‘We cannot stand by’: Government sends strongest signal yet on Palestinian recognition

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has discussed efforts to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza with the head of the United Nations as the government sends increasingly strong signals it will join a coalition of nations recognising a Palestinian state next month.

Albanese also had a phone call with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, in which they committed to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been holding a series of diplomatic encounters about Palestinian statehood. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese spoke to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday to discuss the upcoming general assembly, a conversation government sources said was part of an escalating set of diplomatic encounters as international pressure mounts to recognise Palestinian statehood.

The call had previously been reported, but not that the pair spoke about Palestine.

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong has used her strongest language on the issue this week, heightening the sense of urgency to recognise Palestine by arguing that time was running out to keep a two-state solution alive.

“There is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise if the international community [doesn’t] move to create that pathway to a two-state solution,” she told ABC radio on Tuesday.

“It has been my long-held position that there will be no peace and security for the people of Israel unless we resolve to a Palestinian state. That has been my view for decades.”

Her comments came as Israeli media outlets reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to order the full military occupation of Gaza in a last-ditch effort to force Hamas to surrender and to recover the remaining Israeli hostages taken during the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.

Former United States ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro was one of many Middle East experts who decried the plan, saying it would be a “disaster” leading to the deaths of more Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages.

Wong used even more forceful language about Palestinian recognition in a television interview on Monday night, saying there had been “a lot of co-ordination” with other countries on the issue and that it has been remarked this could be “the last hope” to salvage any prospect of a Palestinian state.

“I hope that’s not the case, but we cannot, we cannot stand by with what is happening in Gaza and not add momentum towards two states,” she told the ABC’s 7.30.

“We cannot stand by whilst the prospect of a Palestinian state is diminished on the ground by settlements and other statements; we have to find a way to push for ... two states.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin called for Wong to publicly acknowledge that Hamas had stymied attempts to negotiate a ceasefire since May.

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“Israel accepted the internationally brokered ceasefire that would have seen the unfettered flow of aid, the phased return of hostages and a pathway to a permanent end to the war,” he said. “It is unsatisfactory for this material fact to be omitted, giving the false impression that Israel is the barrier to the ceasefire and not Hamas.”

Ryvchin added: “Our community desires peace and a permanent end to the conflict, but this can only be achieved by ending Palestinian terrorism, ending the hostage crisis and then supporting Israelis and Palestinians in charting a peaceful future through direct negotiations.

“Recognising a Palestinian state before this happens is a doomed policy that has no prospect of delivering peace.”

Hamas said in a weekend statement that it could not yield its right to “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and claims all the holy city as its capital, even though the vast majority of the international community wants East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Hundreds of retired Israeli security officials on Monday urged US President Donald Trump to pressure the Netanyahu government to end the war in Gaza, saying in an open letter: “It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel.”

The letter argued that the Israeli military “has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas’s military formations and governance”.

“The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all the hostages home,” they said.

“Chasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later.”

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