Labor senator Sam Dastyari has rebuked party MPs and elders, including former foreign ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, for advocating recognition of a Palestinian state ahead of the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.
Labor supports a two-state solution to the conflict but commits the party in government only to “discuss joining like-minded nations” in recognising a Palestinian state if the peace process stalls.
The party’s Left faction, and many in the Right, see this policy as untenable.
Mr Netanyahu, the first sitting Israeli PM to visit Australia, will meet with Malcolm Turnbull.
A Right faction powerbroker, Senator Dastyari, who does not support immediate recognition of a Palestinian state as advocated by Bob Hawke, Mr Evans and Mr Carr, said the party should not ignore other humanitarian challenges abroad.
“In recent years, there have been atrocities in Syria, Libya, Iraq and throughout the Middle East,” he said. “Palestine remains an important foreign policy issue.
“I have always been a strong supporter of a two-state solution and of Australia playing a role to help facilitate that (but) the Labor Party can’t afford to focus on the Palestinian question at the expense of the other humanitarian challenges.”
The Iranian-born senator said he supported the party reviewing its policy but made it clear the recent interventions in support of Palestine by Mr Hawke, Mr Evans and Mr Carr were unhelpful prior to Mr Netanyahu’s visit.
“There is no doubt it will continue to be debated in Labor forums,” he said. “I support that. But I want to make sure we do it in addition to — and not to the exclusion of — other debates.”
Bill Shorten will meet with Mr Netanyahu at a time when the party’s fragile consensus on Middle East policy adopted at the 2015 national conference is losing support.
Read the full article by Troy Bramston at The Australian (subscription required).