In recent weeks, ties between Israel and Australia have significantly soured.
A series of moves by Canberra, including the decision to recognize a Palestinian state, mark a dangerous turn and have sharply damaged its relationship with Jerusalem. Israel, in turn, has pushed back by tightening its scrutiny of visas for Australian diplomats and making clear that Aussie double standards will not be tolerated.
But the irony is staggering. For Australia, of all nations, to accuse Israel of “occupation” or to act as though it holds the moral high ground on indigenous rights is the height of hypocrisy. After all, Australia itself is a state that is literally built on the violent conquest and dispossession of its indigenous population, a colonial project whose aftershocks reverberate to this day.
'Terra nullius'
After the British arrived on the continent in 1788 and established the penal colony of New South Wales, they declared the land to be terra nullius, which is Latin for “land belonging to no one.” This legal principle served as the basis for Britain to raise the Union Jack over Australia without a thought for the Aboriginal peoples who had inhabited the country for millennia.
Over the following century, mass killings, forced removals, and deliberate starvation campaigns wiped out entire communities. Historians and human rights advocates have called it a genocide aimed at clearing the way for a colonial takeover.
The story did not end in the 19th century. In 1901, the six British colonies on the island joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australia and were granted self-rule in domestic affairs.
Through the mid-20th century, the Australian government orchestrated a policy that came to be known as the infamous “Stolen Generations,” ripping Aboriginal children away from their parents and placing them in white foster homes or institutions in an attempt to forcibly assimilate them. To this day, Aboriginal Australians suffer from dramatically lower life expectancy, higher incarceration rates, and widespread social discrimination.
Coming to terms
Hence, for the Australian government, which has difficulty coming to terms with its own original sin of dispossession, to deem itself fit to lecture Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people who are indigenous to the Land of Israel, is absurd.
Australia’s hypocrisy is not limited to its mainland. Consider the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, two remote atolls in the Indian Ocean some 2,750 km. from Canberra. Originally settled by Malay workers and long tied to regional trade, the islands were unilaterally annexed by Britain in the 19th century and later transferred to Australian administration in 1955.
Today, Australia continues to exercise full sovereignty over the territory, treating it as a strategic military outpost and resource hub. The Cocos Islands are even being developed for expanded airstrips to host surveillance aircraft aimed at projecting Australian power across the Indo-Pacific.
Denouncing Judea and Samaria
Yet Canberra, while clinging to far-flung islands it acquired through pure colonial fiat, dares to denounce Israel for settling Judea and Samaria, the cradle and heartland of Jewish history.
How can Australia justify governing islands thousands of kilometers away while questioning the Jewish people’s right to live in Hebron, Shiloh, or Jerusalem?
Nor is this an isolated case. Australia’s conduct in the Timor Gap offers another telling example. The 1989 treaty it signed with Indonesia allowed both nations to exploit oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
In 2002, East Timor gained independence from Indonesia and challenged the treaty, demanding its fair share, which Australia initially opposed. Canberra shamelessly cut deals over resources it had no claim to, leaving the East Timorese people robbed of their wealth.
Only years later, in 2018, and under international pressure, did Australia agree to a fairer division by redrawing its maritime boundaries as part of a deal mediated by the United Nations.
Preaching morality
This is hardly the behavior of a nation that can deem to preach to others about morality or international law.
Australia’s double standards became patently clear earlier this week when it rescinded the visa of MK Simcha Rothman just hours before his planned trip to the country, citing his “far Right” positions.
Canberra did not hesitate to humiliate a democratically elected member of Israel’s parliament, while at the same time entertaining the prospect of recognizing a Palestinian state, a move that would reward terrorism, encourage further violence, and undermine any chance of peace.
Unlike Australia, whose colonial project rests upon a 200-year history of conquest, the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is ancient and eternal. Our forefathers were buried in Hebron, where Abraham purchased the Tomb of the Patriarchs nearly 3,800 years ago. Our kings reigned in Jerusalem, where the Temple once stood. And though we were dispersed by Roman force, we never relinquished our claim.
The rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948 was not an act of colonialism but of homecoming. It was an indigenous people, the Jewish people, returning to its ancestral homeland. The attempt to cast Israel as a foreign occupier is not only a lie, it is a slander that seeks to erase Jewish history.
Order at home first
So before Australia starts to consider recognizing a Palestinian state, it should first put its own house in order. Let Australia return the vast stretches of land it seized from Aboriginal peoples. Let it forgo sovereignty over its various external territories, such as the Cocos Islands, to which it has no real connection. And let it take serious and concerted steps to assist those from among the Stolen Generations.
Until then, Australia has no moral authority to pass judgment on the Jewish state.
Israel, for its part, should not bow before such hypocrisy. We must stand firm in the face of international pressure and assert our rights – historical, biblical, and legal – to Judea and Samaria and every part of our homeland.
Australia is, of course, entitled to make its foreign policy choices, however misguided they might be. But it is not entitled to rewrite history nor to apply a double standard toward Israel. A nation born of occupation and built on the suffering of indigenous peoples should tread carefully before pointing fingers at the Jewish state.
For, unlike Australia, Israel’s bond with its land is unshakable, rooted not in colonial conquest but in divine and historical covenant. And no amount of Australian hypocrisy can change that.
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.