Anthony Albanese dodges an empty gesture by not following Macron on Palestinian recognition

Palestinian militant group Hamas fighters in southern Gaza in February. Picture: AFP

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Anthony Albanese has defied his party’s anti-Israel lobby by opposing any recognition of a Palestine state while Hamas remains in power in Gaza.

The decision is a win for common sense and suggests the Albanese government’s strident, and justified, criticism of Israel’s withholding of aid to Palestinians in Gaza will not bleed into a reckless decision on Palestinian statehood.

International anger at the scenes of starvation in Gaza has led to France announcing it will recognise a Palestinian state by September; Britain has not followed France’s move but UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his MPs to follow suit.

Albanese, in rejecting a similar move, correctly argued it would be wrong to confer recognition of a Palestinian nation with the murderous Hamas at the heart of it.

He points out there needs to be a “structure” for a Palestinian state before Australia could recognise one and the time is not right for that.

The Prime Minister is correct. It would be an empty and counter-productive gesture by Australia to recognise Palestine now when there is not yet any peace process, when there is zero structure to any future Palestinian government and when Hamas remains in power in Gaza.

His words will be a blow to the Labor Left, which wants immediate recognition of Palestine, a call that has recently been echoed by former Labor foreign ministers Gareth Evans and Bob Carr.

People carry food parcels and bags in the al-Mawasi camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Foreign Minister Penny Wong opened the door in April last year to recognition of Palestine before a formal peace process between Israel and Palestinian authorities was completed.  She suggested recognition “could occur as part of a peace process”, but even that has not yet been met.

Those who support premature recognition of Palestine argue that it strengthens progress towards a two-state solution and sends a symbolic message of support for Palestinian self-determination. The more likely outcome of recognising a Palestinian state at this time is to alienate Israel and embolden Hamas, making it harder to secure a peace deal and any genuine movement towards an eventual two-state solution.

Sadly, Palestine has never looked less like a single state than it does today, with a terror group still presiding over a ruined Gaza and a corrupt Palestinian Authority presiding over a West Bank that has been carved up by Israeli settlements.

Albanese’s decision not to follow France in recognising Pales­tine statehood for now will also avoid a potential clash with Don­ald Trump when the Prime Minister finally meets with the US President later this year.

Palestinian President Mahmoud with French President Emmanuel Macron in the West Bank city of Ramallah in October 2023. Picture: Pool/AFP

The Labor leader already has enough differences with Trump over Israel, defence spending and China without adding another provocation to the list.

What makes Albanese’s refusal to adopt the empty gesture of recognising Palestine so refreshing is that the Labor government has had a bad habit of adopting empty gestures during the war in Gaza where it has taken a progressively harder anti-Israeli line on a raft of ultimately meaningless UN resolutions.

Albanese is also right to join the chorus of international condemnation of Benjamin Netan­yahu’s government for what he calls its breach of “humanity” and “decency” in withholding aid from ordinary Gazans.

It is Hamas that started this war and bears prime responsibility for the suffering of Gazans – that must not be forgotten and needs to be repeated constantly – but Netanyahu’s willing­ness to impose near-starvation on 2.1 million Gazans in the name of trying to further weaken Hamas is unconscionable and deserves to be called out by Israel’s friends.