Warning against recognising state

Eminent historian Professor Martin Kramer strongly cautioned against Australia recognising a Palestinian state during a recent Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) webinar.

Professor Kramer, who has taught at a variety of universities in the US and Israel and is a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said to do so would be recognising something “which has yet to meet some of the fundamental obligations the Palestinian Authority undertook in the Oslo Accords”.

“Any step taken now on a unilateral basis will make it absolutely certain that [final status talks between Israel and the Palestinians] will never happen,” he said.

He also addressed Israel’s judicial reforms, saying a narrative has developed among Religious Zionists, their allies in Likud, and the ultra-Orthodox that there is a judicial dictatorship that rules for the benefit of Israel’s elite.

Discussing the motivations of the proponents of the reforms, he said the Religious Zionists’ main aim is to incorporate the West Bank into Israel, denying voting rights to Arabs living there while giving them other democratic rights. The ultra-Orthodox rely on inequalities in their favour, such as exemptions from military service, for their way of life.

Both fear the courts, which uphold the principle of equality before the law, could be an obstacle, so they want to reduce the courts’ power. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, from Likud, resents the courts in large part because they allowed the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.

Looking back on the past 75 years, Kramer said Israel’s founders would be impressed that Israel is a flourishing democracy, astonished by the strength of its economy and surprised it had made peace with so many Arab countries.

But he said they would be disappointed by the major role played by religion in politics – including military service exemptions.

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