Wong on Palestine statehood

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has acknowledged there is still “work to do” for Palestine to function as a sovereign state, one year after Australia recognised Palestinian statehood.

In an interview with The Australian in New York, Wong was asked whether Palestine was a functioning sovereign state. Saying there was work to do, she pointed to Israeli construction in the West Bank.

“We see Israeli settlements which are on the ground, making the prospect of a viable Palestinian state much less and diminishing that,” she said.

Wong said Australia was working with the United Kingdom, Canada and Indonesia on reform of the Palestinian Authority, and that she had spoken to the Palestinian foreign minister last week. She has not spoken to her Israeli counterpart for a couple of months. “We have taken positions on certain issues that I know the Netanyahu government has disagreed with,” Wong told The Australian.

Asked whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be welcome in Australia, Wong said she did not think he was seeking an invitation.

She rejected the characterisation of the decision to recognise Palestine as ideological, saying it was principled and pragmatic, and that there would be no peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians without two states. Australia had acted because the world was seeing what was occurring and needed to work with others to contribute to peace, she said, when asked why the government had not waited until its conditions were met.

Labor conditioned its ongoing support for Palestinian statehood on tfacetimehe Palestinian Authority reforming, democratic elections being held and Hamas having no role in governance. Hamas remains in control of Gaza.

Wong said the recognition sat alongside Australia’s support for US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, noting the coordinated declarations of recognition that preceded the conference from which the plan arose.