Australia / Israel Review

If the Federal Government intended its unheralded Nov. 14 decision to suddenly vote in favour of two annual anti-Israel UN General Assembly resolutions to generate controversy, it succeeded. One resolution demands Israel pay compensation for an oil slick that happened during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The second recognises the “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians over all natural resources in the West Bank and Gaza.

Ahead of the voting, Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong published a piece in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald (Nov. 6) stressing the importance of countries respecting international law and implying that Israel was failing to do so.

The SMH published a letter in response (Nov. 7) from AIJAC’s Jamie Hyams, who wrote of Wong’s piece,“Totally missing is any acknowledgement of Israel’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties with evacuations and warnings, its efforts to allow the transfer of aid, or the fact that the civilian to combatant casualty ratio of around one to one is far better than other recent urban wars.”

The Australian’s Simon Benson (Nov. 15) cited AIJAC’s Colin Rubenstein’s observation that, since 2006, all Australian governments had voted the other way on the oil slick question because it ignored the environmental destruction Hezbollah caused in Israel during the same 2006 war. On the “permanent sovereignty” resolution, he noted that Australia had voted no or abstained on this resolution since 2003.

On Sky News (Nov. 14), AIJAC’s Bren Carlill said of the permanent sovereignty resolution that the “text negates any and all Israeli claims to the West Bank. The Australian Government’s position is that Israeli and Palestinian territorial claims will be determined through negotiations.”

Also on Sky News (Nov. 15), AIJAC’s Joel Burnie said, “These two resolutions were not supported by the Biden Administration. So, the Albanese Government is not just at odds with an incoming Trump Administration.” Burnie also said the votes contradicted Prime Minister Albanese’s assurance before the last federal election that “no matter which party is in power here, Israel will have Australia’s friendship and support.”

Former Australian Ambassador Ian Parmeter told ABC Radio “PM” (Nov. 15), “I think the catalyst for this change… was probably some comments by an ultra-right wing member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, Bezalel Smotrich, who, a few days ago, called on Israel to use the election of Donald Trump… to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.”

Parmeter also hypothesised that Australia backed the permanent sovereignty resolution because “Israeli settlement activity is increasingly taking up the water in that area.”

But others argued political considerations likely motivated the vote change. Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin told SBS TV “World News” (Nov. 15), “This looks like something fairly vindictive, and more geared towards an election next year than changing anything on the ground.”

The Daily Telegraph editorialised on Nov. 15, “Nothing has changed in the Middle East that would seemingly warrant a change in our UN voting status. But there is one thing. There certainly is one change… Hamas psychopaths stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023.” 

On ABC Local Radio 774 (Nov. 15), Palestinian lobby group APAN President Nasser Mashni had a bet each way, partly attributing the Government’s shift to ongoing protests and the fact that “they can no longer conveniently hide behind Israel as a normal country. The world is seeing what Israel is… It’s a genocidal regime.”

On ABC Radio “World Today” (Nov. 15), academic Tristan Dunning said Australia’s vote would not achieve much in practice but “it does signal that Australia will be looking to chart a more independent foreign policy under the Trump Administration.”

Writing in the Australian (Nov. 18), Strategic Analysis Australia’s Anthony Bergin said Australia’s voting shift “no doubt assists the government taking away Greens votes for Labor.” 

Sky News “Outsiders” host Rowan Dean (Nov. 17) thundered, “How many is this? Six, seven times, Penny Wong has stabbed Israel, a close ally of ours, and stabbed the Jews of Australia, in the back.”

News Corp columnist Piers Akerman (Nov. 17) slammed what he said was a “weasel-worded statement from Wong’s office… that Australia had voted with an overwhelming majority of UN member states.” Akerman said, “The UN is full of tinpot Third World nations ruled by autocratic dictators… it is not surprising the majority would vote against the only liberal democratic society in the Middle East.”