Australia’s Jewish Council says the Oceanic country’s new sanctions on Iran are “hypocritical in the extreme”, noting that Canberra should rather exert “pressure” on the Israeli regime to stop the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a statement published on its X account on Tuesday, the council stressed that they renew their calls on the government of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to “use all possible pressure to stop Israel committing the crime of genocide” against Palestinians.

Referring to the deteriorating conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, and the occupied West Bank, the Jewish Council stressed that they also renew their calls on the government “to immediately cut all military ties with and place sanctions on Israel.”

“Palestinians in Gaza face death by Israeli assassinations, bombardment, and starvation. The images emerging of Israel’s latest massacres in Gaza ought to force governments like ours to take concrete action. Australia must pay heed to the ICJ and ensure that we are not complicit in war crimes and the crime of genocide,” the council further said.

Separately in the statement, Max Kaiser, executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, strongly condemned Australia’s newly-imposed sanctions against Iran as highly “hypocritical.”

Australian Foreign Minister “Penny Wong’s issuing of new sanctions on Iran today is hypocritical in the extreme. We are still waiting for the Australian government to take any substantial action against” Israel.

Kaiser’s comment came shortly after Australia placed financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians with connections to the Islamic Republic’s missile program, two weeks after Iran launched a massive ballistic missile attack against the occupying regime. 

The sanctions target two directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, and two directors of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group. 

On October 1, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at the Israeli military, espionage and intelligence bases all over the occupied territories.

Operation True Promise II came in response to the regime’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Tehran, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, an Iranian military advisory in Lebanon, in Beirut.

In conclusion, Australia’s Jewish Council stressed that “with each passing day, it becomes clearer that Israel is a rogue” regime, “enabled by the United States and its allies.”

“We say this as part of a large and growing number of Jews – in Australia and around the world – who have been calling for a ceasefire for many months, and saying that Israel’s actions are completely incompatible with our Jewish values. Opposing this genocide is an honoring of our ancestors who were themselves the victims of genocide and racist violence,” the statement further read.

In Gaza, at least 42,289 people have been killed while over 2,000 lives have been lost in Lebanon since October 7 last year, when Israel launched its ongoing genocidal war.