Australia officially recognises Palestine, shrugging off Trump complaints

New York: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared he will not let the United States dictate Australian policy on the Israel-Palestinian conflict as he defended his government’s decision to break with Washington by recognising a Palestinian state.

The move to recognise Palestine puts Australia at odds with the Trump administration as Albanese seeks to secure his first meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that a Palestinian state “will not happen” as his government considers retaliating by annexing parts of the West Bank or closing diplomatic outposts in Israel.

Australia’s recognition of Palestine took formal effect on Sunday night, alongside the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal, as world leaders try to breathe new life into the two-state solution process in a push spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The government will proceed cautiously with the practical aspects of recognition, only taking steps such as opening an Australian embassy in Palestine when it feels the Palestinian Authority has made good on key commitments such as holding elections and internal reform.

“Australians want the people of Palestine and the people of Israel to know a future of greater hope, true security and real peace,” Albanese told reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York. “Today, we advance that cause.”

Asked whether the decision would damage relations with the US, Albanese said: “Well, this is about Australia’s position and the fact that we’re a sovereign nation. Australia will make decisions based upon our national interests.”

Saying he respected the fact that some nations would take a different view, Albanese said: “I’m saying that Australia makes our position clear as a sovereign nation. Our foreign policy isn’t determined in Washington or Beijing or Wellington for that matter. Our foreign policy is determined around the cabinet table in Canberra.”

Asked about the risk the decision could encourage Israel to accelerate plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, Albanese said Australia could not do nothing as hopes of a two-state solution evaporate.

“We are seeing the Israeli government continue to provide support for illegal settlements and expansion in the West Bank,” he said.

“We’re seeing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis unfold in Gaza. The idea that Israel is just sitting back waiting to negotiate is not what is happening here. This is about the world saying enough is enough, we want peace and security in the Middle East. This is Australia playing a role.”

Netanyahu condemned the move on Sunday (Monday AEST), saying recognition of a Palestinian state was a “huge reward to terrorism”.

“And I have another message for you: it will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi hailed the move by Australia, Canada and the UK, telling the AFP news agency: “These developments represent a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause, and send a clear message: no matter how far the occupation goes in its crimes it will never be able to erase our national rights.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: “This is the moment, the best opportunity that we have as a country to contribute to momentum towards a two-state solution.”

Wong declined to say when or where Australia would establish an embassy in Palestine, but said such steps would be conditional on the Palestinian Authority meeting its commitments to reform and democratisation.

However, Wong said the government would immediately begin referring to the State of Palestine in official documents, rather than the previous nomenclature of “occupied Palestinian territories”.

Australia and Indonesia will work with the Palestinian Authority to improve the education curriculum for Palestinian students, she said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion attacked the decision, and said: “Far from creating momentum towards a two-state peace, recognition of a Palestinian state in these circumstances will set the process back.

“Hamas and the other terrorist groups have already hailed the move as a reward for their violence and rejectionism towards Israel ... They will now have less incentive, not more, to release the hostages and disarm.”

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised Australia’s “bold and principled decision”, and said it “reflects a firm commitment to international law, as well as demonstrates a genuine dedication to ending the occupation and achieving lasting peace”.

The move was criticised by the Coalition, with Liberal leader Sussan Ley arguing that recognition should take place at the end of the peace process and not during the conflict.

“Today the Albanese government extends a hollow gesture of false hope to the Palestinian people. For the Israeli people, it extends a chilling act of concession to the Hamas terrorists who continue to seek their annihilation,” she said.

Albanese’s first meeting with Trump has yet to be locked in, but the pair will at least cross paths at a function Trump is hosting in New York on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST) on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

This is the first UN General Assembly that Albanese has attended since he took office in 2022, and the forum will allow him to meet an array of fellow world leaders, beginning with the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, on Sunday (Monday AEST).

One of Albanese’s top priorities, before he travels on to London and Abu Dhabi, will be rallying other nations to join his government’s efforts to ban children under 16 from operating social media accounts.

Wong will also use the UN meeting to lobby other nations to support greater protections for aid workers operating in conflict zones in honour of Australian Zomi Frankcom, who died in Gaza in April 2024 while working for the World Central Kitchen charity.

Asked if there was a case to pressure Israel to a longer-term solution to the conflict with Palestine, Trump told a reporter on Air Force One: “You could make the case that you’re rewarding people, that you’re rewarding Hamas if you do that, and I don’t think they should be rewarded. So I’m not in that camp to be honest ... because if you do that you really are rewarding Hamas and I’m not about to do that.”

While Albanese was en route to the US, 25 Republicans – including former presidential candidate Ted Cruz and other senior members of the Senate – urged him to drop plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

“Proceeding with recognition will put your country at odds with longstanding US policy and interests and may invite punitive measures in response,” the Republicans warned in a letter also sent to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Macron.

“Proposed recognition is coinciding with sharp increases in anti-Semitic activity in each of your countries. Jews are facing unprecedented harassment and attacks against them are becoming a common occurrence ... Sadly, your actions to legitimatise a Palestinian terror state will only provide greater motivation to the violent antisemitic mobs.”

Among those who signed the letter were Florida senator Rick Scott, Texas senator John Cornyn, Arkansas senator Tom Cotton and Elise Stefanik, a New York congresswoman, who was Trump’s original choice to serve as the US ambassador to the UN.

Trump said during a trip to the United Kingdom last week that he disagreed with Starmer on Palestinian recognition, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vigorously opposed the recognition push.

Rubio said moves to recognise Palestine had encouraged Israel to retaliate by threatening to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.

“We warned them that we thought that was counterproductive,” Rubio told reporters during a trip to the Middle East. “We actually think it’s undermined negotiations because it emboldened Hamas, and we think it undermines future prospects of peace in the region.”

Albanese will speak later in the week at a two-state solution conference being hosted by France and Saudi Arabia at UN headquarters.

The government does not need to pass legislation to recognise Palestine, and a vote is not required at the United Nations for individual countries to recognise new states.

Belgium will also use the UN General Assembly to formally recognise Palestinian statehood, a step the vast majority of UN member states have already taken.

Netanyahu will address the UN this week before travelling to Washington for his third White House meeting with Trump this year.

Trump will also host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a White House meeting this week.

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