Sam Dastyari berates Labor Party push to endorse Palestinian state

Sam Dastyari has rebuked Labor MPs, members and elders for advocating recognition of a Palestinian state.

Labor Senator Sam Dastyari.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari has rebuked party MPs and elders, including former foreign ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, for advocating recognition of a Palestinian state ahead of the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.

Labor supports a two-state solu­tion to the conflict but commits the party in government only to “discuss joining like-minded nat­ions” in recognising a Palestinian state if the peace process stalls.

The party’s Left faction, and many in the Right, see this policy as untenable.

Mr Netanyahu, the first sitting Israeli PM to visit Australia, will meet with Malcolm Turnbull.

A Right faction powerbroker, Senator Dastyari, who does not support immediate recognition of a Palestinian state as advocated by Bob Hawke, Mr Evans and Mr Carr, said the party should not ignore­ other humanitarian challeng­es abroad.

“In recent years, there have been atrocities in Syria, Libya, Iraq and throughout the Middle East,” he said. “Palestine remains an important­ foreign policy issue.

“I have always been a strong supporter of a two-state solution and of Australia playing a role to help facilitate that (but) the Labor Party can’t afford to focus on the Palestinian question at the expense of the other humanitarian challenges.”

The Iranian-born senator said he supported the party reviewing its policy but made it clear the recent­ interventions in support of Palestine by Mr Hawke, Mr Evans and Mr Carr were unhelpful prior to Mr Netanyahu’s visit.

“There is no doubt it will continue­ to be debated in Labor forums,” he said. “I support that. But I want to make sure we do it in ­addition to — and not to the exclu­sion of — other debates.”

Bill Shorten will meet with Mr Netanyahu at a time when the party’s fragile consensus on ­Middle East policy adopted at the 2015 national conference is losing support.

It is likely to be dumped in favour of recognising a Palestinian state at next year’s conference.

The national Left faction has increased its authority throughout the party and is expected to have a majority of votes at the conference to change the policy.

At the same time, the national Right’s historic support for Israel has fractured, leaving the Oppos­ition Leader’s Victorian Right ­increasingly isolated.

The party’s pro-Israel policy with qualified support for Palestine was adopted by a motion moved by senior Labor front­bench­er Tony Burke and seconded by Wendy Turner, then Queensland Labor vice-president.

Mr Burke said he supported the current policy, but Ms Turner said it was no longer defensible and the party should change its policy to support recognition of a Palestinian state.

“We sought recog­nition for Palestine at the last conference because we felt it was appropriate to give some hope to the peace process, which is now non-existent,” Ms Turner said.

Ms Turner opposed Mr Netanyahu’s visit to Australia but hoped Mr Shorten would raise the plight of the Palestinian people with him.

Labor’s frontbench is committed to the current policy.

A spokesman for Mr Shorten said he supported a two-state solution.

Last week, Mr Hawke urged Australia to join 137 nations in providing diplomatic recognition to Palestine.

He was supported by Mr Evans and Mr Carr.