‘We did not reward Hamas’: Penny Wong defends United Nations vote backing Palestinian statehood

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has insisted Australia did not reward the terror group Hamas by backing Palestinian statehood in a high-profile United Nations vote, a move that has drawn fierce criticism from Israel and its local advocates.

The Albanese government broke with some of its closest security partners early on Saturday morning by voting in favour of a General Assembly resolution that declared “the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations” under its charter rules.

The UN resolution was supported by 143 nations with nine voting against and 25 abstaining.Credit: YouTube/United Nations

In a rare public display of disunity on foreign affairs, Labor MP Josh Burns said Jewish Australians would feel more isolated as a result of the vote, arguing that the government should have abstained rather than vote yes.

“An abstention would have signalled we’re open to further recognition, but that we acknowledge the short-term hurdles that need to be overcome in order to achieve lasting peace,” Burns, who is Jewish, said in a statement.

Other Labor MPs including cabinet member Ed Husic, who is Muslim, welcomed Australia’s vote as an “important step” that could accelerate progress towards the creation of a Palestinian state.

Wong said the vote did not mean Australia had officially recognised Palestine as a state, but showed “unwavering support” for a two-state solution.

“This resolution that we have supported is about long-term peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians, and I truly believe that the only path to securing peace and security for Israel is with the establishment of two states,” she said following the vote.

Rebutting the charge from pro-Israel advocates that a vote in favour would reward Hamas for the brutal October 7 attacks on Israel, Wong said: “I want to say this is a clear rejection of the goals and methods of Hamas.

“A two-state solution, both Israel and Palestine, is the opposite of what Hamas wants ... The rejection of Hamas is amongst the reasons why Australia voted for this resolution.”

The vote confers additional rights on Palestine at the world body, allowing it to take part fully in debates, propose agenda items and have its representatives elected to committees.

However, it will not be able to vote in the General Assembly after the United States used its veto power in the Security Council last month to block a bid for full Palestinian membership of the UN.

Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan theatrically inserted a miniature copy of the UN charter into a transparent paper shredder.Credit: YouTube/United Nations

Former prime minister Scott Morrison declared he was “terribly saddened and disappointed” by the vote, which he described as “the most hostile act of an Australian government to the state of Israel in our history”.

In a day of high emotion at UN headquarters in New York, Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan said that the global community had rewarded Hamas for its October 7 terror attacks, which led to 1200 deaths.

Erdan said the UN had “opened up the United Nations to modern-day Nazis, to genocidal jihadists committed to establishing an Islamic state across Israel and the region, murdering every Jewish man, woman and child”.

“It makes me sick,” he said.

Declaring that the nations supporting the resolution had shredded the UN charter, Erdan inserted a miniature copy of the UN charter into a transparent paper shredder during his speech.

The resolution, which “reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine”, was supported by 143 nations – the overwhelming majority of UN member states.

Nine countries voted against and 25 abstained.

Wong said many of Australia’s regional partners voted in favour, including New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea.

However, Australia’s vote contrasted with its AUKUS partners, the United States and United Kingdom, which respectively voted no and abstained.

The result underlies the growing strength of the Palestinian cause within Labor, which abstained from voting on a 2012 resolution granting Palestine observer status at the UN but has since incorporated support for Palestinian statehood into its policy platform.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said that expanding Palestine’s role at the UN “without direct negotiations is counterproductive and would only reward Hamas for the atrocities they committed on October 7”.

He said it was disappointing that Australia had voted differently to like-minded countries with which it was usually aligned.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has been laying the groundwork for a yes vote on such a resolution over the past month. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the Labor government’s support for the resolution risks harming long-term peace prospects and sends a “shameful message” that violence and terrorism get results.

“By advancing the wishes of terrorists while securing nothing in return, this vote has reduced the incentive for parties to negotiate and increased the risks of future attacks or bloodshed,” he said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said Australia should have joined the UK by abstaining from the vote.

“One can only conclude that Australia’s vote was driven by domestic political considerations, and not by principle, which makes it a sad and shameful day for all Australians,” he said.

“The Palestinian leadership is as autocratic, corrupt and divided as ever, and remains incapable of forming a single government with the capacity to rule over its claimed territory.”

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni welcomed Australia’s vote as “a favourable move towards a serious international commitment to Palestinian self-determination” but lamented the watering down of previous drafts.

“Even with this successful resolution, the UN has still failed to recognise Palestinians’ basic, inherent right to participate in decision-making about issues that directly affect their lives and political aspirations,” he said.

Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said the vote could not have come at a worse time because he believed it would undermine efforts to convince Hamas to release Israelis taken hostage on October 7.

“I feel like I have been stabbed in the heart,” he said.

Wong began laying the groundwork for supporting such a resolution last month in a speech emphasising the case for Palestinian statehood, separate to a final peace settlement with Israel.

Australia’s ambassador to the UN, James Larsen, told the General Assembly that Australia had been frustrated by the lack of recent progress towards a two-state solution.

Larsen stressed that the resolution “does not provide membership of the United Nations and retains the status of the permanent observer mission with a modest extension of additional rights”.

Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour addresses the UN General Assembly.Credit: AP

The vote came as the war in Gaza entered its eighth month, with Israel expanding ground operations in the southern city of Rafah and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing that Israel would fight with its “fingernails” if necessary after the US withheld a delivery of bombs.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault, according to health officials in Gaza.

Late on Saturday, Israel ordered new evacuations in Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians have been sheltering, saying it was also moving into an area in northern Gaza where Hamas has regrouped.

Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr gave the government “full marks” for the vote, saying it was a way to “salvage the two-state solution from both the settler fanatics and their leaders, and the fanatics of Hamas”.

Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said that a “yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence – it is not against any state, but it is against the attempts to deprive us of our state”.

“It is an investment in peace and thus empowers the forces of peace,” he said.

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