Albanese’s recognition of a Palestinian state implements a long-held Labor ambition
Labor has a long-held ambition of a two-state solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict, writes Craig Emerson.
Those who accuse the Albanese government of breaking with a historic Labor position of opposing recognition of a Palestinian state are wrong.
Labor has a long-held ambition of a two-state solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict.
It is not surprising that the Whitlam government supported what has become known as a two-state solution before the phrase was coined – the right of Israel and Palestine to co-exist in peace.
But no Labor prime minister has been more avowedly pro-Israel than Bob Hawke.
Before he entered parliament, Hawke had many close friends in the Australian Jewish community, consistently advocating the right of Israelis to live in peace behind secure borders.
But Hawke’s long, close friendship with leaders of the Australian Jewish community has led to a supposition that he did not support Palestinian statehood. In truth, he was a passionate supporter of it.
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I saw this firsthand when, along with other members of his personal staff, including Barrie Cassidy and the late Bob Sorby, I visited Israel with him in 1987.
Hawke had wanted to deliver a strong speech in Jerusalem advocating a two-state solution. He was talked down by well-intentioned Israeli supporters for fear it would do more harm than good in relations with the conservative Likud Party that was in power at the time.
He toned down his public remarks but was forthright with a more sympathetic Shimon Peres, the foreign minister in a power-sharing arrangement with Likud.
Hawke spoke of a demographic dilemma wherein Palestinians in the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank would one day outnumber Israelis, leading to Israel exercising a form of apartheid in those territories.
Hawke had long abhorred apartheid, later playing a pivotal role in its abolition in South Africa.
On our visit to Israel in early 1987, Hawke asked me to accompany him to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, otherwise known as the Wailing Wall. Here it had become a tradition to write a wish on a piece of paper and insert it in a crack in the Wall.
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Approaching the Wall in an embassy vehicle, he asked me if I had any paper. I did and gave it to him. On it he wrote: “An historic third term” for Labor, which had never won three successive terms of government in Australia.
As Hawke approached the wall and inserted his wish, I took a photo of him and gave it to him for his birthday many years later.
Hawke leave his wish at the Western Wall. Photo: Craig Emerson
Throughout our stay in Jerusalem, Hawke impressed on me the importance of two states – Israeli and Palestinian – and their people living behind secure borders, as the only viable solution to peace.
Monday’s announcement by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong of Australia’s imminent recognition of a Palestinian state is totally consistent with Hawke’s vision. Hawke would have concurred with their stipulation that Hamas must play no part in the new Palestinian state.
Hawke, like all decent people, would have condemned unequivocally the brutal killing of 1200 innocent Israelis by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and the taking of more than 250 hostages.
But nor would Hawke have endorsed the planned invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces announced by Prime Minister Netanyahu last week. And he would have been horrified by the killings and starvation occurring in Gaza.
The Albanese government’s announcement that it will recognise a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution is not a guarantee of peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, but nor is Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
There is no finite number of Hamas fighters in Gaza. The ongoing killings and starvation of children must surely motivate more Gazans to join Hamas, an avowed terrorist organisation.
The government’s announcement helps fulfil a long-held Labor ambition for a two-state solution.
Finally, the Coalition’s complaint that Australia’s recognition of Palestine puts us out of step with America is an indication of its willingness to contract out our sovereignty to another country. No self-respecting nation should do that.
Craig Emerson was an economic and environmental adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and a minister in the previous Labor government
