TMH65 (Therese)

Retired lawyer. No DMs

[KellieTranter @KellieTranter]

The stoush between journalist, Sarah Ferguson, and @s_m_marandi on ABC's 730 on Thursday evening has attracted international as well as local interest, primarily because of Professor Marandi's refusal to accept loaded expressions and assumptive questions without challenge, his clear statements of factual and historical backgrounds and his direct calling out of Ferguson's journalism.

It's interesting watching the interview but the personal stoush shouldn't be permitted to overshadow the very real significance of some of Professor Marandi's comments.

Although he does not speak officially for the Iranian government he mentioned the illegality of the US/Israeli war on Iran and inferentially of the US holding of Iran's stolen assets; the US violations of the MOU on the one hand and the legality of Iran's actions in accordance with it on the other, and on more than one occasion emphasised Australia's support for the illegal war on Iran and the genocide in Palestine.

There can be no doubt that Iran, the rest of the Muslim world and probably the whole world, observed with raised eyebrows PM Albanese's plunge over the cliff as the first leader of any country to publicly support the illegal US/Israeli invasion of Iran, our supply of a spyplane and missiles to the UAE and our ongoing diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, as well as supplying it with at least parts of military equipment or materiel – in contravention of our legal obligations under international law - throughout its genocide in Gaza and possibly the West Bank and Lebanon.

Now couple that with Pat Conroy’s recent announcement to the world at the NATO summit, that Australia should relinquish its position of relatively secure geographical isolation to join unmeritorious overseas wars in which it has no direct interest and you can see Australia's continuing fall from grace as an international actor of integrity and credibility.

When the current conflict subsides Iran is likely to retain control of the Strait of Hormuz and a chokehold on the world's supply of oil and petrochemical products, including to the refineries in Southeast Asia that provide Australia with fuel. How Iran might exercise its power to control these resources might be open to question but one can clearly infer from Professor Marandi's comments that Iran will not be doing Australia any favours.

Whether we like it or not, we reap what our political classes sow. Little wonder that Linda Reynolds said in her evidence before the AUKUS Public Inquiry that parliament can never be permitted to decide whether the country should go to war because the parliament would never say yes.

#auspol

https://t.co/POBEVGVNw2

[نورة الحربي @n_alharbi112]

🚨عاجل: إسرائيل أسقطت نوعًا جديدًا من القنابل في غزة.

الفلسطينيين يصفونها بأنها "قنبلة نووية مصغرة"، لكن التحليل يشير إلى أنها على الأرجح سلاح حراري ضاغط (فراغي).

اسرائيل تنتهك القانوني الدولي مع مساندة ترامب

[Free Palestine Melbourne @FPMelbourne]

Jillian Segal argues the ABC is too critical of Israel. FPM's submission to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, for her upcoming report on the role of media in Israel's genocide, proves the opposite: the ABC is complicit.

Read the submission here: https://t.co/EJ3ypNcCI0

[Charles Joseph Harvey @CharlesJHarvey]

Well said Doug, now just get the ALP to sort out the pro Zionist mindset of @AlboMP .

[Ryan Rozbiani @RyanRozbiani]

The U.S. claimed it was targeting IRGC speedboats.

In reality, they BOMBED 30 CIVILIAN Fishing Boats across Iran's Hormozgan province.

Now DOZENS are families have lost their only way of making money. 3 people were also killed.

[TIMES OF GAZA @Timesofgaza]

Chickenpox is spreading rapidly across displacement camps, where 9,300 cases have been recorded over a two-week period, amid catastrophic humanitarian conditions as 1.7 million displaced people live in overcrowded tents, suffering from severe shortages of clean water, sanitation services, and healthcare, exacerbating the spread of disease and leaving children especially vulnerable.

[susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى @susanabulhawa]

I don't know how professor Marandi continues to have the patience to deal with these racist, ignorant journalists who aren't worthy of his time and who are morally and intellectually beneath him.

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

Is dissent growing in the EU? Slovak MEP, Ľuboš Blaha, called Ukraine a fascist state and accused Von der Leyen of being a Nazi apologist who placed her hatred of Russia above European values.
- It should be noted that NATO placed these people in power, they were not elected by Ukrainians. Zelensky was elected in 2019, on a peace platform, yet that election platform was immediately overturned with NATO's "NGOs" and far-right militias.

[Margie Jones @MargieJay50]

The debunking by @deepcutnews of Jillian Segal’s claims in the Royal Commission is worth reading. Here is a small taste.

[Seyed Mohammad Marandi @s_m_marandi]

Does that mean Israel will soon assassinate Trump?

[Abier @abierkhatib]

If I had the money, I’d buy the NYT’s front page just to run this piece.

HOW IS EVERYONE NOT SCREAMING IN OUTRAGE?

[B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم @btselem]

These are the locations where Israeli forces killed 54 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank in 2025. The geographic dispersal of cases throughout the West Bank makes it clear this these killings were not isolated exceptions, but a systemic matter.

As part of Israel’s onslaught on the Palestinians since October 2023, the killing of Palestinians in the West Bank, and especially children and teenagers, has risen to unprecedented levels. Since October 2023, Israel has killed 242 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank. Fifteen of them were killed in the first half of 2026 alone, including seven-month-old baby Sam Abu al-Haikal.

This figure is higher than during any comparable period since the occupation began in 1967.

The extensive killing could not occur without the backing and support of Israeli policy makers and public officials.

In early 2025, Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened that if necessary, Israel would operate in the West Bank as it had in Gaza. In November 2023, Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich said there were "two million Nazis" in the West Bank. He later declared that "Funduq, Nablus, and Jenin should look like Jabalya."

Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli military's Central Command, recently boasted that the military is killing Palestinians in the West Bank "like we haven't killed since 1967." This past March, after Border Police undercover forces killed four members of the same family – a father, mother, and their two children – in the village of Tammun, MK Yitzhak Kroizer declared from the Knesset podium: "There are no innocent civilians in Jenin. There are no innocent children in Jenin." He added: "I support IDF soldiers in every situation, even if the collateral damage is children or women."

The reality of killing in the West Bank cannot be separated from the killing of more than 21,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Under Israel's apartheid regime, Palestinians remaincompletely defenseless in the face of lethal violence.

For our new report, "Unshielded Childhood" >> https://t.co/9AtP0yrs47

[Diana Panchenko 🇺🇦 @Panchenko_X]

Anti-Zelensky revolt in Ukraine!

Young people are protesting, blocking roads, and trying to free men forcibly sent to war by Zelensky.

Ukrainians are prisoners of the regime!

Why wasn’t this even mentioned at the NATO summit?

[Sarah Wilkinson @swilkinsonbc]

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, who’s son serves in the israeli army, is trying to block the Church of England’s report on the genocide in Gaza https://t.co/MHq83QXres

[Ryan Rozbiani @RyanRozbiani]

People in Mashhad performed a MOCK execution of a lego version of Trump

They hung it from a crane and set it on fire

DISCLAIMER: This is for informational purposes, I don't condone violence.

[stranger @strangerous10]

Breaking: Jillian Segal faces risk of lock up & could be in breach of the Royal Commission Act if she doesn’t “correct the record” on false claims made at the RC, legal experts warn.
Penalty: Up to 5yrs jail

Correct the record & resign. https://t.co/B4nSmgS7s1

[Bryce Greene @TheGreeneBJ]

"Grassroots volunteer group to defend their town against rising settler violence" fundamentally describes the PLO, Hamas, PFLP, Hezbollah, and all anti-Zionist resistance factions.

When these guys get too effective, Israel will just bomb them and say they're terrorists.

[Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa]

This is the United Nations now! The organization responsible for ensuring human rights!

I received an invitation to attend this conference and I declined it after knowing that the people who are deeply complicit in the genocide in Lebanon and Palestine, killing civilians using AI technologies are being given the opportunity to brag about this in public using UN stage!

I condemn the UN shameful partnership with criminal tech companies at this conference, as well as the human rights violations and violence that accompanied the removal of protesters.

[Dr Dee Michell #cep @DrDeeMichell]

There’s rightly much talk about Jillian Segal’s criticisms of the ABC & SBS & their coverage of the ‘conflict’ in the Middle East.

Segal told the inquiry that

“… the Jewish community had told her the nature and volume of the coverage of the Israel-Gaza war had contributed to "an impression of great negativity about Israel" (Phoebe Pin, ABC).

About the same time as Segal was complaining about the ‘one sided’ coverage, I was reading John Lyons’ memoir, Balcony Over Jerusalem (2017/2024).

In Chapter 12, “Coffee with the Israel Army 9 December 2011” Lyons recounts a story of being requested to meet with Captain Arye Shalicar of the IDF.

During the conversation, Shalicar said he wasn’t challenging the accuracy of an article Lyons had had published a week or so earlier in the Weekend Australian Magazine but rather that:

“…it’s been published outside of Israel…in Australia”.

Shalicar went on to explain that had the article about the way the IDF treated Palestinian children been published by an Israeli outlet, they would have read it in the context of their ongoing commitment to Israel.

But, Shalicar went on,

“’A story like this may damage the view that Australians have of Israel and they don’t have the commitment to Israel to go along with that.’

Lyons then says that this is not an unusual perspective in Israel:

“… they don’t mind if something is printed in Israel, but when it is published more widely they react badly” (185).

The concern with publishing outside of Israel seems to be about Israel “formalising the occupation into official annexation and achieving Greater Israel” (191).

To do this, “the Israeli public have had to convince themselves that ‘the world hates us anyway’ and would criticise anything Israel did. That is, the world is becoming increasingly anti-Semitic” (191).

John Lyons goes on:

“As long as the media is seen as biased, anti-Israel or anti-Semitic, then Israel is not at fault” (for the occupation).

Hence why Segal is at pains to say the ABC & SBC are biased in their reporting.

Lyons wasn’t being singled out; he knew from speaking with colleagues that “the Israeli Government, Army and lobby groups did not want the reality of the occupation reported” because Israel is losing “the battle for international public opinion.”

And I guess Segal & others don’t want the reality of the genocide being reported because Israel’s brutality is now resulting in a significant decline in international public opinion, with many countries holding negative views of Israel.

[TMH65 (Therese) @TMH651]

@boganintel Is it possible that they were jeering the forced removal of members from the room and not the pro-Palestine stance???