To be a good global citizen is about more than our alliances with major powers; it is about how we deal with those people denied the most basic rights around the world.
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Just this week, Israel announced plans to alter planning procedures for settlement activity in the territories that they have occupied for more than 55 years, and plans for imminent advancement of the construction of over 4000 settlement housing units.
At this pivotal moment, when Israeli civilian politicians, led by members of the settler movement, have taken over the running of the occupation from their country's military, it has never been more urgent for Australia to stand up for Palestinian statehood.
After all, where are the two states that Australia says it stands for to be found if all the land is put in the hands of just one?
For any peace talks to be effective and productive, as Australia's position demands, Israel and Palestine need to be on an equal diplomatic footing.
For the last 30 years, whether bilateral negotiations were being conducted or were frozen, Israel's leadership has rejected any reasonable solutions to the key final status issues of refugees, Jerusalem, security, borders and water. Rushed offers of backroom deals made when governments were on the verge of collapse due to Israel's internal politics, as was the case in 2001 and 2008, were always about Israeli politicians' CVs and not any lasting acknowledgment of Palestinian rights. Proof of this has come through Israel's continued de facto and de jure annexation of territory beyond its internationally recognised borders.
Since Labor's victory in the 2022 federal election, the Albanese government has taken several constructive steps, advancing Australia's support of the Palestinian people and their rights, such as increasing Australian funding to Palestine, reversing the Morrison government's haphazard recognition of West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and markedly improving Australia's voting at the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council. In addition, the Labor government has continued to support a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist in peace and security. It is time for Australia to take the next step by recognising Palestinian statehood.
In the absence of a genuine peace process between occupier and occupied, a new approach based on international law is urgently needed. For the Albanese government, acting on the Australian Labor Party national conference's resolution (passed in 2018 and formally incorporated in the ALP national platform in 2021) which "calls on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state; and expects the recognition of the state of Palestine to be an important priority for the next Labor government" would be an affirmation of international law and of Labor's established values of respect for human rights and justice.
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Palestine already meets the legal requirements for statehood under the 1933 Montevideo Convention - having a permanent population, defined borders, an effectively functioning government, and a proven capacity to enter relations with other states - and has been upgraded to observer non-member state at the UN General Assembly. Furthermore, by recognising the state of Palestine, Australia would be joining a growing global consensus of 139 countries which have already done so, including key partners to Australia such as Indonesia, India, Papua New Guinea and the Vatican.
The Australian public have expressed clear support for recognising Palestinian statehood, with over half agreeing that Palestine should be recognised as an independent state and only 9 per cent opposing the concept in a 2022 survey. Labor Party grassroots movements and state branches have repeatedly endorsed the call to recognise Palestine as a state, most recently in a motion passed at the Victorian Labor Party state conference earlier this month.
Recognising Palestinian statehood is also a moral issue. Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem have found glaring human rights violations by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people. Recognising the state of Palestine will send a powerful message that Australia stands with the Palestinian people's pursuit of their fundamentals human rights. This is particularly crucial at a time when senior Israeli leaders talk unashamedly about wiping communities off the map.
The ALP, which prides itself on its prompt recognition of Israel in 1948, should make this next historic step as soon as it can and correct the imbalance that was created then. To delay would be to compound the many injustices Palestinians are suffering daily at Israeli hands.
- His Excellency Dr Izzat Abdulhadi is the ambassador of the State of Palestine and Head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.
