Labor warned that recognising Palestinian state will embolden Hamas

Two security experts say recognising a Palestinian state while Hamas remains entrenched in Gaza will only embolden the terror group.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Picture: Jason Edwards/NewsWire

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Labor has been urged to not formally recognise a Palestinian state at an upcoming UN conference focused on progressing a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, with two security experts warning the move would only “reward terrorism”.

Ahead of the UN conference in New York in June, Labor Friends of Israel co-convenor Mike Kelly and Strategic Analysis Australia senior fellow Anthony Bergin said recognising a Palestinian state while Hamas remained entrenched in Gaza would only embolden the terror group.

Writing in The Australian, they called on Labor to be guided by its previous declarations that Hamas could not be part of a ­Palestinian state or involved in the process towards statehood.

“The Albanese government should not reward terrorism by making a meaningless gesture of recognition in June before a peace agreement is negotiated directly between Israel and the Palestinians (that) would encourage Hamas supporters in Australia,” they said.

“It would be handing a victory laurel to them for their war mongering and terror-driven campaign over the last 19 months.

“It would undermine any incentive for the Palestinian leadership to engage in measures essential to achieving a lasting peace.”

The conference, to be chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, follows a UN meeting in December, when Australia voted in favour of a motion demanding that Israel “bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

It included an annex calling for a conference next year in New York to “urgently chart an irreversible pathway towards the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the implementation of the two-state solution”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Labor would continue to pursue a two-state solution and support a Palestinian state only if it advanced “the cause of a just and enduring peace”.

“The Albanese government will continue working with the international community towards a two-state solution – a Palestinian state and the state of Israel, living side by side in peace and security within internationally recognised borders,” Senator Wong said.

“It is essential to long-term peace and security in the region.

“The Albanese government has made clear we will be guided by whether recognition of a Palestinian state will advance the cause of a just and enduring peace. We see no role for Hamas in any future Palestinian state.”

Dr Kelly and Dr Bergin said Labor should consider following the EU in freezing funding for the Palestinian Authority until its education material was stripped of rhetoric promoting “savagery, perpetual war and violence”.

They also advocated for a new framework to be developed to deliver aid to the Palestinian terri­tories to replace UNRWA, arguing the greatest hurdle to statehood was “widespread and systematic corruption”.

“All civilised people abhor the death and suffering that Israelis and Gazans have endured,” they said. “If we are sincere about wanting an end to this, we must mount a determined and united international effort to demand and force Hamas to lay down its arms, renounce violence, and release the hostages.”