Australian Senator Urges Government to Join Hague Group on Palestine Amid Gaza Crisis
ANKARA, July 19 (VOM-Voice of Malaysia) – Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe is calling on the Albanese government to join the Hague Group on Palestine, pressing Canberra to support global efforts aimed at preventing genocide in Gaza and holding Israel accountable for alleged violations of international law.
Thorpe’s statement, released Friday via social media, comes after over 20 nations met in Bogotá earlier this week to coordinate legal, diplomatic, and economic actions against Israel in response to its military campaign in Gaza and continued occupation of Palestinian territories.
“This is what real action to end genocide looks like,” said Thorpe, applauding the Hague Group and its founding members, including Colombia, South Africa, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal.
The group, established in January in The Hague, Netherlands, aims to initiate legal proceedings against Israel at international forums such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The summit in Bogotá marked a major step, with some nations agreeing to halt arms transfers to Israel, block military shipments via maritime routes, and review public procurement to end contracts with companies linked to the occupation.
Australia, which received an invitation to the summit, did not attend—a decision Thorpe sharply criticized.
“Australia must join global efforts to prevent genocide and hold perpetrators to account. At an emergency summit in Bogotá, the Group announced coordinated diplomatic, legal, and economic actions to hold Israel accountable. Australia was invited — but chose not to attend,” she said.
Thorpe urged the Labor-led federal government to not only support the Hague Group’s initiative but also sign the collective agreement and adopt the “Red Lines Bills”—a “legislative proposal she tabled in Parliament alongside Senator Fatima Payman. The bills aim to bring Australia’s foreign policy in line with international legal standards and the Hague Group’s stated goals.
In a related development, Australian authorities have released Maha Almassri, a 61-year-old Palestinian woman whose visa was abruptly cancelled over unspecified national security concerns. Almassri, who fled Gaza in early 2024, was living in Sydney with her son when she was detained last Thursday by the Australian Border Force.
Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Customs Julian Hill had revoked her visa. While officials have not publicly shared the reasons, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated that publicly available information may not reflect the full details known to security agencies.
“Any information in the public domain is being supplied by the individual or her family and is not necessarily consistent with the information held by our intelligence and security agencies,” Burke said.
Almassri’s release follows public outcry from human rights groups and pro-Palestinian advocates, who have called for greater transparency in how the government handles cases involving asylum seekers and refugees fleeing conflict zones.
Thorpe has previously criticized Australia’s immigration and foreign policies toward Palestine, warning that the government must adopt a more principled and humanitarian stance amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
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