Coalition slams Albanese’s Palestinian state speech

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michaelia Cash last week launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for what she described as a “deeply flawed and offensive” comparison between Palestinian and Jewish aspirations for statehood, as the Coalition vowed to reverse the government’s decision to recognise Palestine as a state if elected.

The fierce condemnation came after Albanese told a UN conference on the two-state solution that Palestinian recognition meant “real hope for a place they can call home”, adding, “This is the same hope that sustained generations of Jewish people.”

Cash said Albanese had shown “appalling judgement”.

“By equating Israel’s legitimate historic struggle with a terrorist-led movement, he has insulted Jewish history and betrayed Australia’s values,” she said.

“In doing so, he has diminished the unique historic plight of the Jewish people and given legitimacy to extremists who openly reject Israel’s right to exist.”