Actions akin to a serial killer
CRISPIN HULL COLUMN
The images of starving children coming out of Gaza reminded me of the images of the liberation of the concentration camps at the end of World War II. Victims and perpetrators come in all colours, races and religions. Maybe Shakespeare would have said: “If you starve us, do we not look skeletal”.
In Tel Aviv last week, Jewish people took to the streets holding photographs of children whose starvation is being caused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s illegal waging of an aggressive war and the illegal withholding of food in Gaza.
If you offend decency, do we not protest.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this week: “Quite clearly it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered which was a decision that Israel made in March.”
He said, “You can’t hold innocent people responsible” for the actions of Hamas.
Indeed, the only lawful warfare is defence. What Israel is doing in Gaza has for months now gone well beyond what would be a legitimate defensive response to the Hamas attacks in October 2023. It is similar to the unnecessary Allied fire-bombing of Dresden in February 1945.
Waging an aggressive war is the worst criminal conduct known to humankind. It is worse than the crimes of serial killers or serial rapists.
Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin should be compared to Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, the Columbine School shooter, or Martin Bryant – not just other authoritarian leaders of nations.
Those who wage an aggressive war do not just condone or turn a blind eye to death and suffering; they cause it – as surely as a serial killer.
Worse, because they bring many of the resources of the state and its people to join in to their crime – wittingly or unwittingly – the scale of the crime is much greater than that of the serial killer or mass shooter, and so is the scale of evil.
Netanyahu’s action a breach of international law the same as Putin’s action because he is waging war beyond the borders of his own nation as recognised by the United Nations. It is the same a Putin’s because its aim is the genocidal removal of the civilian populations.
“Netanyahu’s action” is the deliberate starvation of innocent civilians, particularly children. There is more than enough food to prevent the starvation of anyone in Gaza.
The reason people are starving is that the food is not getting through. And getting it through or not getting it through is within the power of Netanyahu. He is causing the starvation and death. Worse than a serial killer.
“To starve” is a peculiar verb. It is too often used in the passive voice, as in, “The child starved to death.” It is rarely used in the active voice, as in, “Netayanhu starved the child to death.”
The passive voice removes any active person. It removes responsibility, as if the words “the child starved to death” mean that the child caused their own starvation.
Ironically, the passive voice is part of the armoury of war. A reporter can write or broadcast the words: “Ten civilians were killed in the Middle East conflict yesterday” – and the people who did the killing are not identified.
Similarly: “A hospital was bombed today, killing 23 people.”
The words “shooting”, “killing”, “bombing”, and the like, however, can just as easily, and without any awkwardness, be used in the active voice, as in “Houthi rebels fired a missile at a Greek oil tanker yesterday.”
But using the verb “to starve” in the active voice, as in “Netanyahu starved the child”, is awkward so people avoid it, thereby shielding the perpetrator.
Moving from the passive voice to the active voice is critical to the effective rule of law. The rule of law only enters the picture after the passive voice. “Veronica Victim was murdered” is in the passive voice. “Peter Perpetrator murdered Veronica Victim” is in the active voice and, in rule-of-law countries, is usually only uttered after a legal finding of guilt.
Unfortunately, that might never happen in the case of Netanyahu. He has visited the US three times and Hungary once since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in November 2024 under the Statute of Rome.
The US has never signed up to the International Criminal Court, nor to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is a member of the World Trade Organisation but has effectively neutered it by vetoing appointments to its judicial arm.
Even so, it used to support a rules-based international order. Now it has even dispensed with that pretence. Israel (under Netanyahu) and Hungary (Under Viktor Orban), once rule-of-law democracies, have done likewise.
Albanese can take credit for expressing Australia’s traditional rule-of-law values this week. In doing so he further distanced himself for the US which has been complicit in the starvation by withholding humanitarian aid and complicit in the slaughter at food-distribution centres and in general because it supplies weapons. Unlike President Donald Trump and the US leadership generally he has not been silent.
If we want a rules-based international order, however, nations must seek out the individual leaders who are accused of crimes on the basis of credible evidence and under the rule of law bring them to account.
This article first appeared in The Canberra Times and other Australian media on 29 July 2025.
Crispin Hull is a distinguished journalist and former Editor of the Canberra Times. In semi-retirement, he and his wife live in Port Douglas, and he contributes his weekly column to Newsport pro bono.
The opinions and views in this column are those of the author and author only and do not reflect the Newsport editor or staff.
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