John Ruddick, a Libertarian member of the New South Wales Parliament, shocked many of his long-time supporters — myself included — when he declared the war in Gaza “can only be described as genocide,” while announcing he’d be marching the very next day across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with radical leftists and Islamist groups accusing Israel of that very crime.

I gave him a chance to explain himself. What followed was a masterclass in deflection, contradiction and moral confusion.

I started by asking what definition of genocide he used to reach such a grave conclusion. He couldn’t give one. Instead, he rambled through a history lesson about World War II, before suggesting that Israel’s current actions could be genocide because “the goal now is the full occupation of Gaza.”

He claimed Israel wants to "push them out, kill a lot of them," and then contradicted himself by admitting, “This is not all Israelis. This is not all Zionists.”

But when pressed on the legal definition — “the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” — he admitted that what he described didn’t meet that threshold.

WATCH THE FULL DEBATE!

🔴 AVI YEMINI vs JOHN RUDDICK: From Zionist to Pro-Hamas? The Debate That Could BREAK the Libertarian Party

After marching with socialists and Islamists across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, NSW MP John Ruddick faces off with Avi Yemini to defend his shock shift on Israel and foreign policy.

“If it pans out the way you say,” I said, “that would be ethnic cleansing. It's not genocide. And neither have happened. So how can you tweet that it can only be described as genocide?”

Ruddick avoided the question and instead tried to score points by claiming he’s “a bigger supporter of Israel” than I am. Laughable.

He said social media imagery made it “look like a genocide” and cited the International Court of Justice ruling, but I reminded him the ICJ only ruled that a case could be heard, not that a genocide occurred.

I pushed again: “When did this supposed genocide start?” He eventually admitted, “Since October 7… it’s been ramping up.”

That’s when it got even more disturbing. Ruddick claimed Zionists want to “mow the lawn” ... a grotesque distortion implying Israel periodically wipes out Palestinians to keep control.

I shut that down immediately. “That's completely nonsense,” I said. “It refers to neutralising threats when Hamas fires rockets, not mass killing.”

If Israel wanted to commit genocide, as Ruddick suggests, they’re doing a pretty bad job. With an estimated 70,000 - 100,000 bombs dropped, and about 60,000 killed (according to Hamas), that’s less than one casualty per bomb, hardly the ratio you’d expect from a regime trying to erase a people.

Words matter. Facts matter. And for a sitting MP to recklessly use the term “genocide” in this context is not only wrong, it’s dangerous.

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