Anthony Albanese will be called on in the upcoming ALP national conference to reverse language supporting recognition of Palestine as a state, with Jewish lobby groups warning not doing so would be “harmful to the prospects of peace” in the Middle East.
Previous national conferences passed motions that called on Labor to recognise Palestine as a state when it was next in government, with the 2019 platform noting such a change should be “an important priority”.
In October last year Labor reversed recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but it has not yet moved on formally recognising Palestine as a state. The issue is expected to be debated at national conference in August.
Former Gillard government foreign minister Bob Carr said there was growing momentum for federal Labor officially to acknowledge Palestine as a state.
“There is certainly pressure to recognise Palestine forthwith,” he told The Australian.
“Israel since the last national conference has entrenched the most right-wing and hard-right government in its history. The conditions of the Palestinian population on the occupied West Bank have worsened.”
But the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council called on Labor to return to neutral language that did not include the push to recognise Palestine as part of the party’s platform.
“There is a reason almost no Western democracy recognises a ‘state of Palestine’,” AIJAC executive director Colin Rubenstein said.
Read the article by Sarah Ison in The Australian.