I first visited Israel with Gough Whitlam in 1963. I was very impressed. It was a pioneering country, modest and with features of a democratic state. When I returned, I inquired from the Israeli Ambassador in Canberra about the possibilities of some of my children, when they were older, taking a gap year living on a kibbutz. I was impressed.

I visited with Whitlam again in 1967 after the Six-Day War. I changed my mind. The expanded occupation of Palestinian lands brought with it the arrogance of an occupying power. Senior ministers boasted that the King of Jordan had become the Mayor of Amman. People I met had become hostile, even contemptuous of Palestinians. I learned at first-hand how occupation warps the heart and mind of the occupier.

As an Al Jazeera journalist put it, “The occupation doesn’t just kill people; it silences voices, erases images and buries the truth”.

World opinion is clear about the genocide, but most of the politicians, academics and journalists in the West have deliberately chosen not to notice.

As expressed in the UN General Assembly, all UN agencies, the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and numerous human rights agencies, most of the world’s governments and peoples agree that Israel is an occupying power, committing genocide. And that Israel is an apartheid state. Only the US veto in the Security Council saves Israel.

The main supporters of Israel — the US, Canada, Australia and NZ, the settler/ colonial states — have all expropriated their indigenous populations. In our Frontier Wars we inflicted genocide. We are reluctant to honestly face our own guilt. Ignoring genocide in Palestine is an echo of our own history.

Professor Ilan Pappe in the “Palestine Chronicle of 23 April 2025” summed up the ugliness and cowardice in the West.

Ignoring the genocide in the Gaza Strip and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank can only be described as intentional and not out of ignorance. Both the Israelis’ actions and the discourse that accompanies them are too visible to be ignored, unless politicians, academics, and journalists choose to do so.

This kind of ignorance is, first and foremost, the result of successful Israeli lobbying that thrived on the fertile ground of European guilt complex, racism and Islamophobia. In the case of the US, it is also the outcome of many years of an effective and ruthless lobbying machine that very few in academia, media, and politics dare to disobey.

Whilst this Zionist lobbying machine intimidates almost all before it, we will have no justice and peace in Palestine and the Middle East. This lobby must be exposed and countered.

Donald Trump boasted last week that because of the financial support of the Jewish Adelsons he “gave them the Golan Heights”. Is there anything more brazen than that. “Gave them the Golan Heights”. And what did MSM (main stream media) say? Nothing!!

This abuse of power by the Zionist machine has the blood of over 62,000 Palestinians on its hands.

Israel has become a pariah state and the IDF the most immoral army in the world as it bombs and shoots Palestinians in an open-air prison where there is no escape.

Israel and the murderous IDF seem incapable of telling the truth. Hamas we are told, time and time again, is hiding in hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, churches. Hamas is hiding behind journalists, aid workers, medicos, children, the old, infirm, pregnant mothers and even premature babies in humidity cribs. The flimsy and untruthful lies are endless.

In the name of “balance”, our media give credibility to this Israeli propaganda. It’s like reporting on a bubonic plague and giving equal treatment to the rats! No-one would think of giving equal treatment to those who deny the Holocaust. Neither should we give balanced media coverage to those who deny the holocaust in Gaza today.

Oct 7 did not occur in a vacuum

It was the result of decades-long Israeli occupation, never ending violence and oppression of Palestinians. The pressure cooker exploded!

This settler colonisation in Palestine has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba. In 1948, Palestinians owned 94 percent of all land; now they own only 18 percent. These figures tell the true story. Israel occupies stolen land. Nakba has evolved, step by violent step, into genocide today.

Supporters of Zionism highlight the horrors of Oct 7, 2023 to divert attention from the continuing genocide in Gaza.

Even Joe Biden retailed the false stories about Hamas beheading babies. Our MSM also failed to tell us about the “Hannibal Doctrine” which led to the killing by the IDF of many of their own soldiers and people on Oct 7.

Media focus is on the hostages, but ignores the 8,000 Palestinians held in gruesome Israeli jails.

Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attacks. The real reason and objective is to massacre Palestinians, drive out the population and destroy infrastructure. The Palestinian homeland is being prepared for Trump-type real estate. Egypt and Jordan are coming under great pressure to absorb all Palestinians who are still alive. The US and Israel have even contacted Sudan and Somalia to discuss the resettlement of displaced Palestinians.

Netanyahu repeatedly tells us about the Hamas threat. But from 2016, he was secretly channelling financial support to Hamas through Qatar. His motive was to build Hamas up as the rival to Fatah and President Mahmoud Abbas.

The weaponization of antisemitism is designed to shut down free speech and to divert attention from the genocide

The Zionist Lobby has become tiresome in accusing its critics of antisemitism. Many Zionists in Australia put loyalty to Israel ahead of loyalty to Australia. Many Jews are appalled to be associated with such Zionists. And they are speaking out.

So much of our media, including the ABC, is intimidated by Zionist propagandists. In our MSM, Palestinians and Muslims are treated as much less human and less valuable than white Jews and white Christians. Just contrast the media coverage of Christian Ukraine and Muslim Gaza.

Our legacy media have decided that genocide of Palestinians is not newsworthy.

There is undoubtedly some antisemitism in the community, but the fraudulent campaign today is to silence those who are calling out Israel for ethnic cleansing and genocide. Many excuse their failure to take a stand on a great moral issue by hiding behind the deceit peddled about antisemitism. Many have told me that in all the Palestinian rallies across Australia there has been no antisemitism at all. But the lie about antisemitism continues.

Church failure

I am a Catholic. But my church in Australia has turned its back on suffering Palestinians in what we used to call “the Holy Land”. If only Catholic Bishops and other church “leaders” heeded Pope Francis.

Pax Christi Australia described the Church’s failure:

There have, in Sydney, been more than 70 rallies in solidarity with Gaza. Each one has been done under the shadow of either St Mary’s Cathedral (Catholic) or St Andrew’s Cathedral (Anglican). Ignoring the genocide, these buildings have stood in the background as cold, hard, stony, and silent edifices.

It seems that some lives are worthy of grief and solidarity whilst others are not. The West has shown that its commitment to human rights is conditional, selective, deeply politicized and deeply entrenched and subservient to Zionist propaganda. Those in authority are complicit in the continuing genocide.

The Josephite Sisters put it so well this Easter…"to speak out against the violence of the Israeli Government is not antisemitism; it is a cry for justice”.

Playing the victim

We are told to heed the hurt feelings of Zionists, some on university campuses, who support genocide or have wilfully chosen to ignore it. They play the victim card. Since when have universities been a place that avoids robust debate?

These hypersensitive souls should not be surprised when peaceful demonstrators point out to them and others that the country they are supporting is committing criminal violence and genocide. Surely the Palestinian mothers of 18,000 murdered children have more reason to be hurt than those in Australia who play the victim to divert attention from genocide? The real victims are in Gaza, not on Australian university campuses.

University vice-chancellors dare not disobey the Zionist Lobby.

I thought we believed that children should not be killed! Apparently not so with at least 18,000 children killed by Israel. And thousands orphaned and traumatized.

Terrorism, occupation and the right to resist

Under illegal Israeli occupation, Palestinians have a right to rebel. This was recognized in the Geneva Convention of 1949.

We join the United States in calling Hamas a terrorist organization when the real terrorists in Gaza are ministers in the Israeli Government and leaders of the IDF. “Terrorist” is a grossly misused word. It suits lazy journalists.

“Terrorists” often become freedom fighters and heroes. Nelson Mandela, jailed for 27 years, was on the US terrorist list for 10 years.

Marwan Barghouti has been in an Israeli jail for 23 years for “terrorism”. But he has consistently topped opinion polls which asked Palestinians whom they would vote for in a presidential election, ahead of both current President Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Hamas. Barghouti is unknown to our media.

Israel has no right of self-defense against resistance in lands that are illegally occupied. Israel cannot both illegally occupy Palestinian lands and then launch an attack on the people in those lands by citing “self-defense”.

If Australia had been occupied by Japan in World War II, would anyone seriously suggest that Australians would not have the right to resist Japanese occupation? Many would argue that we would have had a duty to resist.

Summary

Israel is an occupying, apartheid and genocidal state on Palestinian lands. Israel has no right of self-defense against resistance in lands that are illegally occupied.

Our government piously points fingers at many countries for human rights abuses, but says little about the egregious human rights abuses by Israel.

The weaponization of antisemitism is designed to shut down free speech and intimidate those who call for justice for Palestinians.

Our legacy media has manufactured consent for genocide.

The lives of Palestinians killed in the Gaza holocaust are as valuable as the lives lost by Jews in the European Holocaust.

The heroism of the Palestinian people is breathtaking, but the so-called civilized West, including Australia, is turning its back.

The tree of Western civilization is bearing very rotten fruit.

“Never again” is not only for Jews, but for Palestinians and all humanity.

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas. This article is based on a speech delivered at a Palestinian Rally at the ANU on April 27, 2025.

This is a republication from PEARLS & IRRITATIONS website at：

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/message-from-the-editor-in-chief-genocide-is-not-newsworthy-in-the-australian/

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.