Anthony Albanese slams Israel's denial of starvation reports in Gaza ‘beyond comprehension'
The prime minister was responding to statements made by his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel's deputy ambassador to Australia, during a Labor caucus meeting on Tuesday.
'While there is a caveat on any health information which is provided by Hamas, it is Israel that has prevented journalists from getting in,' he told the meeting in Canberra.
It comes after Mr Albanese on Friday declared Israel's retaliation in Gaza following the October 7 attack on the nation state by Hamas had 'gone beyond the world's worst fears'.
Then on Sunday, he warned Israel had 'quite clearly' breached international law by limiting food deliveries to starving civilians in Gaza, escalating his criticism of the Jewish state.
The prime minister spoke of his emotional response to images of gaunt and dying children in the Palestinian territory, while acknowledging increased airdrops of aid by Israel was 'a start'.
'It just breaks your heart,' he told ABC's Insiders on Sunday.
Overnight on Monday, US President Donald Trump contradicted the Israeli prime minister by stating many people were starving in the Gaza Strip and suggested more could be done to improve humanitarian access.
Mr Netanyahu has said 'there is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza ...'
Israel's deputy ambassador to Australia Amir Meron told journalists on Monday 'we don't recognise any famine or any starvation in the Gaza Strip'.
The number of Palestinians believed to have been killed is nearing 60,000 people, according to local health authorities.
While air drops of aid have been carried out into Gaza, humanitarian agencies say they aren't enough to deal with worsening levels of starvation in the area.
At the caucus meeting, Mr Albanese was also asked about Palestinian statehood.
He referenced a Nelson Mandela quote, saying 'it always seems impossible until it's done'.
The prime minister has previously said any resolution on the issue would need to guarantee that Hamas, the de facto ruling authority in Gaza, which Australia has designated a terrorist group, plays no part in the future nation.
There would also need to be agreements on the rebuilding of Gaza and the West Bank, and a resolution of issues over the expansion of Israeli settlements.
Recognition of Palestinian statehood has been part of Labor's national platform since 2018.
Labor is facing intensifying pressure to follow France in recognising a Palestinian state at a United Nations General Assembly meeting in September.
The Greens are calling on the government to impose the same sanctions on Israel as it had done so for Russia.
The minor party is also seeking a ban on buying items that can help fund the war, pointing to sanctions on pearls and truffles for Russia.
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BBC News
3 minutes ago
- BBC News
Israel and hostages' families condemn UK plan to recognise Palestinian state
Israel and the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza have condemned the UK's plan to recognise a Palestinian state, saying it is "rewarding terrorism".Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused his counterpart, Sir Keir Starmer, of appeasing Hamas with the announcement that the UK would act in September unless Israel met conditions including agreeing a ceasefire in Hostages and Missing Families Forum said abducting people "should not serve as the foundation for establishing a state", while a British-Israeli former hostage accused Starmer of "moral failure".The UK's transport minister denied it was rewarding Hamas and said the move was "about the Palestinian people". Heidi Alexander said the UK expected Hamas to "act in the same way as we expect Israel to act", when asked if releasing the hostages was a condition of Starmer's Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said the UK had taken a vital step to preserve the two-state solution - the internationally approved formula for peace that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza. In a major change in foreign policy, Starmer announced on Tuesday that the UK would recognise the State of Palestine in September unless the Israeli government took "substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution".He also said Israel must allow the UN to restart the supply of aid in Gaza and make clear that there would be no annexations in the occupied West added: "Meanwhile, our message to the terrorists of Hamas is unchanged and unequivocal. They must immediately release all the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza."The prime minister said that this was "the movement to act" because the prospect of a two-state solution was "now under threat".His decision came a week after France said it would recognise a Palestinian state in September. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said they were "putting an end to the endless cycle of violence and reopening the prospect of peace in the region".Israel's foreign ministry swiftly rejected the British Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on X: "Starmer rewards Hamas's monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims.""A jihadist state on Israel's border today will threaten Britain tomorrow," he added. "Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen."Israel's permanent representative to the UN, Danny Danon, said it had "already agreed many times to a ceasefire" in Gaza and that it would "do whatever is necessary to bring home the hostages and defeat Hamas".On 7 October 2023, Hamas-led gunmen carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as launched a military campaign in Gaza in response, during which more than 60,000 people have been killed, according to the territory's Hamas-run health of Gaza's 2.1 million population has also been displaced multiple times; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed global food security experts have warned that the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" due to food Hostages and Missing Families Forum - which represents many hostages' relatives - also criticised the British and French initiatives."Recognising a Palestinian state while 50 hostages remain trapped in Hamas tunnels amounts to rewarding terrorism," a statement warned."If the international community truly desires peace, it must join US efforts by demanding first the release of all hostages, followed by an end to the fighting," it former hostage Emily Damari, who was released in January after 471 days in captivity during the last ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, said Starmer was "not standing on the right side of history"."Had he been in power during World War II, would he have advocated recognition for Nazi control of occupied countries like Holland, France or Poland?" she wrote in a post on Instagram. "This is not diplomacy - it is a moral failure. Shame on you, prime minister."However, the father of Nimrod Cohen, one of the hostages still in Gaza, disagreed with the Hostages Families Forum's statement."In my opinion, recognition of a Palestinian state creates pressure on those truly responsible for delaying and ensuring the return of the hostages - Hamas's financier, Benjamin Netanyahu," Yehuda Cohen said, referring to the prime minister's decision to allow Qatar to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of aid for Gaza during Hamas's response to the criticism of Starmer's announcement, UK transport minister Heidi Alexander said: "This is not a reward for Hamas."Hamas is a vile terrorist organisation that has committed appalling atrocities. This is about the Palestinian people. It's about those children that we see in Gaza who are starving to death," she told LBC radio. "We've got to ratchet up pressure on the Israeli government to lift the restrictions to get aid back into Gaza." The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control, called it a "courageous step that places the UK on the right side of history".A statement from the PA's foreign ministry said it valued the UK's position on the situation of the Palestinians people, especially those in Gaza, and its support for "enabling the State of Palestine to exercise its political and legal authority over all the Palestinian territories occupied [during the Middle East war] in 1967 - as a path toward achieving peace".The ministry also called on other countries to recognise a Palestinian state "as a means of safeguarding the two-state solution and confronting the crimes" against al-Kidwa, a former Palestinian foreign minister who is also nephew of the late leader Yasser Arafat, told the BBC that the UK announcement was important."It puts some kind of parameters for the country that is recognising the State of Palestine. First, to oppose any attempts of Israeli annexation of any parts of the West Bank and maybe Gaza. Second, to oppose any attempts for settler colonialism in general," he said."And most importantly, it also opposes Israeli attempts to present the situation as if Israel has the right to say 'yes' or 'no' for Palestinian statehood, which is totally false."
The Guardian
3 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The go-between: inside the 1 August Guardian Weekly
As this week's issue of the Guardian Weekly went to press, a UN-backed monitor said famine was now unfolding in Gaza. That statement came less than 24 hours after Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time that there was 'real starvation' and told Israel to allow 'every ounce of food' into Gaza. This week's big story, led by on-the-ground reporting by Gaza-based journalist Malak A Tantash, focuses on the limited pause in fighting by Israel to allow aid deliveries. The pictures of malnourished Palestinians that prompted Trump to speak out, along with this week's UN conference on a peace settlement to end the war, will hopefully lead back to a negotiating table in Qatar. For our cover story, Nesrine Malik examines how this tiny Gulf state managed to position itself as the key player on the chessboard of international relations. Her in-depth essay goes back to the setting up of Al Jazeera in Doha in 1996 and its role in 2011's Arab spring, the discovery of vast offshore gas deposits and how the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has leveraged his contacts and Qatar's position in the Gulf to bolster the country's own security. Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address Spotlight | Russia's kamikaze attacks Luke Harding reports from the frontline in Dnipropetrovsk as once-safe Ukrainian villages are abandoned and the last inhabitants leave their animals and vegetable gardens behind Environment | Nature fakes Photographer and author of The Anthropocene Illusion, Zed Nelson reflects on the how humans seek to recreate versions of the environments and creatures they have destroyed to satisfy their cravings to be in nature Science | Life of plastics The journey of a single thread is traced by Phoebe Weston and Tess McClure, from garment to field and onwards, to illustrate how ubiquitous microplastic pollution has become Opinion | Queens of England As we celebrate the Lionesses' historic win, isn't it time English football fans stopped chasing glory through their men's teams when the women are the ones delivering, asks Ava Vidal Culture | In the cradle of country music As the Grand Ole Opry turns 100, Jewly Hight visits the Nashville institution to find out how it has kept reinventing itself while honouring tradition over the decades Throughout the women's Euros tournament, the Guardian team's coverage has been superlative (and I'm not just saying that in the glow of England's victory); from authoritative player profiles, to comprehensive match reporting and analysis of what it means for the grassroots game. The Lionesses took supporters through a rollercoaster journey, and my colleagues were there to capture every nail-biting, joyous, extraordinary minute of it. Clare Horton, assistant editor I found this piece on people's experiences with location sharing really interesting to read. Personally, I have only ever used these features temporarily when trying to find a friend in a busy train station or guide someone to where I am, so the idea of always-on surveillance-like location sharing is foreign to me. I agree with the author: just because we can, does it mean we should? Daya Page, CRM executive Audio | The hunt for the next Dalai Lama Video | How civil nuclear power funds nuclear weapons Gallery | Women's Euro 2025: the best pictures from a dramatic tournament We'd love to hear your thoughts on the magazine: for submissions to our letters page, please email For anything else, it's Facebook Instagram Get the Guardian Weekly magazine delivered to your home address
The Guardian
3 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Antisemitism training designed by pro-Israel groups is becoming compulsory at US colleges. What's in it?
Near the end of an antisemitism training video that Northwestern University students are required to watch, the narrator urges viewers to play a guessing game. Six statements pop on to the screen – the viewer must choose whether they were made by 'anti-Israel activists' or the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. Among the statements: 'Every time I read Hitler, I fall in love again.' The video reveals that the statement was made by an 'anti-Israel activist'. The narrator then states: 'The fact that you can't tell the difference is terrifying.' He adds that for most Jews, being anti-Israel and antisemitic 'are the same'. The video is part of a wave of controversial antisemitism trainings being implemented by universities across the US starting this school year, in response to Trump administration threats to pull funding for institutions that, in its view, fail to adequately address campus antisemitism. It is not clear how universities will enforce student participation. The Northwestern training was produced by the Jewish United Federation (JUF) , a pro-Israel advocacy group, and it drew pushback from some students. The Hitler statement was probably tweeted in 2013 by a high school student, members of pro-Palestinain Northwestern groups found. They accused JUF of cherrypicking a child's comment made 12 years ago to portray all criticism of Israel and Zionism as antisemitic. Moreover, the Hitler comment was placed among statements that legitimately criticize the Israeli government and are not antisemitic. The broader goal is to silence opposition to Israel's genocide in Gaza, said Micol Bez, a Jewish graduate student at Northwestern who is supportive of Palestinian rights. 'We were shocked by the video … which directly vilifies the movement for rights for Palestinian people and non-Zionist Jews who stand against genocide,' Bez said. 'It explicitly requires students to adopt the position that there's no room for anti-Zionism, and that all anti-Zionism is antisemitic.' The trainings' opponents, many of them Jewish, say the material does little to protect Jews. They accuse the Trump administration of wielding often false claims of antisemitism for two ends – to cut funding for universities as the president wages a culture war on higher education, and to help rightwing pro-Israel groups silence legitimate criticism of Israel. At least 60 universities so far have been investigated by the US Department of Education for potential violations of Title VI, a law that prohibits schools from discrimination based on race, ethnicity and religion. Columbia University, City University of New York, Harvard University and Barnard University are among those implementing the antisemitism trainings, which were generally developed after the Trump crackdown, and may aim to appease the Trump administration. At Northwestern, which is under multiple federal investigations for alleged antisemitism, the university emailed students in March to say that the implementation of the training 'will adhere to federal policy including President Donald Trump's Jan. 29 executive order, 'Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism''. Students who do not complete the training cannot register for classes, while graduate students can lose stipends. Bez said she had viewed the training, but had so far refused to officially complete it and the university had put a hold on her registration. Introducing the training has not helped Northwestern's relationship with the Trump administration. Even after implementing it, the administration cut $790m in research funding. Trump is now trying to extract further concessions. 'They thought this would save them – it did not,' said Noah Cooper, a Northwestern sophomore and an anti-Zionist with Jewish Voice for Peace who completed the training. The Guardian reviewed training materials developed by the JUF and the Anti-Defamation League, which both push pro-Israel agendas in the US, and found the overarching message is that criticism of Israel or Zionism is antisemitic. The materials advise students on how to respond to antisemitic or anti-Israel speech, and spread a pro-Israel message. That includes tips on effective online debating, media strategies and how to pressure administrators into cracking down on anti-Israel campus speech. Some Jewish and free speech groups have raised a litany of concerns about the materials, including that they are often one-sided, misleading, vague and sometimes historically inaccurate. Not only did the trainings do little to protect Jews from antisemitism, the universities and Trump may even be endangering Jews because they are 'allowing antisemitism to be used for other political purposes', like attacking higher education, said Jeremy Jacobs, executive director of J Street, a center-left, pro-Zionist lobbying and cultural organization. 'If people start to see that their universities, their medical research and their neighbors' immigration status and right to due process are being endangered because the Jewish community is pressuring for enforcement in ways that go way too far – that will generate actual antisemitism,' Jacobs added. In an email, a Northwestern spokesperson said students 'are not required to agree' with the antisemitism trainings and stressed that the speaker in the video said he did not speak for all Jewish people. 'However, he does represent how many in the Jewish community feel when targeted with certain actions and words, and we believe it is important for our students to have an understanding of that,' the spokesperson wrote. The ADL also has created their own antisemitism training and is partnering with Columbia among other universities to implement it. A centerpiece of their 'Think. Plan. Act.' toolkit for higher education is a section titled 'How can I be prepared for antisemitic and anti-Israel bias on campus? Scenarios and best practices.' It lays out 10 hypothetical antisemitic and 'anti-Israel situations', why the ADL views them as a problem and advises students on how to respond. One scenario explains why someone spray-painting swastikas on a Jewish fraternity home is a problem, while another example examines why fliers criticizing the Israeli government for demolishing Palestinian homes is similarly an issue. A third raises concerns over a hypothetical 'charge that a sponsored Israel trip Is 'pro-apartheid propaganda''. Lumping together examples of legitimate criticism of Israel's government and obvious antisemitic acts is designed to convince students and administrators that the actions are similarly problematic, critics say. It also appears to raise the specter of Title VI discrimination violations, said Veronica Salama, an attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union. However, Title VI doesn't protect against criticism of countries, and a term like 'anti-Israel situation' has no legal meaning, Salama said. But the ADL's intent is evident, she added. 'The tactic is to scare universities into placing a limitation on this type of speech for fear that they will get hit with a Title VI lawsuit or be investigated by the Trump administration,' Salama said. The ADL's hypothetical scenario involving flyers critical of Israel's demolition program encapsulates many other issues that those who reviewed the material or completed a training raised. The scenario begins with a student leaving their dorm room to find a flyer taped to the door 'warning that your residence hall will soon be demolished'. 'The rest of the flyer contains 'facts' about how many Palestinian homes have been demolished by the Israeli military to collectively punish and 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians,' the toolkit continues. The ADL is referring to the highly charged debate over Israel's mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank. The training material then offers the Israeli narrative around the demolitions, claiming they target 'terrorists' and 'deter others from terrorist action'. Other homes were demolished because they were 'built without proper permits', the ADL states. 'While you may agree or disagree with these Israeli government actions, the charge that Israel has demolished these homes to 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians is inaccurate and inflammatory,' the ADL material states. The Palestinian perspective on the demolitions is not found in the training material, and excluding their side story is a problem, those who reviewed the material said. As many as 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank alone, including refugee camps, are estimated to have been forced from their homes since the beginning of 2024, in addition to millions more in Israel and the Palestinian territories in previous decades. A UN special rapporteur in March warned of an 'ethnic cleansing' in the West Bank as Israel has accelerated demolitions. Meanwhile, the Israeli military often won't issue building permits to Palestinians. The antisemitism training video was shown as part of a new mandatory bias training called Building a Community of Respect and Breaking Down Bias. The antisemitism video is shown alongside a separate video made in partnership with The Inclusion Expert, a bias training company, on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias, and a third video about campus protest. The Islamophobia training covers forms of bias and racism toward Arab, Muslim and Palestinian people. But, unlike the JUF antisemitism video that presented a pro-Israel viewpoint on the conflict, there was no historical context or basic arguments for the Palestinian cause. Nor did it mention what has happened in Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attack. 'The point was not to foster conversation or give people a nuanced view of this conflict,' Northwestern's Cooper said. 'The point was to get people to agree on one particular worldview.' The trainings also drew criticism because they are often vague, and demand different standards for the Israeli and Palestinian causes. The ADL concedes that the hypothetical flyers criticizing Israel over its demolition of Palestinian homes 'could represent legitimate political discourse'. But it states that the flyers would be 'less acceptable' if the university administration had approved of them. 'What this training is saying is, 'If your school allows let's say Students for Justice in Palestine to put up a flyer like this, then they are necessarily violating Title VI', and that is just not true,' Salama said. The ADL's material repeatedly advises students on how to respond to criticism of Israel and antisemitism. It suggests pressuring administration to respond, contacting Hillel, reporting issues to the ADL or writing op-eds, among other actions. 'Strategize with your friends, campus Hillel and/or representatives of the pro-Israel community about countering the false allegations made in the flier and further educating about Israel's security challenges,' the ADL states. Northwestern students pointed to a list of controversial statements and claims made throughout the antisemitism training video, called 'Antisemitism Here/Now'. It employs a controversial and legally dubious definition of antisemitism written by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, that critics say equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The video states that Israel was founded in 1948 'on British land', and refers to the West Bank as 'Judea and Samaria', the biblical name controversially used for the region by the Israeli government. The original Jewish homeland comprises parts of modern-day Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, the video states. Bez questioned why the university did not utilize Northwestern scholars on the region and its history, and instead hired an outside pro-Israel group to develop the training. 'The content is incredibly unscholarly and has really, really egregious claims,' Bez said. 'It erases the pain and suffering of Palestinian people, and normalizes language that is being used to push the occupation.' In a statement, a Northwestern spokesperson said, 'part the University's mission is exposing our students to viewpoints that are different, and in some cases challenging, from their own – a key part of Northwestern's mission.' Meanwhile, as the narrator attempts to conflate Judaism and Zionism, it states that the 'vast majority' of Jewish people are Zionist. 'I am an anti-Zionist Jew and it doesn't make me feel good, safe or protected in the way the video claimed to,' Cooper said.
