The conditions under which Australia wants to recognize Palestine as a state
Last Updated on April 11, 2024 3:20 am
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has indicated that Palestine may be recognized as a state. As a condition, the armed Hamas, the ruling group of the Gaza Strip, cannot have any role in the state power, he said.
The BBC reported this information in a report on Wednesday (April 10).
The Australian government has long said recognition of a Palestinian state could come as part of a two-state solution mediated by Israel.
However, Australia’s opposition party and Zionist organization, the Zionist Federation of Australia, disagreed. According to them, such a decision taken by the Australian government regarding Palestine would be an immature step.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said they did not support the move and that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government threatened to break decades of “bipartisan Australian foreign policy”.
But Wong’s comments echoed a statement by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron earlier this year. At the time, Cameron hinted that the UK could recognize a Palestinian state without Israel’s support.
The Australian government has repeatedly expressed concern about Israel’s operations against Hamas in Gaza. The country also expressed concern over the death of an Australian aid worker and six others in an Israeli airstrike.
In a speech on Tuesday night (April 9) local time, Penny Wong said the only hope to break the “endless cycle of violence” may be a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in separate countries.
Decades of failure to take this path, coupled with the Netanyahu government’s refusal to negotiate on the question of a Palestinian state, have caused widespread frustration, he said. The international community is therefore now considering the question of a Palestinian state as a way to speed up the two-state solution.
In a statement, Simon said the Albanian government’s argument for early recognition of a Palestinian state is putting statehood ahead of security. The terrorists who started this terrible conflict now will win.
The president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Jeremy Lebler, said that the time has not yet come to discuss the recognition of the Palestinian state.