By Nkiruka Nnorom with agency report
Australia and New Zealand have joined the growing number of countries pushing for recognition of Palestinian state over the lingering Israeli-Hamas war, and the attendant humanitarian crisis and starvation in the Gaza strip.
Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, made the announcement yesterday at a press conference, saying that a formal recognition would be made at the United Nations General Assembly next month.
“Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,” Albanese.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, said his country was also considering recognizing a Palestinian state, and would make a decision at a cabinet meeting in September.
“New Zealand has been clear for some time that our recognition of a Palestinian state is a matter of when, not if,” Peters said in a statement, echoing the language used by Australian officials in the weeks leading up to Monday’s announcement.
Describing the situation in Gaza as an absolute human catastrophe, New Zealand Prime Minister, Chrisopher Luxon, said that it was “entirely appropriate that we take the time to actually make sure we weigh up our decision and work that through in a sensible way.”
If the move materialises, both countries would join the United Kingdom, France and Canada that have threatened to recognize a Palestinian state in September.
The move leaves the United States increasingly isolated from some of its closest allies in its defense of Israel’s escalating military campaign that’s decimated the besieged enclave after almost two years of war. If Wellington also moves, it will mean that four of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, will recognize Palestinian statehood.
Australian Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, said she’d spoken to US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in a call Sunday to give him advance notice of Australia’s impending announcement. A read-out of the call released by the US did not mention Palestinian statehood.
In an interview with Catholic broadcaster EWTN last week, Rubio said that declarations of support for a Palestinian state were “largely symbolic” and only “emboldened Hamas and made it harder to achieve peace.”
Albanese said Australia had sought and received assurances from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas would play no role in any future Palestinian state.
Other conditions include a commitment to demilitarize and to hold general elections, abolish a “system of payments to the families of prisoners and martyrs,” and governance and education reform, as well as “international oversight to guard against the incitement of violence and hatred,” Albanese said.
“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict suffering and starvation in Gaza,” he said.
“This is about much more than drawing a line on a map. This is about delivering a lifeline to the people of Gaza.”
Canada and France have both said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September, when world leaders meet in New York for the UN General Assembly. The UK has said that it will, too, if Israel does not meet conditions that include agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a rare press conference with international media in which he called steps by Western nations to recognize Palestinian statehood shameful.”To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that, fall right into it, and buy this canard is disappointing,” Netanyahu said.
“But it’s not going to change our position. We will not commit national suicide to get a good op ed for two minutes.”
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