Labor has used its parliamentary majority in South Australia to call for the recognition of “the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel”, making it the only Australian legislative body to formally back Palestine statehood.
The amended motion, quietly passed in the lower house on budget day last week, calls on the Australian government to “recognise the state of Palestine (as we have recognised the state of Israel) and announce the conditions and time lines to achieve such recognition”.
The resolution, put forward by dumped Labor frontbencher Tony Piccolo, also seeks confirmation that unless measures are taken, a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict will “vanish”. The non-binding motion also opposes continuation of Israeli settlement building. A similar motion will be raised in the upper house by the Greens.
Mr Piccolo, who on the day the motion passed handed out fake newspapers to commuters to spruik the state budget, said Palestinians “have been the victims of dispossession for 70 years” and have “suffered under what could effectively be described as a military occupation for 50 years”.
Read the full article by Michael Owen and Verity Edwards at The Australian.