Joint statement from Jewish community organisations in Australia, Canada, and the UK on Palestinian statehood.

Today, the Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the Cen­tre for Israel and Jew­ish Affairs released the fol­low­ing joint state­ment:

As rep­re­sen­ta­tive organ­i­sa­tions of Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties in Aus­tralia, Cana­da and the UK we call on our gov­ern­ments to keep cen­tral to their diplo­mat­ic efforts to end the dev­as­tat­ing con­flict in Gaza, the fol­low­ing pri­or­i­ties:

• the return of all remain­ing hostages tak­en on or before 7 Octo­ber 2023, liv­ing and dead;
• the dis­arm­ing of Hamas and its removal from pow­er;
• the need for unre­strict­ed aid to reach civil­ians in Gaza, whilst ensur­ing it is not divert­ed to serve Hamas’s inter­ests;
• the oblig­a­tion of all par­ties to adhere to inter­na­tion­al law.

The ter­ri­ble human­i­tar­i­an con­di­tions in Gaza are a source of great con­cern to us all, and need to be addressed urgent­ly. We also hear the voic­es of many Israelis, includ­ing hostage fam­i­ly mem­bers, call­ing on Israel’s gov­ern­ment to pri­ori­tise an agree­ment to bring the hostages home. We know from hor­rif­ic videos issued by Hamas that the hostages who remain alive are being starved to the point of death, are denied access to the Red Cross and do not have much time.

We are grave­ly con­cerned that our gov­ern­ments’ announced inten­tions to recog­nise a Pales­tin­ian state at the UN this month are seen by Hamas as a reward for its vio­lence and rejec­tion­ism towards Israel, and these announce­ments have there­fore less­ened rather than max­imised pres­sure for the hostages’ release and for Hamas to dis­arm. Indeed, Hamas has wel­comed our gov­ern­ments’ dec­la­ra­tions of an inten­tion to recog­nise a Pales­tin­ian state at the UN lat­er this month as the “fruits of Octo­ber 7.” Extrem­ists have answered their call for esca­la­tions in glob­al vio­lence by car­ry­ing out bru­tal assaults on Jews—citizens of each of our coun­tries. For the sake of a bet­ter future for Israelis, Pales­tini­ans, and the wider Mid­dle East, it is an imper­a­tive to avoid serv­ing this agen­da.

Recog­nis­ing a Pales­tin­ian state while Hamas remains armed and in con­trol of ter­ri­to­ry would also be a betray­al of the Pales­tini­ans who remain under Hamas’s con­trol and have become increas­ing­ly vocal in their oppo­si­tion to being ruled by a ter­ror­ist organ­i­sa­tion.

Let it nev­er be for­got­ten that Hamas and oth­er ter­ror­ist groups in Gaza ini­ti­at­ed this war; they remain open­ly com­mit­ted to the geno­ci­dal goal of destroy­ing Israel as a State and expelling or erad­i­cat­ing its Jew­ish pop­u­la­tion; they have sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly embed­ded their mil­i­tary forces with­in and beneath civil­ian homes and civil­ian infra­struc­ture in Gaza, while tar­get­ing civil­ians in Israel; and they have pro­longed the war and the agony of the peo­ple of Gaza, despite hav­ing been rout­ed mil­i­tar­i­ly. They have done this with the back­ing of Iran, which not only remains com­mit­ted to Israel’s destruc­tion but direct­ly threat­ens our own com­mu­ni­ties.

Whilst our gov­ern­ments have each demand­ed that Hamas release the hostages, give up pow­er and dis­arm, they have not made the ful­fil­ment of these demands a pre­con­di­tion of recog­ni­tion of a Pales­tin­ian state. Our gov­ern­ments are in effect say­ing that the ful­fil­ment of these require­ments post-recog­ni­tion will be tak­en on trust and left for some unspec­i­fied time in the future. This is a pos­ture that lacks cred­i­bil­i­ty, bor­ders on reck­less­ness, and sets up Pales­tin­ian state­hood for fail­ure from the out­set. It will there­fore set back rather than advance prospects for a gen­uine peace based on the inter­na­tion­al­ly-endorsed prin­ci­ple of two states for two peo­ples.

We urge our gov­ern­ments to recon­sid­er.