Complaint Lodged Against Peter Dutton for Inciting Hatred Towards Palestinians

Australian law firm Birchgrove Legal has lodged a claim against Liberal opposition leader Peter Dutton with the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), outlining that the politician who has the potential to be this nation’s next prime minister has been partaking in discrimination against and incitement of hatred towards Palestinians, in respect of his commentary on the Gaza genocide.

A 25 November 2024 statement regarding the legal action explains that it identifies 22 incidents that, over the course of Israel’s assault upon the captive Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, have seen the former home affairs minister dehumanising the Indigenous population of the Palestinian territory that’s “plausibly” under genocidal attack, according to the International Court of Justice.

The legal action has been mounted by Jewish academic Professor Peter Slezak and tireless advocate for Palestinian rights Nasser Mashni, as the pair accuse the leader of the Liberal Nationals coalition of dehumanising Palestinians, Muslims and Jewish people, along with broadly stigmatising all Australians who support the Palestinian cause.

The remedies sought by the well-known social justice advocates include Dutton making an apology in regard to his actions, along with rectification and the provision of compensation in relation to the harassment and hate that one of the most powerful people in the country has subjected a people suffering a massive attack upon their very existence to, along with those who defend them.

Inciting hate

“Mr Dutton’s pattern of spreading disinformation to justify the demonisation and oppression of a people facing plausible genocide is not only in poor taste, but a violation of human rights,” said Birchgrove Legal principal solicitor Moustafa Kheir on Monday, and he underscored that the statements of this major party leader have been normalising hatred towards Palestinians.

“This legal action seeks to ensure that political leaders are held accountable for their words and actions, and that we are all prescribed to the same judicial system despite our cultural background, privilege or faith,” the lawyer underscored.

The 25 November Birchgrove Legal statement provides a summary of the key allegations that Dutton now stands charged with, which include his having suggested in August that the provision of 3,000 tourist visas to Palestinian refugees fleeing Gaza, the site of a genocide, was akin to providing safe passage to terrorists. And he also insinuated that asylum was provided to shore up the Muslim vote.

Other alleged statements made involve Dutton reinforcing negative claims about Palestinian actions after these incidents had been proven false, the Liberal leader has also called for “no restraint” in relation to Israel’s Gaza intervention and he’s called for the deportation of pro-Palestinians demonstrators. And Dutton has further denied mass atrocities and disparaged Muslims.

“On one side, we have a government refusing to impose sanctions, and on the other, an opposition leader encouraging Australia to flout international law and withhold empathy to the human suffering occurring,” said Mashni, the president of Australia Palestine Action Network (APAN).

“Our community urgently needs Australia to take a firm stand against Israel’s ongoing genocide, which will only end with sustained international pressure,” the Palestinian man said last Monday.

Canberra’s complicity

Birchgrove has outlined that the accusation of incitement to hate levelled at Dutton represents local Palestinian, Jewish and Muslim communities. The law firm further considers the Liberal leader’s behavior has flown in the face of the nation’s, and hence, his, legal obligations that stem from the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Article 1 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, of which Australia is a party, obligates nation states to do all they can to prevent and punish the commission of genocide, whilst the 2002 enacted Rome Statute required our nation to insert the various forms of the crimes of genocide into domestic law, so that it can be punished locally.

The current claim lodged with the AHRC is not the first legal action that Birchgrove Legal has launched in relation to the genocide in Gaza, as in March it presented the Conduct of Members of the Parliament of Australia, in Relation to the Situation in Gaza, Palestine: Accessorial Liability for Genocide communique to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.

This document thoroughly details instances in which prime minister Anthony Albanese, deputy PM Richard Marles, foreign minister Penny Wong, then home affairs minister Clare O’Neil, government services minister Bill Shorten and opposition leader Dutton are taken to have made statements that reveal their complicity in the crimes of the Gaza genocide.

ICC prosecutor Khan accepted the brief of evidence and inserted it into the broader Situation in the State of Palestine inquiry that the court is considering, which is the same case that resulted in the issuing of international arrest warrants against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant last week, in relation to crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

Prosecuting génocidaires

The hate vilification claim lodged against Dutton is the latest attempt by Australian lawyers to bring some form of justice in regard to Australian politicians, whom they consider have only assisted the Israeli state in the perpetration of a 14-month-long genocide with an official death toll that now stands at over 44,000 people, which is likely to be thousands upon thousands greater in number.

The Birchgrove Legal claim against chiefly Albanese in March was a major development along this path.

A key hindrance in exercising the Rome Statute atrocity offences that sit within division 268 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) is that the Howard government established the attorney general’s fiat, which requires the nation’s chief lawmaker to sign off on an international criminal offence prosecution, and thus far, the office bearer has knocked back every case that’s been raised.

Right now, Krautungalung elder Uncle Robbie Thorpe has a case before the Magistrates Court of Victoria charging former advisor to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Mark Regev with advocating genocide, and because this offence does not require AG sign-off, the Israeli state has already begun defending against the prosecution. And the next hearing of this matter is set for 11 December.

“Dutton is using the same security threat language against Palestinians that was once used to demonise Jewish people before the Holocaust – and worse, he claims to do this in our name,” Professor Slezak added on Monday.

“Like many Jewish Australians, I grieve the atrocities Israel is committing against Palestinians and we will not be intimidated into silence.”

“Statements that dehumanise any group of people, including Palestinians, must be challenged,” the University of Sydney academic continued. “All parties responsible must be held accountable for statements that dehumanise certain groups and fuel division, including Palestinians, whose suffering deserves recognition.”