Jewish groups condemn new Labor platform on Israel

Australia’s peak Jewish organisations have condemned the Australian Labor Party’s new National Platform on Israel and Palestine, saying it stripped out explicit calls for Hamas to disarm, for the Palestinian Authority to reform and for Israel’s security to be guaranteed.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said the worry was that the platform would become government policy.

“The concern is that the weakening of resolve to exclude Hamas from any role in governing a Palestinian state and to hold the Palestinian Authority to account for failing to honour its written commitments, as now enshrined in the ALP platform, will eventually become government policy,” he said.

Wertheim said the government was right that Australia could play a role in promoting harmony rather than conflict in the Middle East.

“That ambition is unlikely to be achieved by dispensing harsh criticisms to one side only, namely Israel, while going soft on the bad faith of the Palestinian Authority in failing to meet the written commitments it made to the Australian government to induce Australia to recognise a Palestinian state,” he said.

He said Australia should revive the partnership it formed with Britain and Canada when the three countries recognised a Palestinian state last year.