After weeks of agonising, members of the NSW ALP’s foreign affairs committee were mightily relieved on June 22. They had headed off growing pressure inside the party to break with 40 years of ideological support for Israel — or so they thought.
In a phone hook-up, the committee agreed on a draft resolution. It was a neat compromise that fell well short of member demands flooding in that Labor’s largest state branch should advocate explicit recognition of Palestine at its party conference.
Bill Shorten was represented by Mike Kelly, the NSW Labor member for Eden Monaro.
Kelly could happily relay back that his Labor federal leader had a political headache no more.
The soft language of past ALP expressions of Palestinian support — committing Labor in government only to “discussing” recognition with like-minded nations if there was no progress in peace talks — would be largely unchanged.
Read the full article by Brad Norington at The Australian (subscription only).