Australia backs UN vote on ‘permanent sovereignty’ for Palestinians
Australia has backed a United Nations resolution recognising Palestinians’ “permanent sovereignty” over resources in the occupied Palestinian territories in Gaza and the West Bank in a significant shift from its previous stance.
The federal government broke with the United States and Israel in two UN votes on Thursday, the latest in a series of votes that have angered local pro-Israel groups in Australia.
Australia joined with 155 countries to support a UN committee vote on a draft resolution recognising the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, including land, water and energy resources”.
A spokesperson for Penny Wong said Australia was seeking to affirm support for a two-state solution.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Australia had previously voted no on the issue since 2003, according to the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.
Seven nations – including the United States, Israel and Canada – voted no while 11 abstained.
Australia also supported a resolution blaming Israel for a historic oil slick that affected Lebanon during the countries’ 2006 war.
US political adviser to the UN Nicholas Koval said the US “remains disappointed that this body has again taken up this unbalanced resolution that is unfairly critical of Israel, demonstrating a clear and persistent institutional bias directed against one member state”.
“One-sided resolutions will not help advance peace,” Koval said. “Not when they ignore the facts on the ground.”
A vote on the resolutions will now go to the UN General Assembly.
Alex Ryvchin, the co-chair of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said Australia’s change in voting behaviour showed a “widening gulf between the US and Australian positions regarding Israel and the Palestinians” that would be “noticed in Washington”.
Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, welcomed the vote as a “significant step towards upholding the fundamental rights of Palestinians under international law.
“By supporting this resolution, Australia has taken a meaningful stand against the systemic deprivation that has threatened the livelihoods of Palestinians under decades of illegal Israeli occupation.”
A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the vote reflected international concern for Israel’s actions, including its “ongoing settlement activity, land dispossession, demolitions and settler violence against Palestinians”.
“We have been clear that such acts undermine stability and prospects for a two-state solution,” the spokesperson said.
“This resolution importantly recalls UN security council resolutions that reaffirm the importance of a two-state solution that has had bipartisan support.”
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said it was “simply bizarre” that Australia would vote in favour of the motions.
“Such resolutions are designed to be a permanent irritant between the parties and prevent them from moving towards a negotiated peaceful future,” he said.
Australia abstained in a vote on UN resolution in September calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza within a year, saying the nation’s diplomats had tried and failed to redraft the motion to make it less contentious.
The Albanese government angered Israel with its previous two high-profile UN votes on the Israel-Palestine issue by backing a December resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza and a May resolution expanding Palestinians’ right to participate at the UN.
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