Don’t reward Hamas via a premature Palestinian state

In an interview on Sunday, Anthony Albanese took a sensible approach to the misguided clamour for recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state. He said: “Is that time right now? Are we about to imminently do that? No, we are not.’’ Fast forward three days and the virtue-signalling joint statement by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and 14 overseas counterparts made Mr Albanese’s Sunday assurances seem hollow. The statement says Palestinian statehood is “an essential step” towards a two-state solution. At a press conference on Wednesday, following British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s supporting a Palestinian state, Mr Albanese emphasised that he had supported a two-state solution for his entire political life. The statement Australia had signed, he said, contained several important points. One was the Palestinian Authority in June condemning the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and calling for the liberation of hostages and the disarmament of Hamas. The PA had also, he said, committed to terminating the prisoner payment system, to school reform, calling elections within a year, and accepting the principle of a demilitarised state.

That echoes the Arab League which, after 22 months, finally got around to condemning Hamas’s slaughter of 1200 innocent Jews and seizing 250 hostages. The league also called on Hamas to disarm, leave Gaza and hand its weapons to the PA, which is riven with corruption and chaos and has not had a leadership election for 20 years.

Hamas leaving Gaza is something to be wished for but is highly unlikely. It is what Israel, at heavy cost to itself and Gazans, has been fighting to bring about for 22 months. Palestinian statehood will be seen by the Iran-backed Hamas terrorists as a rich reward for their massacre and the agony they have inflicted on Gazans. Nor would it, as US President Donald Trump has wisely pointed out, do anything to help the immediate crisis over starvation among desperate Gazans. That point apparently eludes world foreign ministers, including Senator Wong, who signed the statement on recognition, regardless of what it does to Australia’s 75-year close relationship with democratic Israel. The statement invites “all countries that have not done so to join this call’’. Whether they will when world leaders gather at the UN General Assembly in September remains to be seen.

About 140 of the UN’s 193 members have already acceded to such recognition, which has had no effect on what is happening in Gaza. Senator Wong, fellow foreign ministers and Sir Keir appear blind to that reality. As a former director of public prosecutions, his keen legal mind was not apparent when, in an emotional cri de coeur over Gaza, he gave Israel an ultimatum to agree to a ceasefire ahead of the UN General Assembly or Britain would recognise Palestinian statehood. French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to do so already. Better than most, Sir Keir should know there is no such thing as a Palestinian state within the most basic requirements of statehood set out by the 1933 Montevideo Convention. He should also know it is absurd to demand that Israel accept a ceasefire when it has done so repeatedly over the past 22 months, only for Hamas to torpedo talks and walk away. Hamas has zero interest in releasing the remaining hostages, disarmament or stopping fighting.

While there is a desperate need for food and other aid for Gaza, much reporting about it looks increasingly dodgy following the influential New York Times’ red-faced climbdown over a photograph of a Gazan mother holding a child with an emaciated body that had come to symbolise claims of monstrous, inhumane conduct by Israel. The paper now confesses the child had pre-existing health conditions, raising serious questions about other reporting from Gaza that is informed by the Hamas-backed health authority. Israel, in its valiant battle for survival, deserves better. So does the cause of fairness and honesty in presenting a significant international crisis. It is disturbing that the government has put Australia in the vanguard of the push for premature recognition of a Palestinian state.