Australia remains silent on Israeli destruction of its war graves in Gaza

The Australian government was aware of the damage caused by Israeli forces to an Australian war cemetery in the Gaza Strip this year, but did nothing, a parliamentary hearing revealed.

Senator David Shoebridge questioned a representative of the Australian Department of Defense about a “very disturbing” CNN Report from January this year on the desecration of several graves in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces.

Shoebridge of the Green Party confirmed that 263 Australian soldiers were buried in a war cemetery in the besieged Gaza Strip and asked the Ministry of Defence representative what damage had been done to the graves.

In his response to the Senator, the defense attorney confirmed that there was indeed damage to the cemetery in March. He acknowledged that there was “some damage” to the cemetery and that the head gardener’s house was destroyed.

“However, we have not been able to obtain any further information since then,” she added.

Shoebridge asked whether the Department of Defence had requested information from the Israeli military about the damage to Australian war graves.

“We have not made any requests to the Israeli military,” was the representative’s response.

The Senator noted that the destruction of war graves in Gaza was not unprecedented and asked whether Australia, like Britain, had demanded compensation for the destroyed war graves where its soldiers are buried.

The defence representative responded hesitantly, checking her notes. Her only response was that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission oversees the war graves in Gaza, including the Australian ones.

“Yes?” Shoebridge replied, asking for further clarification.

“The Commonwealth War Graves Commission will make an assessment once it has access to the site,” the defence representative concluded in her response.

The new Arab has asked the Australian High Commission in London for comment.

In 2008, the Israeli government agreed to finance the restoration of a British war cemetery in Gaza City that had been damaged during months of fighting with Palestinian groups sparked by the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.

At that time, Great Britain had received compensation of around £20,000.

During World War II and under British rule in Palestine, Gaza hosted an Australian hospital base as well as the infantry of the First Australian Imperial Force.

The Gaza War Cemetery contains 3,217 Commonwealth graves from World War I – 781 of them unidentified – and 210 graves from World War II.

In addition, there are 30 post-war graves and 234 war graves of other nationalities.

Australia is one of Israel’s oldest allies and strongly supports the war against Gaza, in which at least 37,950 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed since October.

Together with other Western states such as Canada and New Zealand, it supports a “sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, but does not call for a complete end to the fighting.