KEY POINTS
- Liberal frontbencher James Paterson wants Labor to consider banning travel to southern Lebanon.
- Rarely used counter-terror laws allow the government to declare foreign regions no-go zones.
- Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated in the past few weeks.
Powerful but rarely used counter-terror laws are being touted to prevent Australians from travelling to Lebanon, just days after two Australians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the country's south.
The deaths of Sydney brothers - the latter claimed by Hezbollah as a fighter - brought the dangers along the Israel-Lebanon border into sharp relief, with Hamas ally Hezbollah exchanging fire with Israel since the Hamas-Israel war started in Gaza in October.
"It's an offence for any Australian to cooperate with, to support, let alone to fight with a listed terrorist organisation like Hezbollah," Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus warned last week.
James Paterson wants the government to consider banning travel to southern Lebanon. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
But Opposition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson went a step further on Tuesday, urging the government to consider using tough counter-terror laws to ban travel to the region.
So how do those laws work, and what impact could they have on the nearly 250,000 members of Australia's Lebanese diaspora?
What do the laws do?
Under counter-terror laws passed in 2014, the foreign minister can declare areas of another country 'no-go zones' - making it a criminal offence to travel or remain there.
Fighting for or supporting a designated terror organisation overseas was already illegal, while the government has the power to cancel passports and visas.
But collecting enough evidence from a war zone to convict a perpetrator can prove difficult.
The foreign fighter laws are designed to deter Australians from travelling to join proscribed terrorist groups, while also making it easier to prosecute those who do.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Islamist political party and militant group formed in 1982 after Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon that year.
It is backed by Iran and leads a multi-party alliance that holds just under half the seats in Lebanon's parliament.
Hezbollah is listed as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, the US, Germany and the UK.
The European Union lists only its military wing as a terrorist organisation.
However, Hezbollah itself makes no distinction between its political and military wings.
"It's an appropriate tool in a targeted way to send a strong message to Australians that you could be committing a crime simply from being there ... If they're in a declared area, they've committed an offence on their own," Paterson said.
There are exemptions for aid workers, journalists, and "bona fide" visits to family members - though that definition remains vague.
But the laws are controversial, with critics arguing they effectively reverse the burden of proof by demanding that someone charged with an offence prove they weren't fighting alongside a terror group.
Mourners carry the coffins of Ibrahim and Ali Bazzi and Ibrahim's wife Shorouq Hammoud. Source: AAP / Mohammad Zaatari/AP
For an area to be declared, the government must be convinced that an officially proscribed terror organisation is "engaging in a hostile activity" there.
Travelling to, or remaining in, a declared no-go zone carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
That could prove extremely complex in this situation, given the number of Australian citizens who were likely in southern Lebanon when the Hamas-Israel conflict erupted.
Labor frontbencher Mark Butler stressed Australians were already being urged not to travel to the region "given the risk involved".
"If it's not safe to remain there, we urge you to leave Lebanon at the earliest possible opportunity," he said.
Have the laws been used before?
Rarely.
Parts of Iraq and Syria, which were then under the control of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), became the first designated no-go zones in 2014.
Al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS' self-proclaimed caliphate, was declared alongside Mosul in northern Iraq, another of the group's strongholds.
Former foreign minister Julie Bishop was the first official to use the laws in 2014. Source: AAP
In 2022, Kristina Keneally, then Labor's home affairs spokesperson, called for the Coalition to declare parts of eastern Ukraine, to prevent Australians from joining extremist groups fighting on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
That never materialised.
What is the situation in southern Lebanon?
There has been a steady stream of rocket fire on the Lebanon-Israel border since Hamas' attack on 7 October, and nearly 50,000 people in southern Lebanon were displaced by the end of December.
The laws have previously been used to deter Australians from travelling to Iraq and Syria to join the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Source: AAP
Last week, senior Israeli minister Benny Gantz warned the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border "must change" and hinted at Israel dramatically expanding the conflict.
"The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out; if the world and the Lebanese government don't act in order to prevent the firing on Israel's northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the [Israeli military] will do it," he said.
Israel has warned it could expand hostilities in Lebanon amid fears of a regional conflict. Source: AAP / Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
Two Australians - Sydney brothers Ibrahim and Ali Bazzi - were killed by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon last week, along with Ibrahim's wife, who had recently received an Australian visa.
Hezbollah announced that Ali Bazzi was a fighter for the group, while the caskets of all three were draped in the militant group's flag.
Could it impact Australia's Lebanese diaspora?
Criminalising travel to large sections of Lebanon has obvious implications for Australia's large Lebanese diaspora.
The 2021 census found more than 87,000 people living in Australia were born in Lebanon, while nearly 250,000 Australians claimed Lebanese heritage.
DFAT believes roughly 15,000 Australian citizens live in Lebanon at any given moment, though does not give an estimate based on geography, meaning it's unclear how many of those were in the country's south when the most recent uptick in violence began.
DFAT's current advice not to travel to the region, and for those already there to leave while commercial flights are still available, is not legally binding.
Paterson rejected suggestions criminalising travel risked treating Lebanese Australians as potential terrorists for visiting family members.
"Frankly, I don't think there is any good reason particularly to be in that region of southern Lebanon ... There's no good or innocent reason to be there," he said.
But given remaining in a declared zone is also an offence, they may face legal trouble for refusing to leave the area - even if they had been there for years prior.
That's because the onus of proof would be on the accused, and they'd have to demonstrate they were exempt from the no-go zone declaration.
