A detailed investigative report, published this week by Declassified Australia in partnership with the Ditch, has lifted the lid on extensive and ongoing military exports from Australia to Israel.
The report builds upon previous exposures by both outlets. But it is far and away the most extensive documentation of the material component of Australia’s involvement in Israel’s mass slaughter of the Palestinians in Gaza.
F-35 dropping inert B61-12 nuclear bomb, first trial [Photo: Los Alamos National Laboratory]
In addition to exposing the country’s Labor government and its leaders as a pack of liars, for their denial of such support, the material contained in the report strengthens the case that they are guilty of materially aiding war crimes, itself a violation of international law.
The report shows that such exports have continued, following Declassified’s first exposure in July and amid a growing awareness of Australia’s direct role in aiding the Zionist war machine.
As per the report, “the most recent shipment of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel left Sydney two weeks ago destined to Tel Aviv, exported in the cargo bay of a scheduled passenger flight from Sydney International Airport.”
That shipment was part of a trade that has occurred throughout the two years of the genocide. Confidential shipping records, which were the basis of the report, listed “a total of 68 shipments of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft parts flown from Australia directly to Israel between October 2023 and September 2025.”
Significantly, “The shipping records show that the number of Joint Strike Fighter parts shipments made directly to Israel from Australia spiked immediately after the commencement of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza on the evening of 7 October 2023, with 10 separate shipments being made from Australia to Israel in the one month of November 2023 alone.”
That points to the fact that far from being incidental or routine, there is a direct connection between the Australian exports and Israel’s war effort.
The months of October and November 2023 saw one of the most ferocious stages of the genocide. It centred on Israeli F-35 fighter jets indiscriminately dropping payloads on Gaza’s residential buildings and infrastructure, including hospitals, in the first and indispensable stage of a campaign aimed at rendering the Strip uninhabitable and preparing the annihilation of Palestinian society.
The picture presented is of the Australian state, under the Labor government, scrambling to dispatch parts to the Israeli military to ensure that the bombardment could continue.
At the time, in contrast to his more recent weasel-words of concern for the mass killings, Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among the most frothing international leaders in supporting the onslaught. In parliament, he railed against Hamas, calling for its defeat by Israel. The Declassified report makes clear these were not just words, but were accompanied by actions.
Notwithstanding Labor’s recent ‘recognition” of the state of Palestine and calls for a ceasefire, the shipment of military goods to Israel ensures that its capacity to slaughter the Palestinians proceeds unchecked. In other words, the exports give the lie to Labor’s rhetoric, exposing it as an exercise in cynical damage control.
Declassified notes that “Of the 68 documented shipments, 51 are marked with the final receiver being at Nevatim with postcode 8955000, located in Israel. This corresponds with the address of Nevatim Airbase, located in Israel’s Negev desert, and the base for the Israeli Air Force’s three F-35 squadrons.”
Significantly, the latest shipment began in “Williamtown-Australia, the location of Australia’s RAAF fleet of F-35s,” and via Sydney airport went straight to Nevatim. To the extent that government representatives have acknowledged a military trade with Israel, they have spoken of complex “global supply chains,” suggesting a web of intermediaries.
But this would appear to be a direct order from the Israeli military to the Australian military, with no country or corporate entity in between. In other words, this is not simply a question of Labor approving the military exports made by private corporations involved in the US-dominated weapons sector. It is a direct arrangement between the Australian military, approved by Labor, and an Israeli war machine that is perpetrating war crimes.
Labor has, over the past two years, advanced a series of often mutually contradictory excuses for the ongoing trade with Israel, while shrouding it in secrecy.
Its leading representatives have repeatedly declared that Australia “does not export weapons” to Israel. But it has been fairly evident that by “weapons,” they are referring to something in the order of fully-assembled guns, missiles, etc. That is a cynical dodge, and given the complex nature of modern weapons systems, often involving parts from around the world, it is an absurdity.
That line of argument is also contradicted by the Australian defence department’s own classification system, under which parts and components, for instance, for F-35 fighter jets, are deemed military exports requiring approval.
In late July, following the release of the first Declassified report, Foreign Minister Penny Wong was asked in parliament about the exports. In an angry response dripping with contempt, Wong declared that such exports were only of “non-lethal” parts. But obviously, parts which aid in the functioning of a fighter jet, enabling it to drop bombs on civilians, are “lethal.”
Declassified recalled another conflicting response by a senior defence department bureaucrat last year, in answer to similar questioning. He claimed that many exports were not actually exports, but were being transported to Israel for maintenance or repair there before being returned to Australia.
This implausible explanation was dealt a blow by the latest Declassified report. In addition to the parts being dispatched directly to the main F-35 base of the Israeli military, their character makes it unlikely that they are being sent for repair.
For instance, “Shipments of a total of 17 of these highly specialised helmet display visors for the F-35 pilots have been made directly to Israel from Australia since October 2023.”
Declassified noted: “It would seem odd that visors in Australia that are manufactured in the United States would be sent into an active warzone in Israel for repairs. More likely they have been pulled from the Australian spares inventory and shipped as a priority to the highly operationally-paced Israeli theatre of war.”
The secrecy of the exports is perhaps the greatest argument demonstrating their sinister character. Declassified notes that the latest parts, shipped last month, were transported through the cargo of a commercial passenger plane.
That is a highly unusual arrangement, clearly intended to shield the shipments from public scrutiny. It is also a violation of the rights of passengers, who are unwittingly boarding a craft containing military supplies, which could make the plane a target.
The exports, however, must be known to a network of corporations, government departments, airline authorities and more. The airlines and airports have union coverage, for instance. Does the Transport Workers Union know of the shipments and approve of them? The union’s lockstep alignment with the Labor government means that if it did, it would help push them through.
Beyond that specific question, the role of the union bureaucracies in facilitating Australia’s support for the genocide is undeniable. Not a single union has answered the call of Palestinian unions, made almost two years ago, for strikes to halt supplies to the imperialist-Zionist war machine. The Maritime Union of Australia has enforced the orderly loading and unloading of cargo from the Israeli Zim line, which, early in the genocide, offered its entire fleet to support the war effort.
The Declassified report is also a damning indictment of the official Australian media, from two standpoints. What should have been front-page news has instead been subject to a total press blackout.
And the question inevitably arises, why did it fall to Declassified, a small, independent outlet, to come upon and publish this information? The answer is that the major media outlets are themselves complicit in the genocide, devoting their resources, not to exposing Australia’s role in the worst war crimes of the century, but to attacking those who protest them.
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