Australia will move to recognise a state of Palestine at the next United Nations General Assembly next month, with a condition that terror g
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that he will recognize Palestine next month when he visits the United Nations.
Australia will move to recognise a state of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly next month, with a condition that terror group Hamas play no role in its future governance. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would work with the international community to make recognition a reality. "Australia will recognise the state of Palestine. 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," Mr Albanese said. "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." The Palestinian Authority has promised Australia it would recognise Israel's right to exist, demilitarise and hold general elections, among other commitments.
The two-state solution is the only real solution. It was part of the original UN plan passed in 1948. Extremists on both sides want a one-state solution – their own with the expulsion of the other side.
"The risk of trying is nothing compared to the danger of letting this moment pass us by. The toll of the status quo is growing by the day and it could be measured in innocent lives," Mr Albanese said. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it had been more than 77 years since the world promised a Palestinian state. "In the nearly two years since [the] October 7 [terror attack by Hamas], we have been working with the international community on breaking the cycle of violence," she said. "We can't keep waiting for the end of a peace process that has ground to a halt."
Australia is not the first Western power to consider this move and it won't be the last.
But as a number of Australia's allies, including the United Kingdom, France and Canada, say they are prepared to formally recognise Palestine next month, momentum has built for Australia to follow. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed this afternoon it too was carefully weighing its position on recognition and would decide in the next month.
So there may be as many as five countries granting recognition to Palestine next month.
For countries which don't wish to go that far at the moment there is a step they can take in that direction.
In the early 1970s when the US was beginning to end its estrangement with mainland China, it opened a "liaison office" in Beijing which functioned as a de facto embassy. When the US ended recognition of Taiwan in 1979 the Beijing liaison office formally became an embassy and the US embassy in Taipei became a liaison office. So there may be a number of in-between options which countries can take regarding Palestine.
The point is to end the violence and foot-dragging which have permitted a war to continue on and off since 1948. The Hundred Years' War between England and France actually lasted for 116 years. The Israel-Palestine conflict is now just 39 years short of catching up to that bloody medieval record.
