Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced today, following countries like France and Canada in the historic move.
“Today I can confirm that at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September, Australia will recognise the state of Palestine,” Albanese said at a press conference in Canberra today.
“Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority.
“We will work with the international community to make this right a reality. Australia is making this statement today following our cabinet meeting, as part of a coordinated global effort building momentum for a two-state solution.”
Albanese said he has been discussing Palestinian statehood with the heads of state for the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Japan for the past two weeks, and spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Thursday, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last Tuesday.
“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese continued. “The international community’s vision for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East always encompassed two states – living side-by-side with internationally recognised borders.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong added that there is “no sustained peace unless we see a two state solution“.
“We made clear we would recognise Palestine when it would best contribute momentum to peace,” she said at the same press conference. “September is that time.”
She continued: “We have always said that Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas. But a whole population has been shattered. So this September, the international community has the chance to forge hope from despair.”
It comes after Netanyahu slammed Australia’s advocacy for Palestinian statehood last Saturday as “disappointing” and “shameful”.
More than 55,00 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, according to the Associated Press, while more than 1,139 people have been killed in Israel, Al Jazeera reports. In recent weeks, Israel’s blockade of aid has created a deadly famine. (Israel denies it is behind the blockade.)
Last month, two Israel-based human rights organisations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, said the acts they have witnessed are tantamount to genocide, a claim Israel also denies.
“Since October 2023, Israel has shifted its policy toward the Palestinians. Its military onslaught on Gaza, underway for more than 21 months, has included mass killing, both directly and through creating unlivable conditions, serious bodily or mental harm to an entire population, decimation of basic infrastructure throughout the Strip, and forcible displacement on a huge scale, with ethnic cleansing added to the list of official war objectives,” B’Tselem stated in back in July under an article titled “Our Genocide”.
“An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.
“In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. ”
Last weekend, tens of thousands of Australian pro-Palestine supporters marched across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge to highlight the atrocities taking place in Gaza, calling on the Australian government to sanction Israel and recognise the Palestinian state. (Some reports say this number was closer to 300,000.)
At the time of writing, Netanyahu has not responded to Albanese’s formal recognition of Palestine, but it’s a definite that he will not be happy with the historic move.
More to come.
Lead Photo: Getty.
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