Antigenocide Activists Again Block Access to Pine Gap to Highlight Role of US Spy Base in Gaza
Activists have for the third time raised the secretive installation's complicity in the horror in the Gaza Strip
Antigenocide activists have again descended upon the road leading into Pine Gap the joint US-Australia spy base, early morning on 9 October 2025, to block some 800 American and Australian contractors from making their way to work that Thursday, which was understood would directly impact intelligence on the Gaza Strip being disseminated and hence, stifle Israeli operations there.
This was the third time Mparntwe for Falastin has staged this action since Israel began perpetrating a genocide in Gaza in October 2023. This action differed from those before it, as it involved two boats laid across Hatt Road to prevent traffic, which served to link to the recent Freedom Flotilla Coalition attempts to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip in a fleet of boats, via the Mediterranean Sea.
Two activists were also locked onto a concrete barrel. This is a regular feature of these actions that are designed to raise awareness that Australia is supplying the Israelis with information on activities on the ground in Gaza, which is distributed via the United States. So, from 4.30 am through to 2 pm that day, at which time the police extracted them from the barrel, lethal intel to Israel was blocked.
This action took place two weeks after Mparntwe for Falastin activists, Carmen Escobar Robinson and Tommy Walker, appeared before Alice Springs Local Court in respect of summary offences they’d been charged with following a 27 November 2023 Pine Gap blockade action, with the court still out on the outcome of the trial, which involved expert testimony on the base and the genocide.
The validity of the US presence at Pine Gap in the red centre of this continent of many nations, not far from the town of Mparntwe-Alice Springs, has long sparked controversy and even contributed to the downfall of the Whitlam government in 1975. Yet, the viability of the base is becoming all the more untenable as it is being used in the commission of the most heinous crime since World War II.
“In solidarity with Palestinian liberation”
“We are coming at you from the road blocking the Pine Gap genocide base,” said Mparntwe for Falastin spokesperson Hannah Elkin on an Instagram post being filmed on Hatt Road at around 4.30 am NT time on 9 October. “We have blocked the road and blocked the workers from coming to work to commit acts of genocide from this US military base.”
“We are standing in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla and calling on everyone everywhere to escalate for Palestine,” the activist added from Arrernte Country, “in whatever way they can.”
Nautilus Institute Professor Richard Tanter is a key Pine Gap researcher. He gave evidence at the recent trial of Robinson and Walker in respect of the November 2023 Pine Gap blockade. The professor outlined to the court that intel from the US spy base, which has four surveillance satellites, three of which cover Gaza, is being used to target Gazan civilians, as intel is sent via the US to Israel.
The Mparntwe for Falastin activists last Thursday were demanding that the Australian government enact immediate sanctions against Israel, that the Australian attorney general prosecute Pine Gap’s involvement in Gaza and that the Joint Defence Facility is closed down and the land is returned to its sovereign custodians, the Arrernte people.
“We’re here because Pine Gap is sharing surveillance data, including geolocation information from mobile phones with the genocidal Israeli regime, who are targeting journalists and their families, children, teachers, doctors, patients and the entire population of Palestine,” said Mparntwe-Alice Springs journalist Jorgen Doyle, whose left arm was locked onto the concrete barrel last week.
Gaza genocide beyond dispute
Pro-Palestinian antigenocide activists Carmen Escobar Robinson and Tommy Walker appeared in Alice Springs Local Court a fortnight ago, in relation to summary offences laid against their names due to their participation in the six-hour-long November 2023 Pine Gap blockade of Hatt Road, which was estimated to have blocked around 100 Pine Gap employees that morning.
This was the second such action, following an initial blockade of Pine Gap in October 2023. The first Mparntwe for Falastin action was repeated after journalist Peter Cronau, writing in Declassified Australia, reported on testimony from an ex-Pine Gap employee, who was certain that the spy base would be gathering intel on Gaza bound for the US prior to being sent on to Israel.
The recent Alice Springs Local Court hearings over the 23rd and 24th of September featured expert testimony from Professor Tranter and Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) . The line of defence run by the activists was that they committed their crimes in order to prevent the ongoing mass atrocities in Gaza.
The group were represented by John Lawrence SC. That a genocide is taking place in Gaza was affirmed by the defendants, their lawyer, the judge and the prosecution. The participation of the Pine Gap facility in providing information that is being utilised in Gaza was neither disputed. The proceedings took place a week after the United Nations confirmed genocide is taking place in Gaza.
“Respectfully your Honour,” the Crown Prosecutor was heard to say in the lower court, “a blind person can see that since the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the UN Partition Plan in 1947, there’s been a systematic annihilation of the Palestinian people and it’s only recently that the international stage has labelled that a genocide.”
Robinson and Walker pleaded not guilty to a charge of failure to cease loitering, contrary to section 47A of the Summary Offences Act 1923 (NT), which is a crime that carries up to 6 months prison time and/or a fine of $2,000.
But the pair were not acquitted, as in order for the defence of committing a crime to prevent a much larger crime to get across the line, it must be shown that the defendant used force in order to prevent the larger crime.
NT Judge John McBride noted that both defendants are “exemplary citizens”, and he commended their commitment to social justice and society, and in light of that, he recorded no convictions against their names, and no penalties were imposed.
Pine Gap’s closure inevitable
“We are here because we know the Pine Gap genocide base, which is 5 kilometres down the road, is sharing intelligence daily with the Israeli Occupation Forces,” Doyle continued from the middle of the road last Thursday morning. “We know that intelligence has been used to bomb schools, to bomb hospitals, to target journalists and to destroy every church and mosque in Gaza.”
“This base is one of the key ways that Australia is participating in the genocide as an accomplice and is failing obligations under international law to prevent a genocide, to avoid complicity in a genocide, and there’s the focus on the Global Sumud Flotilla,” he continued. “We shouldn’t have to do this. But we are committed to doing it if the government won’t end its participation.”
Doyle and activist Yul Scarf, who were both locked onto the barrel, were arrested by Northern Territory police after being cut out of the lump of concrete. They, like Robinson and Walker, have been charged with refusing to cease to loiter. The pair have been released on bail, on condition they do not enter Hatt Road. This condition can be challenged when they appear for a mention next month.
The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide was ratified by Australia on 8 July 1949. The first article of the agreement requires that all state parties undertake to prevent the international crime of genocide from taking place or continuing, whether it be committed in peace time or in a time of war.
Article 2 of the convention defines genocide as one or more of five acts being perpetrated with the aim of attempting to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. The acts are killing members of the group, causing serious bodily and mental harm to members, deliberately inflicting destructive conditions, preventing births and the forcible removal of children.
“We are here with full power and full conviction. We are on Arrernte Country – sovereign Arrernte Country,” said Scarf, whose left arm was locked into the barrel.
“The solidarity that flows from here to Falastin is tangible at every moment. It is our honour to be able to stand up, to be able to take action like this and to be able to link arms globally.” And the activist added that those participating in the direct action were sure that Pine Gap’s closure is inevitable.
