Published: 22 August 2023
Last updated: 19 August 2024
Foreign Minister Penny Wong prevailed at the ALP national conference. A policy to recognise Palestine remains on the platform but is unlikely to be advanced by the government.
There were quiet sighs of relief in Australia’s Jewish community when the ALP conference stuck to its pre-arranged script and passed a resolution on Friday that maintained its existing policy regarding the Israel-Palestine dispute.
The draft resolution supported the right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states and called on the Australian government to recognise Palestine as a state – a maintenance of the status quo.
There had been concerns by both the ALP leadership and pro-Israel advocates, within and outside the party, that the conference might try to impose a time frame on the recognition of Palestinian statehood.
But after some robust but contained discussion, the resolution was passed without amendment. The wording remains unchanged in the policy platform, with no timeline attached. The ALP first passed a platform to recognise Palestine in 2021 but since gaining power last year, the Albanese government has shown no inclination to implement the policy.
Israel advocates had been worried by Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s recent announcement that Australia would harden its language on Israel-Palestine, referring to the West Bank as “occupied” and settlements as “illegal”. Wong had earlier raised concerns over “alarming” trends in Israel with the Netanyahu government and described the acceleration of Israeli settlements as “an obstacle to peace” in the region.
However, other observers saw Wong’s hardening of language as a tactical move to blunt attempts by more strident pro-Palestinian voices within the party to impose a time frame on recognition. Wong’s announcement did not stop some pro-Palestinian Labor members pushing to have the time frame expedited.
