Daniel Hurst
The Guardian / July 6, 2023
Izzat Abdulhadi of Palestinian delegation calls for government to resist ‘pressure’ to avoid contentious topic – and to strongly condemn Israel’s raids on Jenin.
Australia should stand up for the “fair go” by recognizing Palestine as a state, according to its de facto ambassador, who argues that Israel’s “brutal” military operation in the city of Jenin only increases the urgency for bold steps.
Palestinian recognition is one of the foreign policy issues set to be discussed when Labor holds its next national conference in Brisbane in August.
The head of the Palestinian delegation in Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, said there was “huge support from the grassroots of the Labor party” for the idea. He said there was a moral case to recognize Palestine “because of Australian fair go principles and because Australia is a good international citizen”.
Abdulhadi said the often-repeated calls for a two-state solution negotiated bilaterally had become an “illusion”. The Israeli government was continuing to establish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, he said, and “we will not be left with any land to establish our own state”.
In 2018 and 2021 Labor’s national conference backed a resolution that “supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognized borders” and “calls on the next Labor government to recognize Palestine as a state”.
But those resolutions were passed when Labor was not in government, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has so far declined to commit to a timeframe for recognizing a Palestinian state.
Abdulhadi appealed to Wong and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to resist “pressure” to avoid the contentious topic.
“I hope that Penny Wong in particular and Anthony Albanese have the leadership to actually support and endorse the recognition of Palestine in this term,” Abdulhadi said in an interview conducted at his delegation’s premises in the Canberra suburb of O’Malley.
He noted that the Israeli government had given more control over settlement approvals to the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who said earlier this year there was “no such thing as a Palestinian people” and that the Palestinian town of Huwara should be “erased”.
Abdulhadi said these developments should help persuade Australia to take steps to redress a power imbalance and give Palestinians hope by joining nearly 140 countries that recognize Palestine.
While Wong has said “settlements are an obstacle to peace”, Abdulhadi said: “Condemnation is not enough at all.”
Israeli forces on Wednesday withdrew from Jenin after carrying out one of their biggest military operations in the occupied West Bank for years.
The Israeli army said the operation aimed to destroy militant infrastructure and weapons in the Jenin refugee camp.
Reports indicated that several thousand Palestinians were forced to flee the camp. As the troops left, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired five rockets towards Israel in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited an army base near Jenin this week and vowed to “uproot terrorism”.
Abdulhadi said he was watching the events in Jenin “with great sadness and anger”.
“Australia should condemn, in the strongest terms, this brutal assault and collective punishment against the Palestinian people,” he said, adding: “Australia recognizing the state of Palestine would send a powerful message that Australia does not condone Israel’s gross human rights violations.”
The assistant minister for foreign affairs, Tim Watts, said on Wednesday that the Australian government was “deeply concerned by the escalating violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including in Jenin”.
“It’s on all parties to come together to break this cycle of violence and to work together to create the conditions for peace,” Watts told Sky News.
The Australian government has previously also condemned rocket attacks from Gaza and attacks on civilians and has said it “recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself”.
Last October Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the Australian ambassador for a diplomatic dressing down after the Albanese government reversed the former Morrison government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
At the time Wong said Australia was restoring its “previous and longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people”.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, has appealed to the Albanese government not to recognize Palestinian statehood before a final peace agreement.
Maimon told the Nine newspapers in May: “Israel’s position is that the final status of the [Palestinian] territories should be decided by the two parties involved.”
Daniel Hurst is The Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent
