Former Israeli PM slams ‘lip service’ Palestine call as Labor division mounts

Former Israeli prime minister and two-state solution advocate Ehud Olmert has dismissed Australia’s move to recognise Palestine as populist symbolism, as the Albanese government resists growing calls within Labor for further sanctions to force an end to the war in Gaza.

Some lifetime Jewish Labor members are considering quitting the party over a sense of despair over the decision, according to the co-founder of the Labor Friends of Israel group. In a marker of the splits inside Labor, two of the party’s former foreign ministers are demanding Australia put sanctions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Tuesday, Albanese defended his government’s move on recognition and accused Netanyahu of being “delusional” about the scale of suffering in Gaza, as Opposition Leader Sussan Ley vowed to reverse Australia’s major foreign policy shift.

Olmert, a fierce Netanyahu critic who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, said the Albanese government should have waited until key conditions were met, such as elections being held, before recognising Palestinian statehood, rather than accepting assurances from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

“I’m a supporter of a two-state solution, I presented a solution to the Palestinian leader in 2008 while we negotiated peace between Israel and Palestine,” Olmert said in an interview with this masthead.

“What I do not understand is why the prime minister recognises a state that doesn’t exist rather than try and influence the two sides, the Palestinian side and the Israeli side, to embark on a negotiation that will help create it.

“The question is: can we depart for a second from the political rhetoric and lip service [in favour of] a more consistent, thoughtful, careful and smart process, in collaboration with other countries, to create the necessary infrastructure and platform that will allow the actual implementation of such idea in reality.”

The most recent Palestinian elections were held in 2006, with Hamas winning 74 of 132 parliamentary seats. Plans for subsequent elections have been consistently postponed and cancelled.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has indicated the government will only take practical steps on recognition, such as opening an Australian embassy in the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah, when the Palestinian Authority meets reform milestones, including on democratisation.

Ley said in a statement that shadow cabinet had resolved to revoke the recognition decision if it returns to power.

“The Coalition would have never made this call, and we do not agree with it,” she said.

In 2008, Olmert made a secret offer to Abbas to create a Palestinian state including the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and 94 per cent of the West Bank. Olmert insists his offer was serious, but Palestinian negotiators have said they dismissed it because he was embroiled in a corruption scandal and had already announced plans to resign.

Olmert and former Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa last year presented a joint initiative to end the Israel-Hamas war and create a Palestinian state along the lines he suggested to Abbas in 2008.

Olmert, a former member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, said he believed there was a “certain populist flavour to the decision made by the prime minister of Australia”, adding he was concerned Palestinian recognition was being used as a “punishment for Israel” rather than to advance peace.

Citing the anti-Israel protests on the steps of the Opera House on the day after the October 7 attacks, he said Australia, a country he previously admired, had recently displayed “a certain spirit of total impatience and intolerance to Israel”.

He said Australia’s decision to recognise Palestine would carry less weight in Israel than similar moves by France and the United Kingdom because their militaries helped Israel intercept Iranian missile strikes last year.

Asked about the reaction to the decision among Jewish party members, Labor Friends of Israel co-convenor Nick Dyrenfurth said: “There is a sense of angst, despair and in some cases betrayal.

“Some lifetime members of 40 years standing are thinking of leaving the party.”

Dyrenfurth, who is Jewish and has been a Labor member for 27 years, said: “What’s most concerning is the radio silence from comrades who have worked with them in the trenches for decades. No-one picks up the phone and says, ‘How are you feeling? Don’t leave, you have contributed too much for too long.’

“The haste of the decision has shocked people, and they feel they are having to choose between two identities: Labor and being Jewish, but the two are inextricably bound up together.

The Labor caucus, including prominent Jewish MP Josh Burns, was broadly supportive of Monday’s announcement, but some MPs expressed concern.

One MP, who remained anonymous to avoid blowback, said the move was inevitable and understandable given Israel’s actions, but “no matter what people say, it will be perceived as a win for Hamas”.

“This is not going to make much difference on the ground, but as a civilised country you can’t watch the images on our screens and do nothing,” the MP said.

The Labor Friends of Palestine group and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network have demanded that the government go further by sanctioning Netanyahu, a call backed by former Labor foreign ministers Gareth Evens and Bob Carr.

Government sources emphasised that Foreign Minister Penny Wong had already taken the significant step Labor to sanction two far-right Israeli ministers as well as violent settlers.

The government is not closed off to the prospect of further sanctions, sources said, but will only move in concert with nations such as the UK and Canada. Australia has a meagre economic relationship with Israel, meaning the economic sanctions called for by activists would have little practical effect.

Olmert drew international attention in May when he argued in Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza and accused it of the “indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians”.

Asked about Netanyahu’s plan to conquer Gaza City, Olmert said: “The entire strategy is absolutely wrong”.

“I think that we should end the war right away with a one-phase agreement, on the basis of a very tight and firm commitment from Israel not just to end the war, but to pull out from Gaza,” he said.

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