At the Australian Labor Party (ALP) state conferences in Queensland and Victoria in June, motions were put forward urging the Australian government to commit itself to a deadline for Australia to recognise a Palestinian state. The Victorian state conference resolved that the deadline should be “within the term of this parliament”. A campaign to achieve this objective has openly been spear-headed by former ALP Foreign Minister Bob Carr. He and his supporters have declared that they intend to carry this campaign to the floor of the upcoming ALP national conference in Brisbane on 17–19 August 2023.
Yet recognition cannot create a state where none exists on the ground. Recognition of a state is not an aspirational statement — it is, as the word implies, an acknowledgement of reality. It is one thing to opine that a Palestinian state ought to exist; it is quite another to declare that such a state already does exist.
Recognition of a Palestinian state, other than as an outcome of a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, would constitute a repudiation of the bipartisan principle on which Australian policy has been based for several decades: that Australia should encourage Israel and the Palestinians to return to good faith negotiations on the final status issues of the conflict — which include Palestinian statehood — and refrain from doing anything to pre-empt the outcome of those negotiations.
Read the article by Peter Wertheim on ABC’s Religion and Ethics.