Australia to recognise Palestinian state at UN and push for role in Gaza rebuild

Australia will seek to play an important role in the post-war reconstruction of Gaza as part of the Albanese government’s major foreign policy shift to join an international coalition recognising Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly next month.

Albanese stared down criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and broke with the Trump administration on Monday to confirm that Australia would recognise Palestine, declaring that “the risk of trying is nothing compared to the danger of letting this moment pass us by”.

Albanese revealed he called Netanyahu last week to forewarn him of the decision, which his Israeli counterpart has blasted as “shameful” and insisted would not influence his government.

Jewish groups and the federal opposition criticised the move, which was revealed by this masthead on Monday morning, saying it would reward Hamas for the October 7 attacks of 2023 and undermine efforts to secure a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian advocates had a mixed response, with some dismissing it as symbolism while others celebrated it as an important step forward for the Palestinian cause.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East,” Albanese said in Canberra on Monday. “Until Israeli and Palestinian statehood is permanent, peace can only be temporary.”

Albanese said the decision forms “part of a co-ordinated global effort” to create momentum for a two-state solution as he stressed that he believed Hamas could play no role in a future Palestinian state. He said the decision was predicated on commitments from the Palestinian Authority, which controls part of the West Bank, including that it would hold elections next year and reform its governance structures.

“The toll of the status quo is growing by the day, and it can be measured in innocent lives,” Albanese said.

“The world cannot wait for success to be guaranteed. That only means waiting for a day that will never come. There is a moment of opportunity here, and Australia will work with the international community to seize it.”

Speaking after federal cabinet met to approve the decision, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the international community “has the chance to forge hope from despair” by breathing new life into efforts to create a two-state solution.

“We also know this is not the end, just the beginning,” she said. “There is much work to do in building a Palestinian state.”

Government sources, who were not authorised to speak publicly, said that Albanese and Wong have been discussing “advanced” plans for the reconstruction of Gaza in calls with counterparts in recent weeks and hope the US will be drawn into the talks.

A source said the government was also talking to allies about the role Australia could play in rebuilding Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including the bureaucracy and healthcare, as it did in East Timor.

Australia’s allies, including the United Kingdom, Canada and France, have accelerated moves to recognise a Palestinian state by September. The governments of those nations view it as a diplomatic tool to avert the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a way to encourage peace. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that his nation was also considering recognising Palestine at the UN General Assembly.

Both the UK and Canada have attached conditions to the move, and Albanese said Australia’s terms were “consistent” with those conditions.

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the Albanese government’s promise, saying it would help to preserve the viability of a two-state solution.

The authority’s foreign minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin said the organisation was moving to fulfil its promises of reform, but suggested there were conditions on its promise to hold elections for the first time in almost two decades.

“President [Mahmoud] Abbas said the commitment is within a year, but of course, once the environment is conducive, once Gaza is able to be part of the election process, once East Jerusalem is able to be part of the election process, we have drafted a plan,” Shahin said on the ABC.

Wong spoke to her Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, on Sunday to brief him that an announcement was imminent. She also spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has opposed the push to recognise Palestine, before the announcement.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, accused the Albanese government of pursuing symbolism rather than a genuine peace process on Monday, and said the recognition of a Palestinian state rewarded Hamas and undermined Israel’s security.

“Only days ago, Prime Minister Albanese set clear conditions for recognising a Palestinian state, renouncing violence, freeing hostages, and establishing credible, accountable governance,” the ambassador said in a statement. “Today, however, the Australian government has abandoned those conditions.”

Albanese and Wong did not say what Australia would do if the Palestinian Authority reneged on its commitments to hold elections next year.

Bestowing statehood on Palestine had previously been regarded as one of the final steps in a peace process to be conferred at a time when a legitimate governing force was present in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

But last year, Wong made a decisive move to say the government was open to earlier recognition as a way to help spur a peace process by incentivising Palestinian leadership to modernise and pushing Israel to focus on peace.

Netanyahu blasted the growing move to recognise Palestine at a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday, saying it would bring war rather than peace.

“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that … is disappointing, and I think it’s actually shameful,” he said. “It’s not going to change our position.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry President Daniel Aghion said the government’s move was “a betrayal and abandonment of the Israeli hostages who continue to languish in appalling conditions in Gaza”.

“Australia is now committed to recognising as a state an entity with no agreed borders, no single government in effective control of its territory, and no demonstrated capacity to live in peace with its neighbours,” he said.

Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said he was deeply concerned by the government’s move.

Leibler said the decision “will embolden Hamas, further jeopardise the lives of Israeli hostages, prolong the war and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and place more strain on the longstanding alliance between Australia and Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East”.

Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network said the announcement was a “cynical political smokescreen” designed to shield Australia’s relationship with Israel.

Peter Moss, the co-convenor of Labor Friends of Palestine, said the move would be applauded by the party’s rank-and-file as a “historic milestone” but urged the government to go further by imposing sanctions and ending all military trade with Israel.

The vast majority of countries already recognise Palestinian statehood, but most Western democracies have held back from doing so until recently because they believed recognition should help encourage a final peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.

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