An Australian court has heard, for the first time, expert evidence linking the secretive outback spy base of Pine Gap to Israel’s genocide in Gaza in a case involving two protestors.
Yul Scarf and Jorgen Doyle pleaded guilty on 14 September for blocking the main access road to the spy base under the charge of failing to cease to loiter. The protest took place on 9 October 2025, with the pair handed a six-month good behaviour bond and a court levy of $223 each.
But as part of the proceedings, the Alice Springs Local Court received details of Pine Gap’s alleged involvement in Israel’s wars in West Asia.
“As far as I’m aware, this is the first known instance of an Australian court receiving expert evidence demonstrating that Pine Gap is being used for that purpose,” Nick Hanna, the defendants’ legal representative, said outside the court.
“We argued that this evidence provides support to Jorgen and Yul’s contention that they committed this offence on conscientious grounds.”
Pine Gap ‘likely’ aiding Israel’s wars
Hanna said the defence relied on evidence from Prof Richard Tanter – Australia’s leading Pine Gap expert – and Chris Sidoti – UN Commissioner for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.
Tanter’s 34-page tendered report demonstrated why it was “likely” that the joint US-Australian base was assisting the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) as of the date of offending last year.
This includes:
Pine Gap satellite coverage of Gaza and the broader region
the historical provision of Pine Gap-derived intelligence to Israel
documented US-Israeli intelligence-sharing agreements permitting the transfer of NSA intelligence, including raw intelligence material, which covers material sourced from Pine Gap
statements made by former NSA senior intelligence analyst at Pine Gap, David Rosenberg, including that the “Pine Gap facility is monitoring the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas with all its resources, and gathering intelligence assessed to be useful to Israel”.
“This assessment also applies to IDF operations in Lebanon and Yemen in 2024-2025,” Tanter’s evidence reads.
The report states that in both cases assistance from the Australian government was not “direct” but in compliance with “existing arrangements” and “established policy” with the United States.
“By which the dominant partner … the United States National Security Agency passed intelligence potentially derived from Pine Gap to its Israeli Defence Force partner,” it reads.
Protest activity escalating at base
The October 2025 blockade at the remote spy base is one of several recent protests against what is considered one of the most significant offshore US intelligence facilities.
In July, hundreds from across the country converged on the road to Pine Gap demanding its closure.
Arrernte elder Felicity Hayes and three generations of her family were on the frontlines and delivered a letter to the gates of the highly secure facility.
The letter, set to be tabled in parliament in coming months, included calls for the return of sacred land occupied by the base to traditional custodians and compensation for families in Gaza impacted by the ongoing genocide.
Pine Gap’s role has faced greater public scrutiny in the last three years amid ongoing US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as the recent US-Israeli war on Iran.
Despite the public pressure, the Albanese government maintains it will not comment on the operations of joint intelligence facilities like Pine Gap.
Australian governments have typically avoided discussing arrangements at Pine Gap for fear of US retribution. The Whitlam Labor government in 1974 famously threatened to close Pine Gap, only to be toppled a year later by what many suspect was a CIA-orchestrated coup – the only coup in Australian history. No Australian government has dared challenge US activities at the base since.
Emphasising Israel’s atrocities
While Tanter submitted evidence of Pine Gap’s intelligence operations, Sidoti highlighted the devastating end-result – the mass slaughter of innocents.
Sidoti provided details from two UN Commission of Inquiry reports that showed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and, more disturbingly, deliberately targeting children.
Listen to the Deepthink interview with Chris Sidoti
“[Israel targets Palestinian children] directly by shooting at their vital organs using precision weapons such as quadcopters and snipers,” the document tendered to court reads.
“And through use of high-impact weapons causing widespread and systematic attacks on residential buildings, schools and displacement camps.”
The report noted that the killings have continued since the so-called ceasefire went into effect last October.
“Children continued to be killed and injured in various circumstances … indicating Israel’s flagrant disregard of the terms of ceasefire,” the report reads.
The details were relevant to the case as it includes a recommendation for Australia to “prevent the commission of genocide in the Gaza Strip”, which puts Pine Gap’s activities into focus.
Hanna also submitted an affidavit as part of the bundle of evidence.
“I set out the conclusions of just about every major human rights organisation in the world that has independently found that Israel’s conduct in Gaza constitutes the crime of genocide,” he told Deepcut.
This makes my day. I read a poll that said 80% of Australians are against the genocide in GAZA and wondered if it was true.
This article gives me hope that it is! I'm one of the 80%>. I do not believe my tax dollars should go toward supporting the murder of children!
Only 0.2% of the world's population is Jewish. Why do they have so much power over the rest of us?
Israeli is not a religion.
Jewish is not a nationality.
Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism.
And most importantly, all people with an ounce of morality despise the genocidal state of Israel.
IRONY: When Zionists who survived a genocide use it as an excuse to commit genocide.
“NAZIs made me afraid to be a Jew. Zionists made me ashamed to be a Jew.”
Dr. Shahak, Holocaust survivor