In recognition of her lifelong commitment to peace, the Sydney Peace Foundation is proud to announce the establishment of the ‘Dr Hannah Middleton Scholarship in Peace and Conflict Studies’ at the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL) in Timor-Leste. The cost of supporting a student through the Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies is around $5,000 per year, making each scholarship a meaningful and tangible investment in Hannah’s vision of solidarity and justice and opening opportunities for the next generation of peacebuilders

Through this scholarship, Hannah’s legacy of solidarity, courage and justice will continue to inspire and empower future leaders in one of the world’s youngest nations.

Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees has generously directed funds to support the inaugural scholarship. For those who wish to support the Dr Hannah Middleton Scholarship in Peace and Conflict Studies please email us at info@sydneypeace.org.au.

Ending a Journey
Barely concealed,
tears speak of goodbyes
plus invitations for a final chat.
Not acknowledged, courage
in a life of humanity
fueled this decision to end as you lived.
With common will for freedom
you gift wrapped selflessness,
because you needed no accolades.
Now you have decided
that immobility is no way to live
that refusing food and medicine
could show
that even in a final chapter
a way of leaving
might teach others how to live.
This hurried poem
ponders explanations,
precious days
still hold mysteries,
as in explaining courage,
just one more secret
to be unraveled.
Stuart for Hannah, June 9, 2025

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After 466 days of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, we welcome the limited ceasefire which came into effect on 19 January, and call on our Governments to support every effort to permanently end the ongoing atrocities. The past 16 months have illustrated with devastating clarity that Israel is not committed to complying with international law. The fragility of the Gaza ceasefire underscores the risk of further violations and the need to halt arms exports to Israel, including F-35s. This is also highlighted by Israel’s continued illegal use of military fighter jets in the occupied West Bank, especially Jenin. 

Partners to the F-35 programme have individually and collectively failed to prevent these jets from being used to commit serious violations of international law by Israel, most obviously  across the occupied Palestinian territory, including international crimes, despite overwhelming evidence in this respect. States have either been unwilling to observe their international legal obligations and/or claimed that the structure of the F-35 programme means that it is not possible to apply arms controls to any end-user, making the entire programme incompatible with international law.

Israel’s unprecedented bombardment and destruction of Gaza has led to immeasurable human suffering, environmental devastation, and humanitarian catastrophe. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures on Israel to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza in January 2024. In December 2024, Amnesty International’s investigation concluded that Israel has committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and Human Rights Watch reported that ‘Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide’.

A temporary ceasefire does not signify an end to Israel’s violations of international law or nullify the longstanding risk that arms transfers to Israel might be used to commit or facilitate such violations. This includes, but is not limited to, Israel’s ongoing occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territories, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded is unlawful.

Israel has killed more than 46,707 people in Gaza and the remains of an estimated 10,000 more people are still under the rubble. At least 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza have been forcibly displaced, in conditions unfit for human survival. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked civilian objects, including aid distribution sites, tents, hospitals, schools and markets. Around 69 percent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the bombardment. Despite these devastating realities and crimes on the ground, our governments have continued to supply Israel through the F-35 programme. 

F-35 programme

Governments from a number of F-35 partner countries – namely Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK – have restricted some arms exports to Israel due to the risk of these weapons being used by Israel to commit violations of international law in Gaza. In September 2024, the UK government found that it was “unable to conclude anything other than” that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, including F-35 jets, there is a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Alarmingly, despite these irrefutable admissions, there has been a concerted effort to sustain the transfer of components to the F-35 programme, allowing for ongoing direct and indirect transfer to Israel. 

A number of incoherent positions have been put forward by F-35 partner countries allowing for the continued export of F-35 parts and components to Israel, including stating that arms licences to Israel have been suspended while allowing transfers under existing licences or supplying “indirectly” via the US or other F-35 partners. The UK has argued that for reasons of international peace and security it has disregarded its own arms export licensing criteria and international legal obligations to continue exporting components to the F-35 programme, allowing for onward transfer to Israel, claiming that it is a “matter of such gravity that it would have overridden any […] further evidence of serious breaches of IHL”. Effectively, there are no circumstances in which this supply of F-35 components would be suspended.

These jets have been operating in Gaza armed with munitions, including 2,000 lb bombs – explosives with a lethal radius up to 365 m, an area the equivalent of 58 football pitches. In June 2024, a UN report identified these bombs as having been used in “emblematic” cases of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza that “led to high numbers of civilian fatalities and widespread destruction of civilian objects”. 

On 2 September 2024, the very day the UK Government announced an exemption for F-35 components, Danish NGO Danwatch revealed that an F-35 was used in July to drop three 2,000 lb bombs in an attack on a so-called “safe zone” on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, killing 90 Palestinians. This bombardment follows the pattern of Israeli attacks in Gaza in violation of international humanitarian law.

Legal obligations and developments

All partners to the F-35 programme are States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), with the exception of the United States, which is a signatory. State Parties to the ATT are required to prevent both direct and indirect transfers of military equipment and technology, including parts and components, where there is an overriding risk that such equipment and technology could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) or international human rights law. 

These and other binding obligations are contained within Articles 6 and 7 of the ATT. States are also bound by the obligation to ensure respect for IHL under Common Article 1 to the Geneva Convention and customary IHL, which requires states “to refrain from transferring weapons if there is an expectation, based on facts or knowledge of past patterns, that such weapons would be used to violate the Conventions”.

All F-35 partners have additional legislation reinforcing these international obligations at either national or European level. Continued arms transfers to the Israeli government are contrary to US law, which for example, prohibits the transfer of military aid to governments that restrict the delivery of US humanitarian assistance. Additionally, all F-35 partners have ratified or acceded to the Genocide Convention, and have committed to “prevent and punish” the crime of genocide. 

These obligations are reinforced by pronouncements of the ICJ, including where the Court reminded States Parties to the Genocide Convention of their international obligations regarding the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict, to avoid the risk that such arms might be used to violate the Convention in April 2024 (para 24). In July 2024, the ICJ clarified that states must not aid or assist Israel in its unlawful occupation of occupied Palestinian territory, including through economic or trade dealings. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in November 2024.

Legal and political responses 

Across the jurisdictions of F-35 partner countries legal and political interventions have sought to enforce governments’ national and international legal obligations to halt arms exports to Israel, including parts for the F-35 jets. Legal cases have been undertaken in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. 

In the UK, Al-Haq and Global Legal Action Network are taking the UK government to the High Court in a Judicial Review challenging the decision to exclude components for the global F-35 programme from the September 2024 suspension of around 30 arms licences to Israel. In November 2024, the Dutch Supreme Court of the Netherlands was advised by its advocate general to uphold the ruling by the Hague Court of Appeal ordering the Dutch Government to block the export of F-35 parts from the Netherlands to Israel. It followed litigation brought by Oxfam Novib, PAX and The Rights Forum.

In Australia, Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, represented by the Australian Centre for International Justice, made submissions requesting the Defence Minister revoke all current or extant export permits to Israel including via this US. As a result, the Government undertook a review which revealed that Australia had ‘lapsed’ or ‘amended’ 16 export licences to Israel. The groups remain concerned that no transparency exists in relation to this review, including whether F-35 parts were in consideration. Further cases are ongoing in F-35 partner countries Canada and Denmark, as well as Germany and Belgium. 

Conclusion

The failure by all F-35 partner nations to apply their domestic, regional or international legal obligations by halting the supply of F-35 parts and components to Israel has led to devastating and irreparable harm to Palestinians in Gaza. This failure indicates that partner nations are effectively either unable or unwilling to implement their purported arms export control regimes, or that they chose to apply the law selectively, excluding Palestinians from its protection. We call on all F-35 partners to do everything in their power to bring the F-35 programme in line with their legal obligations and immediately halt the direct and indirect transfer of F-35 parts and components to Israel.

Signatories

Australia (F-35 Programme Partner)

Amnesty International Australia
AusRelief
Australian Centre for International Justice
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN)
Australian Social Workers for Palestine
Canberra Palestine and Climate Justice
Central West New South Wales for Palestine & We Vote for Palestine
Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine
Disrupt Wars
Free Gaza Australia
Free Palestine Melbourne
Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN)
Independent & Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) Geelong & Vic Southwest
Inner West for Palestine
Institute of non-violence
Jewish Council of Australia
Jews Against the Occupation ’48
Just Peace
Knitting Nannas, Central Coast and Midcoast
Medical Association for Prevention of War
Mums for Palestine
Neptune’s Pirates
No Weapons for Genocide
Northern Rivers Friends of Palestine
Palestine Action Group Muloobinba
Palestine Network Shining Waters Region (PalNet SW), The United Church of Canada
People’s Climate Assembly
Rising Tide
Settlement Services Australia
Social and Ecological Justice Commission (United Church of Canada)
Sydney Peace Foundation
Quakers Australia
Wage Peace

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The Peace and Social Justice Scholarship supports Master of Social Justice students at the University of Sydney, honouring Marty Morrison’s legacy of activism, compassion, and commitment to human rights and equality.

n 2025, the University of Sydney will launch the Peace and Social Justice Scholarship, established by Melanie Morrison and her siblings to honour their mother, Marty Morrison. Marty, a lifelong educator and activist, was dedicated to peace, human rights, and social justice – values she passed on to her family and inspired in countless others around the world.

A lifetime of activism

Marty Morrison’s scholarship will support students pursuing a Master of Social Justice within the School of Social and Political Sciences, helping to ensure her legacy continues to inspire future generations.

Early life and lasting influences

Born Martha Elizabeth Hessell in Winslow, Arizona, Marty grew up immersed in a deep commitment to social justice. Her father, Reverend William Hessell, was a Methodist minister who actively advocated for the rights of African Americans. Marty’s early experiences – such as organising meals for Japanese American friends following the Pearl Harbor internments – ignited her lifelong dedication to equity and compassion.

During her years at UCLA, her activism grew as she took part in civil rights actions, including sit-ins against racial discrimination. Her career later took her around the world as an educator, with teaching roles in Singapore, Thailand, Palestine, and Jakarta – each experience reinforcing her belief that education could drive social change. At the age of 82 in 2010, Marty took the extraordinary step of travelling to Palestine to teach and participate in peaceful protests, demonstrating the tireless passion and commitment she maintained throughout her life.

Stories of impact: Compassion in action

The impact of Marty’s work lives on in the stories her family remembers. One that stands out is her support for Jarnil, an Afghan refugee detained on Nauru. Marty’s advocacy – alongside that of other dedicated supporters – helped bring Jarnil and his family to Australia, where they have since thrived. His children now pursue promising careers, with one studying law in Melbourne. They often express how Marty “not only changed our lives but saved them.”

A scholarship to continue her vision

For her children, this scholarship feels like a natural continuation of Marty’s lifelong commitment to human rights and social justice.

Marty’s husband, Bill Morrison, attended the University on a government scholarship, and Marty herself had briefly studied anthropology there—a pursuit she greatly enjoyed.

Inspiring the next generation of advocates

Melanie and her siblings hope that the scholarship’s recipients will feel inspired by their mother’s unwavering dedication to peace and justice. Marty often questioned why societies have ministers for war but not for peace. Her children remember this as a reminder of her vision for a more compassionate world.

Empowering change through education

Through this scholarship, the Morrison family aims to support students committed to social justice, empowering them to work toward a more resilient and peaceful world. “By choosing a Master of Social Justice, these students gain the skills to stand for change,” Melanie explained. “We believe this scholarship will enable future advocates to continue her work and create a world that values peace and justice.”

This scholarship is valued at $8,000 per annum for one year for a recipient enrolled full-time, or $4,000 per annum for two years for a recipient enrolled part-time. Through this scholarship, students will gain not only financial support but also the opportunity to immerse themselves in the social justice landscape, helping them develop the skills to advocate for real, lasting change in their communities.

Marty’s broader influence

Marty was particularly focused on advocacy for refugees, the elimination of racial discrimination, and gender equality. Her work extended far beyond her immediate family, influencing policies and individuals worldwide. Her advocacy on behalf of refugees, her commitment to peace protests, and her work on gender equality and racial justice all reflect her belief that a better world is not only possible but achievable.

A family’s continued commitment

Through the establishment of this scholarship, the Morrison family hopes to carry forward Marty’s mission of peace and justice, both at the University and in their own lives. Melanie Morrison, through her work with the Sydney Peace Foundation, continues to advocate for the causes their mother championed.

“The Peace and Social Justice Scholarship is one of many ways the University of Sydney is working to build a future rooted in equity and compassion. Others who wish to honour Marty’s legacy can contribute to this fund, ensuring that future generations of social justice leaders continue to be supported.”

With this scholarship, Marty Morrison’s legacy of compassion, resilience, and dedication will continue to guide and inspire students to drive change and create a more peaceful, just world for years to come.

This scholarship was generously funded by Tanya Burrows, Kim Morrison, and Melanie Morrison.

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