Published: 20 June 2023
Last updated: 19 March 2024
The resolution demands recognition within this term of parliament but the Foreign Minister has declined to say whether the Government will act on it.
Victoria’s Labor Party conference passed a resolution on Sunday calling for the government to recognise Palestine.
The motion “calls on the Albanese Labor government to recognise the Palestinian state within the term of this parliament, joining with 138 countries, and the Vatican, which have already done so”.
The motion was only passed at state level but it is expected a similar motion will be on the agenda when the ALP National Conference is held in Brisbane in August.
Whether the government chooses to act on any party motion to recognise Palestine will be a matter for Cabinet.
A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong declined to address the question directly.
“The Albanese government's approach is guided by the principle of advancing the cause of peace and progress toward a just and enduring two-state solution," the spokesperson said.
“The government recognises the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state of their own and is committed to a negotiated two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders.
“Viewing the conflict from just one perspective will not achieve peace. Any lasting solution to the Middle East conflict cannot be at the expense of either Palestinians or Israelis,” the spokesperson told The Jewish Independent.
In an interview with The Jewish Independent last year, Senator Wong declined to answer whether Australia would vote to recognise Palestine at the UN. She said as no such motion was currently before the General Assembly, the question was hypothetical.
Currently, Australia recognises the right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders, but has not formally recognised a State of Palestine.
The main effect of a changed policy, were it implemented, would be to upgrade Australia’s diplomatic mission in Ramallah to the status of an embassy and provide embassy status to the Palestinian Authority in Canberra.
It is not the first time ALP conferences have pushed the party to go further on recognising Palestinian statehood. Similar motions were passed at the 2018 and 2021 national conferences. But at that time the party was not in government.
Senator Wong has said there will be no surprises in the government’s policy on Israel-Palestine but the Jewish community was caught off-guard when Labor reversed the Morrison Government’s decision to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Albanese government has also moved Australia’s policy at the UN towards a more favourable position on Palestine, including returning contributions to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), which had been cut by half by the Morrison government, to previous levels.
Former foreign minister Gareth Evans has been campaigning for Australia to recognise Palestine.
“Everyone understands the nature and force of the Jewish people’s claim to a recognised homeland with safe and secure borders, suffering as they did centuries of persecution, culminating in the horror of the Holocaust.
“But it is equally impossible to ignore the moral force of the Palestinian response: that the world’s conscience should not be satisfied at the expense of a people who bear no responsibility for that suffering,” he wrote recently.
The NSW conference is expected to pass a similar motion. Former NSW premier Bob Car told the Sydney Morning Herald that a change in Australia's policy would send a powerful message to the most right-wing government in Israel's history.
He said Israel was persisting with a “cruel occupation that includes apartheid laws. It is not interested in negotiating a two-state solution and around the world patience with Benjamin Netanyahu has run out.
“The recognition of Palestine sends a powerful message. One hundred and thirty-eight nations already recognise Palestine and it has been in the ALP national platform for about five years,” he said.
But Jewish community leadership opposes recognition. Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said the resolution was inconsistent with the stated position of the Penny Wong, who has repeatedly rejected any unilateral action on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
“It is a truism that if you reward bad behaviour, you’ll get more of it. From its support for terrorism, its rejection of negotiations and its promotion of vicious antisemitism, the Palestinian leadership actively undermines peace. By calling on the federal government to reward this behaviour with diplomatic recognition, the Victorian Labor resolution implicitly celebrates this.”
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Photo: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during the 2023 Victorian Labor State Conference in Melbourne (AAP Image/Diego Fedele)
