Palestinian activists’ hopes for change came with the federal Labor government’s decision to reverse the Coalition government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Labor is also allowing charities to transfer financial aid to the Gaza Strip, with less security oversight. The previous Coalition government had declared Hamas a terrorist organization and prohibited any form of support for it, including humanitarian aid.
The former Australian government helped the Israeli government to tighten the siege on the Gaza Strip and collectively punish the Palestinian people.
The Labor Party has said it would return to allowing non-government humanitarian aid. But it has kept Hamas in the list of terrorist organisations, officially confirming that on October 6.
Labor has not supported a United States push, in the United Nations, on setting up an inquiry to look into human rights violations in Palestine and Israel. Australia, along with more than two dozen other countries, refused to sign on.
Michelle Taylor, US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, asserted that Israel has been unfairly targeted by the UN Human Rights Council.
Amanda Gorely, Australia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, said “Australia agrees that the Human Rights Council imposes disproportionate scrutiny on Israel,” but that Australia had “concerns about the nature of the commission of inquiry”.
Read the article by Khaled Ghannam in Green Left.