Trade in a time of genocide. Our exports to Israel growing fast

In defiance of international rulings to boycott Israel for its ongoing violence and brutal occupation of Palestinian lands, Australia’s exports to Israel have increased by 20% in 12 months. Kellie Tranter of Declassified Australia reports.

Editor’s note: This article was amended on 28 March following cross-checking by the author of statistics from the ABS and UN Comtrade.

This month, Israel unilaterally breached its US ‘guaranteed” ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Without a trace of humanity, it resumed its wholesale murderous slaughter of Palestinian civilians, including killing 174 children with bombs in one night, with countless others requiring amputations without anaesthesia. It also launched policies calculated to deprive all residents of Gaza of essentials, including food, water, sanitary services and electricity.

Every human being with a trace of morality or humanity should be appalled, and most people of the world probably are, yet our government doesn’t seem to be so afflicted. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, Australia’s exports to Israel throughout the genocide – everything from coal to copper – have continued.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) export data obtained by Declassified Australia shows that the value of Australia’s exports to Israel in the year 2024 totalled approximately $212m.

Defying the ICJ

On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that there was a plausible risk of Israel committing acts of genocide in Gaza. The Genocide Convention obliges State Parties to take action to prevent genocide. The ICJ has clarified that this obligation arises from the moment states are aware of a serious risk that acts of genocide are being committed. The Australian Government were made aware of the risk of genocide in Gaza by the ICJ’s 26 January 2024 order.

On 19 July 2024, the ICJ determined that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime and the annexation and use of Palestine’s natural resources. The Court made clear that third-party states must “abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel … which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory”.

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Furthermore, third-party states must “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

Declassified Australia has examined the latest export data from the ABS and UN Comtrade from January to December 2024, with Australian exports, including:

• coal, coke and briquettes, whether or not pulverised, but not agglomerated ($29,406,000)
• chemicals and related products ($4,883,000);
• iron and steel ($3,719,000); 
• non-ferrous metals, including copper ($14,000); 
• transport equipment including aircraft and associated equipment, spacecraft (including satellites) and spacecraft launch vehicles and parts thereof, agricultural machinery ($821,000);
• arms and ammunition ($1,534,000);  
• along with insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc.

Breaching the ICJ energy embargo

Many Palestinian organisations have been calling for a total global energy embargo against Israel, recognising that Israel controls energy access in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, that the denial of access to energy and destruction of energy infrastructure have been used as part of the genocide in Gaza and that energy discrimination forms part of the Apartheid system.

In December 2024, SOMO, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, located in the Netherlands, published its report, “Powering injustice – Exploring the legal consequences for states and corporations involved in supplying energy to Israel,” which noted that:

“Energy, or fuel to produce energy, plays a significant role in Israel’s military operations and unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Israeli military vehicles, including jets and tanks, which have been used in the commission of crimes under international law in Gaza, require substantial amounts of fuel to operate. Israel has considerable dependency on imports of fuel, particularly military jet fuel and crude oil, which is refined in Israel and supplied to the military, amongst other end users.

“Israel’s electricity grid directly incorporates illegal Israeli settlements located in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

The report concludes:

“Foreign governments have an obligation to end the supply of fuel to Israel unless they can guarantee it will only be used for non-military purposes” and that “states should end the supply of coal to Israel where there is no means of ensuring it does not end up supplying electricity to settlements, on the basis that this constitutes trade dealings with Israel which may entrench its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

Colombia setting example

On 8 June 2024, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his country would “suspend coal exports to Israel until it stops the genocide”. The Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism’s Decree 1047 of 2024 imposed the immediate prohibition on coal exports to Israel, remaining in force “until Israel complies with certain interim measures of the International Court of Justice. Companies involved in the coal trade with Israel should take note of this prohibition and adjust their operations accordingly”.

In November 2024, Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, unequivocally stated, ”We realised that Colombian coal was fueling 70% of Israel’s energy capabilities. President Petro has signed a decree to forbid the export of Colombian coal to Israel…

We are calling other countries to not supply fossil fuel energy used in genocide..

Colombia’s position reflects the reality that ‘fossil fuel energy’ used in an electrical grid does not distinguish between military, industrial or commercial use, noting that the 99.85 % state-owned Israel Electric is the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel and the Palestinian territories, holding about 75% of the total electricity production capacity in the country.

Australia taking advantage

Such realities did not stop Australian coal exports to Israel in 2024.

One bulk coal carrier, “Captain Veniamis”, was tracked from Newcastle in NSW to the Israeli port of Hadera, departing on 12 September 2024, arriving on 8 November 2024. Hadera, on the Mediterranean coast near Tel Aviv, hosts Israel’s largest power station, the state-owned Orot Rabin Power Plant.

The voyage via the Cape of Good Hope and the Mediterranean Sea took 52 days instead of the 32 days it would have taken if it had successfully defied the Yemen Houthi’s Red Sea blockade of cargo being shipped to Israel. (The Houthis’ solidarity with the Palestinians has increased their popularity across the Middle East and across the globe.)

At the time the cargo of Australian coal arrived in Israel, the death toll in Gaza already exceeded 40,000.

The Australian Government has been quick to endorse the US maritime mission to protect Red Sea trade routes to Israel from Houthi militants, and to provide an Australian Navy captain to ‘internationalise’ a US Navy task force assigned to protect shipping heading to Israel.

But it has been less forthcoming with information about the number of vessels en route to Israel carrying Australian goods, including goods like critical minerals and coal.

Adjusting ‘arms and ammunition’ definition

ABS data says that the total value of exports from Australia to Israel in 2024 in the Arms and Ammunition category amounted to $1,534,000.

Exactly what we export under this heading is impossible for the public to know. Representatives, from Minister Wong down to Defence secretaries, ignore the statutory definitions by continually speaking of ‘weapons’ or by questioning the accuracy of embarrassing statistics.

In a June 2024 Senate Estimates hearing, David Nockels, First Assistant Secretary, Defence Industry Policy, sought to defuse media reports about data appearing on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website relating to the export of ‘arms and ammunition’, with a statement of which ‘Yes Minister’ Sir Humphrey would have been proud:

“The data that you’re referring to that’s been public, I think is the data that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade publishes on its website. I think it’s useful to understand where that data is drawn from, then I’ll talk to how we assure ourselves that, even though the headline is arms and ammunition, that is not the fact the case.”

After a convoluted description of the data collection process and a deficient drop-down menu, he continues:

“We have assured ourselves that what has been publicly put forward in the media is in fact incorrect and that it is not arms and ammunition; it is in fact related to … goods and technologies that normally would flow. In particular, the most recent figure that has been referred to as $1.5 million is for a single item that is a return to Australia item that falls under the category of what we’ve just been talking about, in that it supports Australian defence capability.”

There is no mention that exporters are required to declare an actual ‘goods description’ on each Export Declaration form. This is particularly important when it is stated that the drop-down menu on the website is not reliable and not specific enough. Neither was it revealed whether Defence had inspected all the export declaration forms, which are required to describe goods within its remit being exported to Israel.

Export permits

Declassified Australia requested details of communications between Defence and Border Force on their gathering of consistent numbers on the exports to Israel. The heavily redacted Freedom of Information documents obtained show lengthy email discussions taking place between Defence and the Australian Border Force arranging for data to be supplied to Defence to account for the discrepancy in export numbers.

In Senate Estimates on 26 February 2025, Defence officials said that since 7 October 2023 Defence has issued 22 permits to Israel, 4 of which have expired, with the remaining extant [still active] export permits being for the benefit of the Australian Defence Force and Commonwealth capabilities.

For defence export permits issued prior to 7 October 2023, it was determined that no action was required in relation to 35 of them, and 16 were amended or lapsed (which related to Parts 1 and 2 of the Defence Strategic Goods List).

The other 13 permits remain under review with Defence still conducting scrutiny around those permits and providing advice to government accordingly. We aren’t told whether or not goods approved for export under those 13 permits are permitted to leave the country while such departmental review is taking place.

In response to questions put by Senator David Shoebridge, Defence officials confirmed that Part 1 of the Defence Strategic Goods List related to items that were inherently lethal or items adapted for use by defence, for example night vision goggles, body armour, software, and that they have no other use outside of a defence context, but that aren’t necessarily inherently lethal in and of themselves. Part 2 of the Defence Strategic Goods List covers goods that could be used by defence or completely unrelated industries, but nevertheless need to be controlled.

Defence official, Hugh Jeffrey, Deputy Secretary Strategy, Policy and Industry, made the point [emphasis added] that:

“The Australian government conducts a modest defence relationship with Israel when it comes to Defence exports principally it is usually one way. That is to say we are importing from Israeli Defence Industries capabilities to support the ADF. There’s not a lot going the other way but we would not regard them as in and of themselves as conventional arms.

“The permits we grant do enable us to export items that might contribute to military capabilities, and we make sure that where those export permits are granted, we need to be confident when we’re exporting the items or granting a permit to export those items that it doesn’t contribute to violations of our responsibilities.”

When pressed by Senator Shoebridge as to whether, as at 14 June 2024, Australia was providing to the State of Israel either directly or indirectly conventional arms and parts and components of conventional arms as defined by the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), Mr Jeffrey responded:

“We classify weapons as full systems so battle tanks, aircraft, so this is what we’re talking about when we say we’re not exporting weapons and the export permits we have where Israel is a destination country relate to parts, component parts, or full systems that relate to DSGL (Defence and Strategic Goods List) list 1 or 2.

“The government has been particularly clear on this, that it has not supplied weapons or ammunition to Israel since the conflict has begun and for the past 5 years. That is with the definition used in the ATT. What that means is that if we are providing an export permit where Israel is listed as a destination country, it will include items that could be list 1 or list 2 of the DGSL, but it’s not what we would categorise as a weapon.”

Hiding behind semantics

The emphasis on using the word ‘weapons’ rather than the statutory ‘items’ is an obvious prevaricating strategy.

It’s worth noting that modern weapons and military equipment cannot be made or maintained without their parts and components. Even if the items being exported are not “full systems” or inherently lethal, like “body armour, software or night vision goggles”, their export to Israel during a genocide clearly is prohibited under international law, which Australia has expressly adopted by Treaty and legislated specifically to implement.

By all appearances,s Australia has effectively tried to:

circumvent its clear international obligations and its own laws during a genocide by creating a non-existent ambiguity in statutory verbiage.

In the interests of trade and geopolitics the lives and safety of our fellow beings, from infant to aged, are ignored or sidelined, along with our morality, our national reputation, our respect for international law, and indeed our self-respect.

Editor’s Note: this story was originally published by Declassified Australia

Orwell revisited. The Government playing word games with weapons to Israel