Australia has joined the UK and other western allies in introducing sanctions against “extremist settlers” accountable for the “horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians”.
The announcement was made overnight by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and will see sanctions imposed on six firms and one individual involved in enabling and financing the recent upsurge in settler violence in the West Bank.
A statement released by Dfat said:
double quotation markIn response to the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, we the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Norway and the United Kingdom, have taken coordinated action to introduce sanctions and other measures to hold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians.
Extremist violent settlers, with the backing of their supporters, continue to attack Palestinians and abuse their human rights. They use violence to displace Palestinians, destroy property and perpetuate the illegal settlement enterprise, undermining the viability of the State of Palestine and the prospects for peaceful coexistence.
For too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the Government of Israel. In some cases, settler violence takes place under the protection of Israel’s security forces. We continue to urge the Government of Israel to take action to ensure meaningful accountability for violence in the West Bank. The Government of Israel should ensure every attack is swiftly and thoroughly investigated, take action against the outposts and organisations that allow violence to flourish, and stop the incitement of violence.
We believe that peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians can only be achieved through the implementation of the two-state solution. Together, we will continue to work towards this goal.
We Australia, Canada, France, Norway, and the United Kingdom have all taken the historic decision to recognise the State of Palestine, reflecting the rights of the Palestinian people and as part of our common efforts to protect the viability of the two-state solution. Today, we are acting together again in support of the same objectives.
We stand ready to take more action if the Government of Israel does not take urgent steps to address the situation on the ground.
The high court will today rule on whether the Australian government should pay damages to a man it held in indefinite immigration detention for 18 months despite there being “no real prospect of [his] removal”.
Safwat Abdel-Hady’s case could determine whether the 350-or-so non-citizens affected by the high court’s ruling against indefinite detention in November 2023, known as the NZYQ cohort, are liable for damages for false imprisonment.
The Austrian citizen was placed in immigration detention in 2017 after his visa was cancelled by then home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, for pleading guilty to poisoning to endanger life or inflicting grievous bodily harm in 2012.
The federal circuit court ruled in June 2024 Abdel-Hady was declared not medically fit to travel for an 18-month period between July 2022 and February 2024 due to his medical conditions, and therefore there were no real prospects of removing him from Australia.
Abdel-Hady’s lawyers argued last November he should not have been detained by authorities using the precedent established in the 2004 case of Al-Kateb.
Lawyers acting for the government did not dispute that Abdel-Hady was wrongfully detained but argued the high court’s 2004 ruling had allowed authorities to detain someone indefinitely under the Migration Act before it was later ruled unlawful in 2023 in the NZYQ case.
We’ll bring you the judgment once it’s delivered after 10am.
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
Australia has joined the UK and other western allies in introducing sanctions against “extremist settlers” accountable for the “horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians”. More coming up.
The high court will today rule on whether the Australian government should pay damages to a man it held in indefinite immigration detention for 18 months despite there being “no real prospect of [his] removal”.
Source: Guardian - World News
