On 3 July, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, urged states to sever all financial and trade ties with Israel and impose a full arms embargo. She described the situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic,” accusing Israel of carrying out “one of the cruelest genocides in modern history.” Over 58,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in 21 months of relentless Israeli bombing, with an estimated 41% of further casualties uncounted beneath the rubble. 59% of the dead are women, children, and people over the age of 65. Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been pushed to the brink of famine as Israel blocks humanitarian aid from entering – including food, medicine and fuel.

Throughout the genocide the Australian Labor Party (ALP) government’s narrative has been that they are a powerless bystander, with no ability to affect the situation. Labor politicians tried to spin a further myth after the recent federal election result: that the election demonstrated a centrist national consensus in support of their pro-Israel stance. This myth attempts to conceal Australia’s clear, material support for Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. With these stories, the ALP deny their complicity.

The Helpless Bystander Narrative

The “Helpless Bystander” narrative is not new – it’s a continuation of the ALP’s account since the beginning of the genocide. At a March press conference, when asked what the government is “actively doing now that Israel has broken the ceasefire”, Albanese responded that Labor has “maintained our same position” of purportedly ‘wanting’ to see the ceasefire continued, but “we’re not major players in the Middle-East, that’s just the truth of the matter”.

In an interview on 28 May, when asked if the ALP would respond to calls from rank-and-file Party members to “go further than your strong comments”, Albanese again stressed the consistency of Labor’s position:

…we follow our own path and Australia determines our own foreign policy. And we’ve been very consistent the whole way through. … We don’t provide military assets to Israel or to that region … But we make it clear as we have consistently, we want to see a ceasefire, we want to see hostages released, we see Hamas has no role in the future, but we also want to see humanitarian aid delivered to people in Gaza. So we’ve been very consistent and, you know, we as a Government will continue to act in that way.

But contrary to any meaningful support for a ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid, the ALP has maintained Australia’s material support for Israel’s genocide – including providing military assets.

The ALP’s Material Support for Genocide: F-35s

The Labor government under Albanese has maintained Australia’s involvement in the F-35 program, which provides crucial parts and maintenance for F-35 fighter jets used by Israel. An investigation by Declassified Australia found that, despite repeated government denials, F-35 parts manufactured in Australia have been shipped directly to Israel as recently as last week, representing “clear evidence of Australia’s complicity in Israeli war crimes”.

Currently, over 70 Australian companies contribute to parts production and maintenance of F-35 bombers. Every F-35 bomber produced contains parts made in Australia. On April 25th this year, the Israeli army announced it had received three more F-35s, bringing its total fleet to 45, with purchase agreements signed for 75. Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee commented that since the beginning of the genocide in the Gaza Strip, “F35 aircraft have been operating at an unprecedented operational pace and are participating in defensive and offensive missions on various fronts.”

Undeniably, Australian factories are producing weapon parts that are being used by Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. As the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) reported:

Israel’s use of F-35 jets (with Australian made sole-source parts) in its wide-scale bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza has been publicly documented. In one such instance, an F-35 jet was used by Israel in July 2024 to drop three 2,000 lb bombs on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, Gaza, a so-called “safe zone”, killing 90 Palestinians.

The federal Labor government and Defence department have repeatedly dismissed accusations of complicity in genocide through the F-35 program, arguing that providing Israel with ‘only weapon parts’ somehow makes Australia less responsible. Yet almost all complex modern machinery uses multiple suppliers. In June this year, when pressed by Greens Senator David Shoebridge, a Defence official responded:

We would say the export permits that we have where Israel is a destination country relate to parts, component parts or full systems that would relate to DGSL list 1 or 2, but we would not regard them as in and of themselves as conventional arms.

Other Australian exports to Israel regarded by Labor as not ‘in and of themselves conventional arms’ include transponders manufactured by Microair Avionics and used in lethal drones, armoured steel manufactured by Bisalloy Steel and used for Israeli ‘Defence’ Force vehicles, and the ‘Smash Hopper’ light-weight machine gun produced by SMASH Australia Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Israeli weapons company Smart Shooter.

Violation of Export Controls Exposed

On 11 April this year, the ABC revealed the Israeli Defence Force had completed trials of an advanced remote weapon system (RWS) designed and built by Australian company Electro Optic Systems (EOS). A defence industry source claimed, “the Australian-made components were first sent to an EOS entity in the United States for assembly, before being shipped to Israel without an Australian export approval.”

Three weeks later, Declassified Australia reporter Michelle Fahy revealed the RWS weapon was “actually just one of a few that were sold by the Canberra-based company Electro Optic Systems (EOS) and sent through its wholly-owned US subsidiary to Israel.” Fahy noted that after the news of the EOS weapon broke, the word “directly” began appearing in Labor statements insisting that Australian weapons are not being sent to Israel.

In December 2023, the United States approved the export of US$147.5 million worth of 155mm shells to Israel, including Thales M795 shells manufactured in Australia – fully completed.

Pine Gap and Australia’s Growing Investment in Elbit Systems

Largely unmentioned in mainstream coverage is the involvement of the Pine Gap US surveillance base, located 18km south-west of Alice Springs, in support for the Gaza genocide. While the Labor government refuses to discuss the role of Pine Gap, NSA veteran and former Pine Gap employee David Rosenberg says that the “facility is monitoring the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas with all its resources, and gathering intelligence assessed to be useful to Israel.” This is hardly surprising, as Pine Gap-derived satellite intelligence has been passed on to Israel to assist it in past wars, and NSA intelligence sharing agreements with Israel potentially give it access to any surveillance data collected by the Five Eyes network, despite it not being a member.

Then there’s the Albanese government’s growing investments in Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, which Australians may remember as the manufacturer of the drone that killed Zomi Frankcom on April 1, 2024. The murder of Frankcom did not lead Labor to back out of a $917 million defence contract it signed with Elbit Systems in February 2024, when the death toll in Gaza was already nearing 30,000. It hasn’t led Labor to cancel of any of the other federal contracts with Elbit Systems, including a $9 million contract to maintain and repair thermal imaging equipment.

Under Labor’s watch, the Australian Government’s Future Fund holdings in Elbit Systems increased by 102% from June to December 2024. This followed an increase of 172% from October 2023 to June 2024. An April 2024 public petition calling on the Federal government to ban Elbit Systems from receiving Commonwealth government contracts was dismissed by federal Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, who maintained that Australia will not “boycott Israeli businesses”. In 2024, Elbit Systems celebrated an annual revenue of US$6.83 billion, with 14.3% yearly growth. In March 2025, it celebrated stronger quarterly profits “helped by higher revenue from Israel’s military during its war in Gaza”.

How “Balanced” is the ALP’s Position?

This military and economic support reveals the insincerity of Labor’s stated endorsement of a “two state solution.” This insincerity is affirmed by Labor’s repeated alliance with the LNP to defeat parliamentary motions that officially recognise the Palestinian state. Though they present their position as “balanced,” in fact it is distinctly partial to Israel.

Elsewhere, the ALP’s lack of commitment to a two-state solution is clear. In July 2024, Labor imposed sanctions and travel bans on seven individual Israeli settlers and one settler group for “beatings, sexual assault and torture”. A year later, Labor sanctioned another two individuals — Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — for “inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.” But the ALP has consistently refused to impose sanctions on Israel or its governing party in response to the genocide in Gaza, all while proudly maintaining sanctions on Hamas and other factions of the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) aptly described the ALP’s Magnitsky-style sanctions as “profoundly inadequate”. APAN President Nasser Mashni stated:

The Australian government’s contradictions are breathtaking. While it sanctions these two men, it refuses to acknowledge, let alone act upon, its legal obligations to prevent and punish Israel’s genocide. It continues to invest public money in companies identified by the UN as propping up Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid policies. It uses the cover of AUKUS to send Australian weapons and parts to the US, for onward export to Israel. It continues to purchase from and offer contracts to Israeli companies battle testing their weapons on Palestinians.

From October 2023 to August 2024 Home Affairs under Labor approved 2,922 visa applications from Palestinians fleeing Gaza and rejected 7,111. In this time, 8,746 visas were granted to Israeli citizens and only 235 were rejected.

Labor provided an additional $10 million to the World Food Programme for Gaza following Zomi Frankcom’s murder, a small sum compared with the more than $900 million invested in the Israeli company that played an integral role in her death. Labor’s public pledge to “push for a new declaration [by Israel] on the protection of humanitarian personnel” following Frankcom’s murder has amounted to nothing. At least 430 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, including 305 UN staff. Strong words from a reportedly “outraged” Albanese that “we want full accountability” for Frankcom’s murder also amounted to essentially nothing – a major and a colonel were dismissed from the IDF and a few commanders were reprimanded.

The ALP approved $52.8m for ‘social cohesion measures’ in Australia relating to the conflict, though of the $25 million set aside for Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities, $7 million was given to media organisations including the Australian Associated Press and SBS to “combat misinformation”, while a further $2 million was given to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Comparatively, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry was awarded $25 million directly.

A Swing Against the Greens on Palestine?

The re-elected federal Labor government was quick to frame both the Greens and the Liberal party’s electoral defeats as the result of their ‘extreme’ positions on Palestine. In comments to The Age newspaper (9 May, 2025) Foreign Minister Penny Wong defined the “clear lesson” from the elections: “Australians don’t want political leaders to amplify overseas conflict for their own purposes as the Greens and Liberals did”. Anthony Albanese and other Labor MPs were quick to parrot the line, with MP Julian Hill tweeting on 7 May that:

The extremist populist left and reactionary right shamefully weaponised the Gaza conflict and constantly sought to divide Australians and block progress. Defeat of both ‘leaders’ is the ultimate political price. The Australian people have rejected their toxic politics of division and mindless negativity.

The facts do not support this narrative. The Greens 11.8% primary vote, with a negligible -0.5% swing, indicates a sustained level of support.

The ALP’s primary vote of 34.7% rose by only 2.1% from 32.6% in 2022, while the LNP’s declined from 35.7% to 32.2%. Far from a huge upsurge in popular support for Labor driven by frustration with Greens and LNP ‘extremism’, the figures reveal only a very slight change. The biggest change is the collapse of the LNP vote, which the LNP’s extremist pro-Zionism may have contributed to. But the ALP’s claims of rejection of the Greens are little more than Labor political theatre.

The issue of Palestine may have been more important in Albanese’s own seat of Grayndler given that was the location of ongoing protests that virtually shut down his office for many months after October 7. Albanese’s claim that “Australians know that the Australian government is not responsible for what has occurred in the Middle East … that demonstration outside my electoral office turned off my local community” ignores the +4.2% swing to the Greens that comparatively dwarfed his smaller than average +0.8% swing.

From Statements to Action

In May 2024, while still a Labor senator, Fatima Payman called for sanctions and divestment from Israel:

I ask our prime minister and our fellow parliamentarians: how many international rights laws must Israel break for us to say enough? What is the magic number?

Albanese avoided rebuking Payman directly, but said:

The idea that we here in Australia can determine what is happening in the Middle East is just not correct. What we can do is to make our voice heard for humanitarian concerns.

But it is evident that Australian statements around humanitarian concerns are completely ineffective given the Israeli policy is still genocide. In fact, the public statements are aimed more at trying to sure up the ALP’s own domestic support. It is fundamentally unbelievable that such statements are truly aimed at influencing Israel while Labor refuses to take any concrete measures to stop supplying material, economic and political support to the IDF.

The ALP’s line that Australia has no real influence in the Middle East aims to reinforce public ignorance about Australia’s highly active imperialist role. The Australian defence force has been deployed for invasions of Iraq twice since 1991 and is now an integrated part of Israel’s international military supply chain, without which, the genocide would stop. Contrary to Albanese’s statement, if the Australian government did break military relations with Israel this would cause a huge political explosion internationally and put enormous pressure on the US, UK and the other imperialist powers to do the same.

Mild statements expressing “concern” for civilians just serve as obvious cover for the ALP and weapons companies, and provide the space for “our friend Israel” to see if it can finish the job. It’s imperative we make sure they cannot.