon head the UN Security Council.It is against the US Constitution that their President hold a foreign position that could compromise his dedication to the US people.
Obama has failed to rescind the patriot act,Bush’s Presidential orders and habius corpus.
The US is one step from being a totalitarian state.We are following in their footsteps.Why should we not welcome Ehud Olmert?