STATEMENT BY ANTON BLOCK, PRESIDENT, AND PETER WERTHEIM AM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Res­ol­u­tion on Israel-Palestini­an conflict passed by NSW State ALP Con­fer­ence on 30 July 2017

Clearly, Israel still has many friends within the ALP and they are to be applauded for ensuring that Bob Carr’s original motion was sig­ni­fic­antly amended before it was passed. The amendment expressly recog­nises Israel’s right to exist within secure borders. It is dis­turb­ing that the original motion moved by a former Foreign Minister of Australia was so mani­festly one-sided and unfair.
Although it was a sig­ni­fic­ant improve­ment upon the original Carr motion, the final res­ol­u­tion urges the next Labor gov­ern­ment to “recognise Palestine”. If acted upon, this would open the door to a grave weakening of Aus­trali­a’s tra­di­tion­al bipar­tis­an consensus in favour of, and the ALP’s com­mit­ment to, a just and peaceful res­ol­u­tion of the conflict.
No fair-minded person would place the entire blame for the absence of a peace agreement on Israel. Since 2000, Israel has made at least three peace offers to the Palestini­ans which included the estab­lish­ment of a Palestini­an State over territory equi­val­ent in area to 100% of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has repeatedly called on the Palestini­ans to return to nego­ti­ations without pre­con­di­tions. The Palestini­ans have refused.
Labor leaders Bill Shorten, Penny Wong, Chris Bowen and Tanya Plibersek have all confirmed that a future Labor gov­ern­ment will not be bound by the NSW ALP Branch res­ol­u­tion, and will act inde­pend­ently in the light of legal and other expert advice. Nev­er­the­less, the one-sided and doc­trin­aire language and motiv­a­tion behind the original Bob Carr motion, and similar res­ol­u­tions passed by other State branches, does the ALP a dis­ser­vice.
Recog­ni­tion of a state is supposed to be an acknow­ledge­ment of an existing reality, not an act of wishful thinking. No Palestini­an entity currently exists which satisfies the uni­ver­sally accepted criteria for statehood under inter­na­tion­al law. There is no pro­vi­sion­al Palestini­an gov­ern­ment that controls both the West Bank and Gaza, and thus no Palestini­an state to recognise.
Further, by requiring nothing of the Palestini­ans in return for recog­ni­tion, the ALP res­ol­u­tion seeks to pressure only one side, Israel, to make uni­lat­er­al con­ces­sions, without requiring the Palestini­ans to accept recip­roc­al oblig­a­tions as a condition of statehood. This can only serve to dis­cour­age both peoples against making the hard com­prom­ises that will be essential for a just and lasting peace.
Contact
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
Phone: (02) 8353 8500
Mobile: 0408 160 904
Email: [email protected]
www.ecaj.org.au