Recognising a Palestinian state rewards Hamas

One of my first memories of Hamas, during the time of the Oslo Accords, was at school when we were told that Purim celebrations were cancelled because a Hamas suicide bomber had blown himself up killing Israeli children in their Purim costumes.

As a young adult, I grieved when Hamas bombed the Dolphinarium night club in Tel Aviv during the Second Intifada. Now as a mother, sheer devastation for how Hamas brutally slaughtered 1200 people including men, women and children – many in their own homes – on October 7, capturing 250 hostages.

Twenty hostages out of the fifty who remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza are believed to be alive, held in inhumane conditions. We have seen footage of Evyatar David starving while digging his own grave in a dark tunnel, but my Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has decided to reward Hamas with a state.

Forget that “Palestine” does not meet the requirements for statehood under international law under the Montevideo Convention: defined territory and government control. Forget that the Palestinian Authority – firstly under Yasser Arafat, and then Mahmoud Abbas – already rejected peace offers from Israeli leaders in 2000, 2001 and 2008 that would have given them a state.

What the Australian Government has done is a send a clear message to Hamas that all of its bloodshed and violence has been worth it. Senior Hamas politburo member Ghazi Hamad said as much earlier this month, telling Al Jazeera that the international move towards Palestinian recognition was due to “the fruits of October 7”. It is a lesson other terrorist groups will watch closely.