Kim Beazley baulks at ALP’s Palestine push

Ex-ALP leader Kim Beazley has savaged a proposal for a future Labor government to extend recognition to Palestine.

Kim Beazley says that for a two-state solution to come into being it was necessary for the international community to make demands of Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Picture: Allison Shelley

Ex-Labor leader Kim Beazley has savaged a proposed resolution to be considered by the NSW branch which calls for a future Labor government to extend unconditional and immediate diplomatic recognition to a state of Palestine.

He said the resolution “is gesture politics and is simply not helpful”. In an interview with The Australian, the former ambassador to the US said the resolution “assumes the status of a gesture without any merit in reality”.

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The resolution is supported by the ALP’s NSW left and appears to have won the support also of the NSW right. It would fundamentally reverse Labor’s long-held position in support of Israel, and in support of a negotiated, two-state solution which provides for Israel’s right to exist within ­secure borders and the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for an independent state.

Mr Beazley said that for a two-state solution to come into being it was necessary for the international community to make demands of Israel and the Palestinian leadership. The NSW resolution makes no requests or demands of the Palestinian leadership.

Dennis Ross, the former Middle East co-ordinator for Bill Clinton and later a senior adviser on the Middle East for Barack Obama’s administration, also told The Australian that he opposed unconditional, unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

“The Palestinians have been plagued by a historic emphasis on symbols not substance,” Mr Ross said. “Instead of building a state they want a flag at the UN. With symbols, nothing is required of the Palestinians.”

Mr Beazley said extending formal diplomatic recognition “is a serious international legal business”. “There’s a recognised set of criteria that bring about diplomatic recognition,” he said. “They are that a state has recognised boundaries, a clear-cut government and control of the affairs of state. On any of those criteria, Palestine does not meet it.

“Its borders are not settled. It is not in control of the affairs of state. And it has two governments (one in Gaza, one in the West Bank).”

Bill Shorten has reiterated his support for existing Labor policy, which is embodied in a more balanced and moderate resolution which the party’s national conference passed in 2015.

That resolution, though critical of Israel in several respects, also makes requests of the Palestinian authorities. It was passed in the wake of the Gaza conflict and demands an end to rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas.

It does not oblige a Labor government to unconditionally recognise a Palestinian state but says that if there is no progress on a peace deal a future Labor government could consult like-minded nations about possible recognition of a Palestinian state if that would assist the peace process.

The proposed new NSW resolution contains none of that balance and does not reiterate support for the provisions of the 2015 national resolution.

Its sponsors wish to pass it as a national ALP resolution at the federal party conference scheduled for the middle of next year, thus binding a Shorten government to an anti-Israel position.

Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek and foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong have both distanced themselves from the proposed NSW resolution.

Mr Ross told The Australian he had a series of demands he wanted the Israelis to follow, such as restricting all Israeli construction in the West Bank to the main settlement blocs which, he said, occupy about 4 per cent of the West Bank’s territory. He also wants the Israeli government to greatly enlarge the areas of West Bank land which Palestinians could economically develop.

But he also had demands of the Palestinian leadership, such as that it stop funding the Martyrs Foundation which rewards the families of terrorists who kill Israeli civilians. “Rewarding those who kill Israelis reinforces the idea it’s OK to kill Israelis,” Mr Ross said.

He also said that under current circumstances there was no two-state solution immediately available, but that this remained the only long-term solution.

However, because no comprehensive agreement is possible in the short term, calling for Israel to immediately withdraw from the West Bank was unrealistic.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian earlier this year, ­Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his support for the two-state solution long term.

“The question is not whether the Palestinians get a state but whether that state will recognise Israel or continue to seek Israel’s destruction,’’ he said.