Labor stoush looms on Palestine at national conference
The most powerful right-wing union will back amendments to Labor’s policy platform that would water down the party’s support for recognising Palestine as a state.
The most powerful right-wing union will back amendments to Labor’s policy platform that would water down the party’s support for recognising Palestine as a state, setting up a foreign policy stoush at next week’s ALP national conference.
The Australian also understands there will be an amendment pushed that will outline Labor’s support for the coal sector, while unions will use the online conference to try to make it harder for an Albanese government to strike free-trade deals.
David Bliss, who will act as a delegate for the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association at next week’s “virtual” national conference, will push a resolution binding a future Labor government to the consideration of 10 conditions before Palestine is recognised as a state.
Among the conditions are for “free and fair” elections to be held in the West Bank and Gaza “resulting in a single government that can represent the Palestinian people and commit to international agreements”. It will also require Palestine to commit to international human rights principles, including the rights of women and LGBTIQ people, while ending its opposition to trade unionism.
The motion urges a future Labor government to delay recognition until “the use and abuse of capital punishment, the systematic use of torture and arbitrary arrest, and the repression of political opposition, dissent and free speech by Palestinian authorities (as highlighted by the Human Rights Watch Report of October 2018) has ended.”
The motion will also urge Labor to consider recognising Palestine as a state only if “the right of the State of Israel to exist has been formally acknowledged and all expressions for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of Jews clearly disavowed”.
The motion will be seconded by former Labor MP Michael Danby, who will be a delegate at the conference.
The conditions will accompany the same wording from a separate motion that was endorsed by the ALP’s national executive earlier this month and was backed by Anthony Albanese and opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong.
The pro-Palestine motion that was backed by Mr Albanese, revealed by The Australian this month, will force an addition to the “statement in detail” section of the policy platform that calls on “the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state”.
It will also call on the next Labor government to treat the issue of Palestine as an “important priority”, bringing it in line with Labor’s policies ahead of the 2019 federal election.
On adding conditions to the wording of the motion backed by Mr Albanese and the national executive, a senior SDA source said “it is a balanced resolution to address a difficult issue”.
Mr Danby will also push resolutions urging Labor to take a tougher line on China’s human rights failures, including its treatment of Tibetans and Uighurs.
The conference will vote on a resolution that says Labor is concerned with “China’s increasing interference in the affairs of Hong Kong”. A separate resolution pushed by Mr Danby will call for Labor to push for the “maintenance of the status quo concerning Taiwan and China”.
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