Albanese rejects premature Palestine recognition
'We won't make any decision as a gesture. We will do it as a way forward if the circumstances are met,' PM tells ABC Insiders
Jewish community leaders have welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s commitment not to follow France in prematurely recognising a Palestinian state.
Speaking on ABC TV’s Insiders on July 27, Albanese said Australia would not imminently recognise Palestine, saying, “What we will do is we’ll make a decision at the right time. Is the time right now? Are we about to imminently do that? No, we are not.”
“How do you exclude Hamas from any involvement there? How do you ensure that a Palestinian state operates in an appropriate way which does not threaten the existence of Israel?,” Albanese asked. “We won’t make any decision as a gesture. We will do it as a way forward if the circumstances are met.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion welcomed Albanese’s “acknowledgement that Hamas is not only holding Israeli hostages, it is also holding the people of Gaza hostage by needlessly prolonging the conflict”.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state can only mean something when there is a single Palestinian government in control of its territory,” Aghion said. “Hamas continues to be the single biggest obstacle to achieving that goal. Until then, any form of recognition would merely be an exercise in symbolism.”
Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) president Jeremy Leibler said “a Palestinian state must be a vehicle for peace, not a reward for terror”.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state can only follow the release of all hostages, the dismantling of Hamas, and the emergence of a Palestinian leadership genuinely committed to peaceful coexistence with Israel,” he said.
ZFA chief executive Alon Cassuto said the organisation welcomed the government’s articulation of conditions including “the release of all hostages, the removal of Hamas from power, and meaningful reform of the Palestinian Authority”.
“These are not arbitrary demands, they are the bedrock of any future Palestinian state that aspires to peace and legitimacy,” he added.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said his organisation was “grateful the Prime Minister also appears to recognise” that tokenistic recognition would undermine peace prospects.
“AIJAC has long warned that tokenistic and premature recognition of ‘Palestine’ would undermine the chances of real Israeli-Palestinian peace,” Rubenstein said, noting Albanese’s acknowledgement that critical issues must be resolved first.
He said recognition would “encourage and perpetuate Palestinian rejection of the negotiations which are the only way a two-state resolution can even be achieved” and “constitute a clear reward for the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023”.
He added, “The push for premature recognition ignores the fact that Israel has offered Palestinian leaders statehood on at least three occasions, and it is the Palestinian side that walked away.”
While welcoming the Prime Minister’s stance on recognising Palestinian statehood, AIJAC expressed concern about other aspects of the ABC interview, particularly Albanese’s accusations that Israel had breached international law.
When asked directly if Israel was breaching international law, Albanese said that while he was “not a lawyer”, the Jewish state was “quite clearly” doing so, citing restrictions on aid delivery. “It’s a breach of decent humanity and of morality and everyone can see that,” Albanese told the ABC. “The young boy who people will have seen that image of just breaks your heart … is not a Hamas fighter. The civilian casualties and death in Gaza is completely unacceptable. We have rules of engagement and they are there for a reason. They are to stop innocent lives being lost and that is what we have seen.”
Rubenstein said these comments “appear to represent misunderstandings or misinterpretations of what international law actually says”.
He specifically challenged Albanese’s characterisation of Israel’s aid restrictions as illegal, noting Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention “makes it clear that aid flows can be halted if aid is being diverted, is not under effective control, or is providing a ‘definite advantage’ to enemy forces”.
“All three were clearly the case in Gaza at the time,” Rubenstein said, while also disputing Albanese’s use of the term “collective punishment” as not reflecting “the legal meaning of that term.”
The comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to formally recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly meeting in September, prompting calls from Labor figures including backbencher Ed Husic and former foreign minister Bob Carr for Australia to follow suit.