Labor’s Left and Right factions are edging towards brokering a deal on the internally divisive issue of recognising Palestine in an attempt to avoid a messy fight at the ALP national conference next week.
Under the deal, conference would pass a motion which “urges” Labor to recognise Palestine, but does not commit a future Shorten government to immediately recognise a future Palestinian state if elected.
“It would fall short of unilateral recognition,” a source close to the negotiations said.
The motion — which is the same as the one moved by former foreign minister Bob Carr at the 2017 NSW Labor conference — would not substantially change Labor policy or the Labor platform under the deal, sources told The Australian.
University of Adelaide professor Bassam Dally of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, which has been pushing for the harder position on unilateral recognition, conceded the deal “could” go ahead.
“They are trying to find a consensus position before the conference,” Professor Dally told The Australian.
The network will hold a fringe event at the conference where nine Labor MPs – Tony Burke, Josh Wilson, Anne Urquhart, Susan Lamb, Susan Templeman, Maria Vamvakinou, Claire Moore, Steve Georganas, and Julian Hill – will speak about their trip to the West Bank last year with the advocacy group.
Read the article by Primrose Riordan in The Australian.