The ECAJ welcomes the following statement from seven organ­isa­tions and Dr Yadu Singh on behalf of the Indian community in Australia con­cern­ing NSW Labor’s planned motion to recognise Palestine at its con­fer­ence later this month.

Statement re NSW Labor motion on Palestine
14 July, 2017
We welcome, and are delighted to see, the deep friend­ship that has now developed between Israel and India, which has been high­lighted by the recent visit to Israel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first such visit by a serving Indian Prime Minister.  The two countries are now strategic allies which co-operate in the fields of cyber-security, defence, anti-terrorism, high tech devel­op­ment, agri­cul­ture and water man­age­ment.  Australia too enjoys excellent relations with both India and Israel.
We believe that the push from some quarters in Australia for recog­ni­tion of a Palestini­an State other than in the context of a com­pre­hens­ive peace agreement with Israel, may for the most part be well-intended but is fun­da­ment­ally mis­con­ceived. This devel­op­ment threatens to introduce the hatreds and bit­ter­ness of foreign conflicts into Australia and damage the peaceful and tolerant fabric of Aus­trali­an society.
Pres­sur­ing only one side to make uni­lat­er­al con­ces­sions, without recip­roc­al ini­ti­at­ives from the other party will only serve to dis­cour­age both peoples against making the hard com­prom­ises that will be essential for a just and durable outcome.
Given what has thus far been an irre­con­cil­able philo­soph­ic­al and political division between the Palestini­an Authority and Hamas, which each control different parts of the territory claimed by the Palestini­ans, there is currently no Palestini­an entity which meets the essential legal and dip­lo­mat­ic criteria of a State.
Recog­ni­tion of a State of Palestine other than as an outcome of a com­pre­hens­ive peace agreement with Israel would do nothing to resolve the core issues of the Israel-Palestini­an conflict, in par­tic­u­lar Jerusalem, refugees, borders, set­tle­ments, security and water. The complex arrange­ments required to address these core issues will require co-operation between the parties via detailed agree­ments, not grandi­loquent, symbolic state­ments of recog­ni­tion by outside parties.
Recog­ni­tion of a State of Palestine at the present time, and in the absence of any peace agreement with Israel, would therefore not only undermine the inter­na­tion­al rule of law but would also lay the found­a­tions for opening a new phase of the Palestini­ans’ conflict with Israel, rather than for resolving the conflict. This would be contrary to the interests of both Israelis and Palestini­ans.
In view of this we support a call to initiate and foster peace ini­ti­at­ives based on mutual accept­ance and respect for both Palestine and Israel, else humankind would not have learned anything from history.
Signed,
Assocham Australia
Council of Indian Aus­trali­ans
Friends of India
Hindu Council of Australia
The India Found­a­tion
OFBJP Australia
United Indian Asso­ci­ations
& Dr Yadu Singh