Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s description of Palestinian recognition as hypothetical is significant after the controversy about the issue before the ALP national conference. The minister’s comment, hopefully, is a sign of greater realism within the Albanese government over extremist anti-Israel demands that Australia immediately recognise a currently non-existent “state of Palestine” that has neither internationally defined and accepted borders nor a central government or any other criteria for statehood stipulated in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States.
Senator Wong is right to describe the current status of Palestinian statehood as hypothetical. But her assertion that recognising a Palestinian state remains an “important priority” for Australia is not reassuring. Neither is her admission that she was a chief advocate on the wording in the national platform that has been criticised by pro-Israel groups. “One of the reasons I’ve argued so strongly inside our party for that wording, and I have probably been the principal advocate of that wording for some years now, is that I do believe that this is something the party is entitled to express a view on, but ultimately these are sensitive diplomatic issues,” she said.
She is entitled to her views. But when an issue is as wrong as advocating Australian recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state, Senator Wong should avoid backing for anti-Israel ideologues in the ALP demanding immediate recognition.
Read the editorial in The Australian.