In a world that is finally waking up to the urgent need for justice and peace in the Middle East, Australia has chosen silence and hesitation. While 147 of the 193 United Nations member states have formally recognised the State of Palestine – including France, Spain, Ireland, and Norway – Australia continues to sit on its hands. This refusal is not only out of step with global momentum; it is out of step with the values of fairness, dignity, and the will of the Australian people.
Recognition of Palestine is not an endorsement of violence, nor is it a rejection of Israel’s right to exist. It is a simple acknowledgement that the Palestinian people – stateless for 76 years – deserve the same rights and recognition afforded to others. It is a step toward equality, toward dialogue, and ultimately toward peace.
Yet Australia clings to a failed policy of “not yet” – as though Palestinian dignity must forever be postponed for fear of offending a powerful ally. In doing so, our government aligns itself not with justice or international law, but with the shrinking minority of countries who continue to look the other way.
This decision does not reflect the views of the Australian public. Poll after poll shows a majority of Australians support Palestinian statehood and an end to the occupation. We are a people who believe in the fair go, in standing up for the underdog, in peace over power. And yet, our government refuses to act – cowed by geopolitical caution and domestic political pressure.
Data based on YouGov polls
Refusing to recognise Palestine is not a neutral act. It is a political choice – one that undermines the international consensus, emboldens the status quo, and tells the Palestinian people that their suffering is invisible.
Australia once stood tall in the fight against apartheid. We helped build international pressure that led to its end in South Africa. Why, then, do we hesitate now?
If we truly believe in a two-state solution – if we truly believe in peace – then we must recognise both states. It is time for Australia to find its moral courage and join the vast majority of the world in recognising Palestine.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
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Whereas I support any nation recognising Palestinian statehood I fear that it will be in vain because there is no indication that Israel will ever respect Palestinian independence whatever the rest of the world thinks or does. The attitude of Zionist settlers in the West Bank confirms that Israel is already committed to ethnically cleansing that region of Palestinians and has been active in destroying Palestinian property, assets, infrastructure and cultural heritage whilst bombing and reducing Gaza to rubble. Check out YouTube videos of Israeli bull dozers ripping up streets, water and sewerage pipes etc in Jenin at night whilst the rest of the world gazes with passive wonderment at the genocide of the Gazans.
Imagine 20 years ago if we were told that Israel would murder 60,000 Palestinians, including 20,000 children, and turn the country into rubble and the majority of Western nations didn’t condemn it and in fact, actively supported it. Would we believe this could happen? I doubt it.
I wonder what part of entering a village, rounding up and often killing the resident owners , driving the rest out, bulldozing homes and orchards , then claiming the land for yourself can be considered legal and defensible? Who will justify this crime?
I am a long term supporter of the Labor government but I am shocked and disappointed in Albanese’s irrational hesitance to openly condemn that truly evil murderer, Netanyahu! C’mon Albanese, wake up! The rest of the free world – with the notable EXCEPTION of the now isolated, totally dysfunctional, Trump-mismanaged pro-Zionist nation of America – have already justifiably and wholeheartedly condemned that cold-blooded, genocidal, child-killing murderer, Netanyahu, as a totally unconscionable and completely remorseless WAR CRIMINAL!
WTF would make ANYONE with any level of compassion, foresight and discernment hesitate – even for one second – in loudly and publicly accusing Netanyahu and his depraved army of the worst, most unforgivable crimes against defenceless, unarmed non-Jewish Palestinian men, women and innocent little children as they attempt to flee their homes in Israel, especially along Netanyahu’s KILLING FIELDS along the Gaza Strip!
Netanyahu has now PROVEN that he is an irrational megalomaniacal killer without conscience who is every bit as depraved as the monstrous Nazi, Adolph Hitler whom Netanyahu hypocritically condemns but continues to emulate by building brutal concentration camps in which to slowly torture, starve and annihilate anyone who isn’t a rusted on Zionist! Clearly, Netanyahu, Trump and other crazy RWNJs choose to forget that Muslims, Christians and (a far smaller population of Jewish Palestinians) have lived in Israel for thousands of years and the ONLY reason there was such a huge influx of Jewish settlers in Israel following WW2, was because England and America chose to dump thousands of Jewish people there when they emptied the dreadful Nazi concentration/death camps that incarcerated countless thousands of hapless Jews originating from all over Europe!
Albanese MUST now exhibit courage, stand by the side of truth, decency and do the right, humane thing! Importantly, Albanese and ANYONE delusional enough to remain silent during the genocidal mass murder of innocent Palestinians (Muslims and Christians alike) MUST learn that there is a LOT of truth in the old adage: “History has shown that GREAT EVIL will continue, unabated, when good men say and do NOTHING!”
If the LNP was in power they would be applauding Netanyahu and his rabid fanatics for what they’re doing on the West Bank and the muderous rampage of the Palestinians.
Albo and Labor makes squeaking noises about what is going and then scurry off like the mice they are. Any respect I have for them has just about evaporated over the past few months.
Don’t blame poor Albo, he is just sucking up to Trump on Australia’s behalf. He knows Trump has got it all wrong, but is prepared to look the other way, unlike the coalition who think the sun shines out of Trumps ass.
Whilst, as a global community, we are getting closer to recognising Palestine as a sovereign state there are procedural problems at the UN.
The UN procedure for admitting a new state is as follows:
The State submits an application to the Secretary-General and a letter formally stating that it accepts the obligations under the Charter.
The Security Council considers the application. Any recommendation for admission must receive the affirmative votes of 9 of the 15 members of the Council, provided that none of its five permanent members — China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America — have voted against the application.
If the Council recommends admission, the recommendation is presented to the General Assembly for consideration. A two-thirds majority vote is necessary in the Assembly for admission of a new State.
Membership becomes effective the date the resolution for admission is adopted.
I have highlighted the problem area : the US must be prepared not to veto the application in the Security Council which at this stage they are not. In all other respects recognition of Palestinian statehood could proceed which instantly would make Israel’s annexation and occupation of Gaza illegal under international law.
But Trump isn’t concerned about international law, is he !!!
Israel’s membership of the United Nations was approved in 1949. Unlike other states, it was approved conditionally upon Israel complying with Partition Resolution 181 as to the limits of the Israeli State and UN Resolution 194, allowing the return of refugees. Israel has complied with neither condition. It refuses to define its borders and is today governed by an Apartheid regime that has murdered over 21,500 children in Gaza in the space of one year. Israel’s membership of the UN must be illegal. It should be expelled from the community of nations.Once a regime is accepted as an apartheid regime, consequences flow. An apartheid regime is illegitimate and must be removed from the community of nations.
All the time America has the power of veto at the UN and is a supporter of Zionism, Israel will do what it likes in the Middle East.
Reading Anthony Lowensteins book on the subject a few years ago, I got the idea that a “One State solution” may be the likely outcome.
While Palestinians may benefit from being treated equally, this solution would never be tolerated by the Jewish component because they will never regard themselves as being equal to anyone else.
They have disputes with EVERY neighbour, yet Israel could function as “normal” nation with laws that we regard as normal.
The genocide is the only solution that the Jewish community see as logical, and is simply because the low Jew birth rate, and the (Shock, horror) that they could be the minority and the born to rule would be gone.
Oh for a reasonable, intelligent, government in Israel with the notion that it is supposed to be part of a civilised globe-not a product of pre history lunacy.
Time to suspend Israel from the United Nations
https://theconversation.com/gaza-can-the-un-suspend-israel-over-its-treatment-of-palestinians-its-complicated-but-yes-242559
Jonangel, what I don’t understand is WHY Albanese, the ALP or ANY intelligent Australian gives a flying fukc what Trump thinks! Trump is not only an intellectual midget, a misogynistic predator, a disgraced SIX TIMES’ bankrupt, a callously inhumane racist and a CONVICTED CRIMINAL, his up-close-and-personal relationship with that notorious child-molesting predator, Jeffrey Epstein, has exposed Trump as being an unspeakably depraved paedophile to add to his long, ever-growing list of appalling criminal vices!
Albanese and Australia not only need to cut ALL ties with an America now totally corrupted and mismanaged by a raving, vindictive lunatic, we now need to STOP any business/exports with the US until such time America wakes up, arrests Trump – who is now internationally regarded as the worst most depraved, dangerously fascist POTUS in living memory – lock up Trump in some poorly serviced off-shore detention camp and keep the rotter there indefinitely! Once THAT is done, we need to ensure that Trump’s mate: the cold-blooded, genocidal Zionist WAR CRIMINAL, Netanyahu and his depraved cronies, are NEXT!
Katie, while I agree with the sentiment you express, I think it is obvious the western so called democracies have all become subservient to Trump and the American dollar.
Politicians aided by the mass media continue to create fear in the population, Russia, China, North Korea, Covid, there is always something for us to fear and hate. Unrest in the population takes our minds off how badly we are being governed.
Albo, Scomo, Abbott, Barnaby, is there really much difference between them>
Jonangel, yes there is a MASSIVE difference between the non-achieving capitalists in the LNP and the ALP who, in collaboration with our unions have introduced EVERYTHING that has provided any type of benefit to Australians, eg four weeks annual leave, superannuation, cumulative sick leave, long service leave, one of the world’s highest most liveable basic wage systems, maternity leave – and the list goes on and on! My question to you is to “name one thing – ONE. SINGLE. THING the LNP have EVER achieved that provides any type of benefit to ordinary working- and middle-class Australians who are not members of the Billionaire Top 1% ?” …. The answer is “NOTHING! Zero, Zilch!”
Albanese is being cautious about recognition of a Palestinian state, for good reason.
Assume that the Macron declaration goes before the UN General Assembly and, as expected, receives a majority vote in favour of Palestinian statehood it then goes to the UN Security Council where undoubtedly it will be vetoed by the US. But let’s just assume that it gets through the Security Council and Palestine becomes a sovereign state.
All hell will the breakout as Israel is militarily occupying a sovereign state in breach of international law and would be required to instantly withdraw troops and stay within its own UN declared 1948 state boundaries – that means settlements must go.
The UN would be encouraged to adopt sanctions against Israel should they refuse to act (as is the case with Russia and Ukraine) and that will inevitably cause a worldwide reaction for and against Israel and a lot of it will be genuine antisemitism: it would get ugly and the US will back Israel, that goes without saying !
We need to seriously think about the implications and ramifications of our actions and our government is right in adopting a precautionary principle. I am fully in favour of progress on a Palestinian statehood but we need to be very careful how we proceed as Israel will react with violence and belligerence and inevitably the Palestinian people will be the victims (again).
Terry, this situation has dragged on for 80 years, while I agree with your scenario, to do nothing means this will drag on possibly for another 80 years.
Time for the world to take some action, not sit back and watch Israel slaughter more Palestinians.
So the US will back Israel, so what, do you want to be subservient to America all your life?
Katie, I rate Bob Hawk in the top two or three Australian PM’s, but Bob decimated the union movement. Assisted by one of the worst ministers in his government he mixed and matched the union movement to reduce their power and workers have suffered ever since.