In 1988 Palestine declared its own independence and invited countries to support it. Eighty countries immediately took up the call, and since then many have joined, with 135 countries now officially recognising Palestine.

Unfortunately Australia is not among them.

Twenty-four years later in 2012, the UN General Assembly passed a motion changing Palestine’s state from an “entity” to a “state”.  This was supported by 138 countries.   

Unfortunately Australia was not among them. 

In the last two months, as yet another round of ‘peace talks’ have failed, Europeans are taking bold steps forward in recognising Palestine.  Sweden has joined the states formally recognising Palestine, and Belgium has just announced that it will also.   Major European parliamentarians have also passed symbolic motions in their parliaments supporting recognition – the UK, Ireland, Spain and France.

Unfortunately Australia is not yet among them.

Australia argues that the establishment of Palestine can only happen through direct negotiations and that anything else would be pre-emptive.  This is the opposite of Australia’s approach to Israel’s unilateral declaration of its state in 1948 – we were one of the first to recognise Israel. 

And why are “peace talks” a problem? Bishop Browning argued earlier this year in an opinion piece that the term “peace process” has become a euphemism for normalising the violent dispossession of an occupied population.  Many would argue that the Israeli government is not serious about final negotiations, and rather they have been a stalling tactic to allow Israel to expand its settlements throughout the West Bank.   Given that there were only 100,000 settlers at the beginning of the Oslo Accords, and there are at least 600,000 now this is a case easily argued.  A major Israeli cabinet minster has just announced in an opinion piece in the New York Times that Israel will never grant Palestine a state, and the Prime Minister and Housing Minister have both argued that they will continue to build settlements including in East Jerusalem even though even the USA argues that this severely compromises any  peace negotiations.

No – Palestine cannot wait for Israel who is indicating it does not want to negotiate.

In a parliamentary debate on the UN International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, speeches in support of Palestinian recognition were made by Labor parliamentarians Maria Vamvakinou MP, Melissa Parke MP, Jill Hall MP and Liberal parliamentarian Craig Laundy MP. 

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network commissioned Roy Morgan to undertake an opinion poll about Australians’ views on recognition.  Just 8% of people responded that we shouldn’t recognise Palestine while 57% of people said we should.

We call on the Australian Government to listen to the wisdom of the vast majority of countries, and the majority of Australians, and

Recognise Palestine!