Don’t blame Albanese for declining Australia-Israel relations

Shortly after the Hamas attacks of October 2023, President Biden cautioned Israel against overreacting in their response. At that stage, few anticipated the scale of the Israeli carnage in Gaza nor the extent to which this would galvanise global protests by millions of people who had never been involved in the issue.

If Australian relations with Israel are declining, this is because the government has, slowly and it seems reluctantly, followed public opinion. The long-term damage to Israel’s reputation is enormous and clearly ignored by the Netanyahu government, whose language becomes increasingly strident as support for them declines both at home and abroad.

The images of mass devastation in Gaza and increasing settler violence on the West Bank mock Israel’s claim of being a fellow democratic society. Yes, within the borders of Israel, there is a functioning (if imperfect), democratic system—even The Economist Democracy Index rates Israel as a ‘flawed democracy’. But Israel effectively controls the lives of seven million Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza who lack the rights of Israeli citizens. Whether we term this apartheid or not, it undermines any claim that Israel is a genuine democracy. Meanwhile, within Israel itself, there is mounting pressure to reduce the rights of non-Jewish citizens, despite Arab Palestinians making up twenty per cent of the country’s population.

Netanyahu claims to be “fighting a war on behalf of Western civilisation”, but in reality, he is defending an ethno-nationalist state—one that stands in stark contrast to the values most Australians associate with multiculturalism. It is not surprising that Israel counts among its supporters’ leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and India’s Narendra Modi, whose own politics emphasise forms of ethno-nationalism.