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.