ALP conference 2015: anti-BDS ‘victory’ on pro-Israel front

Bill Shorten’s faction claimed victory after the anti-­Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign was rejected.

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Bill Shorten’s Victorian Right faction — the most pro-Israel group in the ALP — was claiming victory yesterday after the Labor conference passed a motion that stopped short of unilateral recognition of Palestine and rejected the anti-­Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign.

A last-minute compromise prevented a damaging factional clash on the Israel-Palestine issue, with a resolution passed that both condemned Israeli settlements and committed the ALP to “discuss joining like-minded nations who have already recognised Pales­tine” if there were no progress on a two-state solution.

The Victorian Right’s strongly pro-Israel ele­ment said it was largely happy with the resolution because it explicitly rejected the BDS campaign and made no concrete commitment to “unilateral” recognition of Palestine.

Victorian MPs Michael Danby and Mark Dreyfus, who are Jewish, issued a joint statement in support of the resolution, which was put up in place of two Left ­motions that were advocating a harder pro-Palestine line but were withdrawn.

“The resolution passed by the ALP national conference this afternoon rejects any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, while making clear that Labor will do all it can to advance and facilitate the peace process,’’ the Danby-Dreyfus statement said.

The compromise was achieved after overnight talks between the NSW Right, which wanted to push harder on Israel, and the pro-Israel Victorian Right.

The motion was put up by NSW right-wing frontbencher Tony Burke, who said it would “disappoint anybody who believes that negotiations should go on ­forever”.

“This will also disappoint anyone who wants unilateral recognition of Palestine tomorrow,’’ Mr Burke said. “But what this res­ol­ution says is the settlement ­activity, which was described when we were in government as ­illegal, is something which cannot continue, that we have to have a situation where ideally we would want it (changed) through a negotiated outcome and we continue to call for that.”

Mr Dreyfus, the opposition's legal affairs spokesman, said that hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “cease his use of sectarian rhetoric and all public statements by ­ministers and officials that are ­inimical to the achievement of a peaceful, two-state resolution of the ­conflict”.

The resolution passed yesterday “recognises that settlement building by Israel in the occupied territories that may undermine a two-state solution is a roadblock to peace”.

It called on Israel to cease the expansion of settlements. The resolution also “recognises the special circumstances of the Palestin­ian people, their desire for respect, and the achievement of their legitimate aspir­ation to live in independence in a state of their own”.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council welcomed the rejection of the BDS campaign, condemnation of Hamas rocket attacks and the call for negotiations towards a two-state outcome. But it said “one-sided, problematic claims that all settlements are illegal and Jerusalem occupied ... are very counterproductive toward achieving peace”.