hicks, assange and now benji x

Giving political asylum to those seeking to escape danger in their own countries has been the norm for most civilised  countries.  But now, those seeking  political refuge could be considered to have committed a  "political offence".  And  that  could entail their return to the countries they were fleeing from. 

Or will  'Political Offence'  apply only to a select couple of  countries? The ones Australia cannot dare challenge? Not even when their own citizens are involved and  their lives are in  actual danger.

Many unanswered questions remain about the murky circumstances surrounding the death of a dual Australian-Israeli citizen in a “suicide-proof” Israeli prison cell in 2010, which the media reported for the first time this week. One thing is clear, however: the Australian government knowingly allowed one of its citizens to “disappear” into Israeli detention and die in solitary confinement.

It is a chilling demonstration of the readiness of the Labor government to accept the destruction of the most basic legal and democratic rights of an Australian citizen, and indeed his death, at the hands of the police-state regime in Israel, the key ally of the US in the Middle East.

Yet the Australian government, when notified of his death, also did nothing to challenge the Israeli version of events. Instead, it facilitated the secret return of Zygier’s body to be buried in a Melbourne cemetery.

International legal conventions spell out that when a foreigner is jailed, their diplomatic mission must be informed. Asked at a Senate committee hearing last Thursday why no embassy official had gone to visit Zygier in jail, Department of Foreign Affairs secretary Peter Varghese said that because Zygier was a dual national, he was “not under the relevant conventions.”

This claim soon proved false as well. Australian National University international law professor Don Rothwell said Israel had broken the international convention on consular relations. He said Varghese had made a “very significant concession” to Israel that could set a precedent that would imperil other dual citizens.

Lawyer Dan Mori, who formerly represented Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks—who was incarcerated by the US for almost six years, with the full support of the previous Australian Liberal government—said Australia had failed in its basic duty to look out for one of its citizens. “It boggles my mind that they sit back and not say, ‘He’s one of our citizens and we’re not going to have a consular visit’.”

There are clear parallels between this affair and that of Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder has been forced to seek asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy because Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government is doing everything it can to help the Obama administration railroad him to jail in the US, even changing Australia’s laws to allow the extradition of someone charged with a “political offence.” (See: “Australian government reinforces conspiracy against Assange”).

It is now clear that while professing to protest against Israel’s conduct, the Australian government was deeply involved in covering up Zygier’s detention.

Nevertheless, the Rudd government’s public show of concern over Mossad’s methods angered both the Israeli and US governments, and may have become a compounding factor in Rudd’s replacement two months later by Gillard, who has extremely close relations with the Zionist lobby in Australia. Rudd was ousted, in a backroom coup by Labor Party figures working in concert with the US embassy, 

The sensitivity of the Australian political establishment to anything that might upset relations with Israel was highlighted last November when a cabinet revolt overturned Gillard’s stated intention for Australia to join the US and Israel in voting against a UN general assembly resolution to upgrade Palestinian membership. The decision was heavily criticised in the media and her leadership questioned. (See: “Australian prime minister defeated on UN vote”).

What has been revealed so far about the “Prisoner X” affair underlines the extraordinary influence over Australian politics exercised by Washington and its allies, particularly Israel, and the willingness of successive Australian governments to sacrifice the basic rights and lives of Australian citizens who in any way become a threat to those interests.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/16/zion-f16.html