ECAJ statement on the Australian government’s announcement on recognition of a Palestinian State.

In announ­cing Australia’s intention to recognise a Palestini­an state at the UN General Assembly next month, the gov­ern­ment has departed from decades of bipar­tis­an consensus which has envisaged Palestini­an statehood and recog­ni­tion as part of a com­pre­hens­ive peace agreement between Israel, the Palestini­ans and the Arab States.

Today’s announce­ment acknow­ledges the need for all the hostages to be released and for Hamas to be disarmed and removed from power. It accepts that the Palestini­ans and the Arab States have to recognise and make peace with Israel as the State of the Jewish people, and normalise relations with it. The major flaw in the announce­ment is that it relegates all of these con­di­tions to the status of a mere promise to be fulfilled at some future time, and says nothing about what will happen if those con­di­tions are not met.

For this reason, we feel that the course of action announced by the gov­ern­ment is a betrayal and aban­don­ment of the Israeli hostages who continue to languish in appalling con­di­tions in Gaza without even access to the Red Cross. This announce­ment gives them no hope for release. It leaves Hamas armed and in control of territory, and in a position to regroup and rearm, thereby creating the con­di­tions for the next war rather than a com­pre­hens­ive peace.

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.

This com­mit­ment removes any incentive or dip­lo­mat­ic pressure for the Palestini­ans to do the things that have always stood in the way of ending the conflict, spe­cific­ally the recog­ni­tion of Israel as a Jewish state and the need to negotiate the five final status issues that separate the sides.

Israel will feel wronged and abandoned by a long­stand­ing ally. The Palestini­an Authority will feel that a huge dip­lo­mat­ic prize has been dropped in its lap, despite its con­sist­ent failures to reform, demo­crat­ise and agree to peaceful coex­ist­ence alongside a Jewish state. Hamas and other Islamist groups will see that barbarity on a grand scale can lead to desired political trans­form­a­tion.

The Jewish community is not surprised by this announce­ment. We knew from the government’s public state­ments and our private engage­ment that this move was coming.

This does not lessen our dis­ap­point­ment. Nor does it matter that Australia has taken shelter in the company of several other western demo­cra­cies. If, as we fear, the move to recog­nising a Palestini­an state outside a framework for a com­pre­hens­ive peace will lead to further bloodshed, those same western gov­ern­ments will bear a heavy burden of respons­ib­il­ity.