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.”

Cash said Albanese has chosen to ignore “the grim reality” that Gaza is ruled by Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation.

“Hamas’s charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews,” she said.

“Mr Albanese’s embrace of the Palestinian Authority ignores the fact that it has not held an election in nearly 20 years. The PA is widely regarded as corrupt, illegitimate, and unable to speak for Palestinians as a whole” after not holding elections for nearly 20 years.

“Mr Albanese’s speech rewards bad behaviour, distorts history, and risks damaging Australia’s standing as a principled voice for peace.”

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley spoke directly with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar last week to express her “disappointment at this break with bipartisanship”, reiterating the Coalition’s position that recognition must only come at the end of a genuine two-state process.

“Now is the wrong time while Hamas holds hostages and while conflict still rages,” Ley told Sa’ar, according to posts on social media platform X.

Sa’ar expressed appreciation for Ley’s opposition to the government’s decision and her announcement that “should there be a change of government in Australia, this decision would be reversed”. He extended an invitation for Ley to visit Israel, stressing that Israel “distinguishes between the government and the people of Australia”.

Sky News revealed the phone call was requested by the Netanyahu government.

Ley and Cash said in a joint statement last Monday that the “inconvenient truth” for the government “is this recognition comes while hostages remain in tunnels under Gaza and while the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people remain under the control of the listed terrorist organisation Hamas”.

“The Palestinian people can see no hope of democratic self-governance while Hamas is in power.

Today the Albanese Government extends a hollow gesture of false hope to the Palestinian people. For the Israeli people, it extends a chilling act of concession to the Hamas terrorists who continue to seek their annihilation,” they said.

“Hamas has long dreamed of this day of achieving Palestinian statehood on their brutal terms. When they attacked Israel in October of 2023 and captured hostages, they did so precisely to extort the world into giving them what they want. Today the Albanese government is doing just that.”

Ley promised in an opinion piece last Tuesday that “a government I lead will reverse this decision, because when Australia acts on the world stage it should take decisions that are in our national interest, not to shore up seats under threat”.

In an unorthodox diplomatic move, Ley also wrote to United States Republicans ahead of Albanese’s UN address to reassure Congress members that a Coalition government would withdraw Palestinian state recognition.

Labor Friends of Israel criticised the government’s timing, saying recognition “outside of a meaningful peace process will change nothing on the ground and surrenders an important diplomatic lever that could have been used to promote a peaceful resolution”.

The organisation expressed concern that the decision “fails to address the barriers to peace posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies and the need for radical reform of the Palestinian Authority”.

The group suggested Australia should “withdraw recognition” if commitments are not met.

Albanese condemned Hamas’s actions on October 7 in his speech to the UN conference on the two-state solution, saying it perpetrated “atrocities that horrified the world”.

He also noted that Australian Galit Carbone was among those killed that day.

In his UN General Assembly address, Albanese took aim at Iran, revealing that “Australian security agencies confirmed that the Iranian regime orchestrated the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne and a Jewish restaurant in Sydney”, leading to the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador – “the first time since the Second World War our country has taken such a step”.