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The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ), the peak rep­res­ent­at­ive body of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, has responded to the res­ol­u­tion on the Israel-Palestini­an conflict which was passed today by the ALP National Con­fer­ence, and to recent state­ments made by ALP leaders con­cern­ing recog­ni­tion of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The following joint statement was made by ECAJ President Anton Block and co-CEOs, Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin.

“Whilst the ALP National Con­fer­ence res­ol­u­tion falls a long way short of the immediate and uncon­di­tion­al recog­ni­tion of a Palestini­an State which some sections of the ALP have been advoc­at­ing for several years, and will not be binding on any future Labor gov­ern­ment, the tenor of res­ol­u­tions passed at recent ALP con­fer­ences has been in that direction.

Uni­lat­er­al recog­ni­tion of a Palestini­an State can only act as a dis­in­cent­ive, rather than an encour­age­ment, to Israel and the Palestini­ans to resume nego­ti­ations, in effect pre-empting the outcome of one of the key issues to be nego­ti­ated.

In contrast, recog­nising that Israel’s seat of gov­ern­ment is located in the western part of Jerusalem, which is incon­test­ably sovereign Israeli territory, does not in any way impact upon or pre-empt the future status of the contested eastern and other parts of the city captured by Israel in 1967. The ALP’s announce­ment that, in gov­ern­ment, it would reverse Australia’s recent recog­ni­tion of west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was therefore hasty and ill-advised.

The ALP National Con­fer­ence res­ol­u­tion calling for recog­ni­tion of a Palestini­an State overlooks the reality that no Palestini­an entity presently exists which meets even the most minimal of the legal and practical criteria for statehood – a gov­ern­ment capable of exer­cising control over its people and territory, and deliv­er­ing on inter­na­tion­al agree­ments.

To the ALP’s credit, and thanks to the lead­er­ship of ALP leader Bill Shorten, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and their col­leagues Richard Marles, Mark Dreyfus, Mike Kelly and Michael Danby among others, the goal of a just and lasting two-state res­ol­u­tion of the Israel-Palestini­an conflict remains embedded in the ALP policy platform, and this continues to represent the bipar­tis­an consensus in Australia.

Nev­er­the­less, it is a misguided approach by advocates of uni­lat­er­al recog­ni­tion of a Palestini­an state to place the onus exclus­ively on Israel for the impasse in achieving a two-State res­ol­u­tion of the conflict, and does nothing to encourage the Palestini­an lead­er­ship to remedy their obvious short­com­ings, and to act like a respons­ible gov­ern­ment. Instead, it rewards them for their failures.

Further, Palestini­an organ­isa­tions have appalling records on the rights of women, LGBTIQ people and workers. The Hamas attitude towards Israel and its Jewish citizens is openly genocidal, as its notorious Charter makes all too clear.

Any proposal for aid to the Palestini­ans will need to be subject to the most careful pruden­tial controls in order to ensure that the aid goes to ordinary Palestini­ans who are in need of it. The mistakes of the past, where Palestini­an aid has been mis­ap­pro­pri­ated by the Palestini­an Authority and Hamas to fund or incite terrorism and for other improper purposes, must not be repeated.

We look forward to con­tinu­ing to work con­struct­ively with Bill Shorten and his par­lia­ment­ary col­leagues to find ways by which Australia can con­trib­ute mean­ing­fully to a two-State outcome, based on an honest under­stand­ing of the realities of the conflict in all their tragic com­plex­ity.”

Contact
Peter Wertheim AM | co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: [email protected] | www.ecaj.org.au