Media Releases

Statement from Dr Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

AIJAC believes that the ALP National Conference vote in favour of unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state was misguided and will be counterproductive to prospects for a negotiated two-state outcome, which the ALP platform still rightly supports.

It is widely understood that recognition of a state of Palestine would be a final status issue to be settled between the parties. Given that the Palestinians have been refusing all negotiations with Israel for more than half a decade, offering unilateral recognition of statehood to the Palestinians without suggesting any obligations on the Palestinian side clearly rewards Palestinian intransigence.

Furthermore, adopting such an outdated stance appears particularly difficult to understand in the wake of last year’s landmark Abraham Accords, normalising relations between Israel and four Arab states, and offering new potential avenues to encourage the achievement of a two-state peace.

However, given senior shadow cabinet figures have offered assurances that the platform’s language remains non-binding and any future ALP government will make up its own mind on the subject, AIJAC hopes this ALP vote will not unduly hinder the cause of peaceful Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.