The significance of Australia’s changing position on a Palestinian state

Australia’s vote this week in support of a UN General Assembly resolution aimed at creating and “irreversible pathway” to a Palestinian state caps a year of important symbolic changes by the Albanese government on this issue.

But there is a fatal flaw at the heart of the government’s policy of creeping recognition of a Palestinian state: the rate of creep cannot possibly match the pace at which the mirage of Palestinian statehood is evaporating.

Shifts in Australia’s voting at the United Nations accompanied by the mantra of a two-state solution do not compete with facts on the ground, in both Israel and the US. Still, with a federal election looming, these factors might help to soothe anger inside and outside the ALP over the government’s handling of the Gaza war.

Last May, Australia was one of 143 United Nations members to support a General Assembly resolution providing the Palestinians with what Foreign Minister Penny Wong described as modest additional rights to participate in UN forums. Wong made clear then that Australia’s support for the resolution did not equate to recognition of a Palestinian state.

At a UN meeting in late September, Wong repeated the time-worn call for a two-state solution to break the cycle of violence, with a Palestinian state and Israel existing side by side within internationally recognised borders. She added, importantly, that Australia no longer saw recognition of a Palestinian state as occurring only at the end of negotiations. Rather, it was now a way of building momentum for the two-state solution.