Australia votes in favour of ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestinians

Australia has voted in favour of a UN resolution calling for ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestinians for the first time since 2003.

Australia has broken ranks with US to back a draft United Nations resolution to recognise “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians in the occupied territories for the first time in two decades.

Australia was among more than 150 countries to vote in favour of the draft resolution -alongside the UK, New Zealand and France – which will now proceed to the UN General Assembly.

The US, Canada and Israel were part of seven nations to vote against the motion.

Protesters gather at the State Library in Melbourne to call for an end to the ongoing war with Palestine and Israel's current occupation of Gaza; and the escalating Israel-Lebanon conflict. Picture: NewsWire / Nadir Kinani

The resolution calls on the UN to recognise “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources”.

Australia had abstained from voting or voted against the resolution since 2003.

It also voted favour of a call for compensation from Israel for an oil spill affecting Lebanon during a war between the two nations in 2006.

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said although Australia did not “agree with everything in the resolution” it reflected “international concern about Israeli actions that impede access to natural resources, and ongoing settlement activity, land dispossession, demolitions and settler violence against Palestinians”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said Australia supports a two-state solution. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“We have been clear that such acts undermine stability and prospects for a two-state solution,” they said.

“This resolution importantly recalls UN security council resolutions that reaffirm the importance of a two-state solution that has had bipartisan support.”

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network welcomed the vote, saying it “reaffirmed the applicability of the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in times of war”.

“The resolution seeks to address the longstanding and ongoing impacts of Israel’s illegal occupation, exploitation, and destruction of Palestinian natural resources, which has deeply eroded the environmental and economic health of Palestinian communities,” it said.

“By supporting this resolution, Australia has taken a meaningful stand against the systemic deprivation that has threatened the livelihoods of Palestinians under decades of illegal Israeli occupation.”

Barrister and former Iinternational Criminal Court prosecutor Regina Weiss said the decision to back the draft resolution went towards Australia “fulfilling our obligations under international law.”

“It has been decades since those words permanent sovereignty were introduced relating to Palestine but it is the first time we have seen Australia back anything like this at the UN, so it is a really important day for Australia,” she told the ABC.

Ms Weiss said, if ratified by the general assembly, the bill could “lead in the future to (Palestine) becoming a member of the UN”.

Palestinians displaced amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza shelter in tents at Palestine Stadium. Picture: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Alex Ryvchin took to X to condemn Australia’s position and said in media statements it symbolised a “widening gulf between the US and Australian positions regarding Israel and the Palestinians”.

“It is disappointing that our government feels the way to end the war and the wider conflict is by pressuring an ally and a democracy that has achieved peace with every Arab party willing to accept it, while asking nothing of the side mired in dysfunction, terrorism and autocracy,” he wrote on X.

US adviser Nicholas Koval denounced the resolution as “one-sided” and one that “will not help advance peace”.

“The United States remains disappointed that this body has again taken up this unbalanced resolution that is unfairly critical of Israel, demonstrating a clear and persistent institutional bias directed against one member state,” he said.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham criticised the move. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

In May, Australia also voted to pass a resolution calling on the UN security council to reconsider granting full membership to Palestine.

The latest move has been criticised by Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Simon Birmingham framing it as “another shift in position” by the Albanese government.

“The Labor government has shown that they are dramatically changing those positions, that they’ve significantly changed it in relation to the pathway to a two-state solution,” he said.