Queensland teenager Oliver Bridgeman has been in Syria since 2015 allegedly doing humanitarian work but he is regarded as such a threat to national security that his passport has been cancelled and a warrant for his arrest issued.
In comparison, the Australian government permitted the war criminal, former Israeli Defense Force Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, to enter Australia fully aware of his monstrous attacks on Gaza using illegal white phosphorous and the most modern weapons.
In 2014 Gantz masterminded the Gaza blitzkrieg which killed 2,310 Palestinians including 504 children, wounded 10,626 and pulverised urban areas leaving 90,000 civilians homeless.
Australia is also well aware that the UN International Criminal Court is reviewing the last Gaza war for war crimes.
Australia has signed and ratified the UN Arms Trade Treaty Article 6: 3. of which states: A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) or of items covered under Article 3 or Article 4, if it has knowledge at the time of authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a Party.
In spite of this, Australia supports the Israeli arms industry which boasts that its weapons are tested in vivo on Palestinian families who are deliberately trapped in the Zionist military laboratory of Gaza; this gives them a ‘marketing edge’. To their great credit the Greens tried to debate Gantz’s visit in the Senate but it was disallowed.
I have referred Gantz to the Australian Federal Police claiming that his visit is in breach of Commonwealth law but have not had a response.
Gareth W R Smith, Palestine Liberation Centre, Byron Bay
Mr Smith has had no response from the Police, probably because his claims are unfounded, in fact preposterous.
Instead of vilifying Israel and its defenders, Smith would achieve more for the Arabs of the region by holding their corrupt, murderous dictators to account.