In light of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza and the rise of Palestinian violence in the occupied West Bank, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has told the country’s media that there is a “risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise.”
Wong responded to questions about a large-scale protest in Sydney that drew the attention of hundreds of thousands of people, noting that Australia plans to change its stance and recognize Palestinian statehood in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday morning.
According to organizers, between 200 and 300,000 people showed up at the protest on Sunday across Sydney Harbour Bridge. Initial estimates for the police indicated that about 90 000 people participated.
Wong claimed that the Australian government shared the protesters’ “desire for peace and a ceasefire” and that the large turnout “reflected the general Australian community’s horror” and “the distress of Australians, on what we are seeing unfolding in Gaza, the catastrophic humanitarian situation, the deaths of women and children, the withholding of aid.”
Wong responded to a question about whether Australia was considering imposing any more serious measures, such as imposing sanctions on Israel, saying, “We don’t speculate on sanctions because they have an obvious effect if they aren’t flagged.”
She noted that Australia had already imposed sanctions on “extremist” Israeli settlers and two far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government in June of this year.
Wong remarked on Australia’s position on the status of Palestinian statehood, saying that “in terms of recognition, I’ve said it’s a matter of when, not when.”
In response to the protest on Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is reportedly attempting to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Albanese said he would once more declare his support for a two-state solution in response to questions about what he planned to talk about with Netanyahu.
The “only business” that Albanese and Netanyahu should be discussing is the suspension of the “two-way arms trade between Australia and and Israel, new sanctions measures, and Netanyahu’s one-way trip to the [International Criminal Court] to face crimes against humanity, according to Rawan Arraf, the executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice.
In a post on X, Arraf wrote that Albanese “must not grant legitimacy to an accused war criminal.”
Australia has yet to follow other nations, including France and Canada, in announcing their plans to recognize Palestinian statehood, and joins the majority of nations that have already done so, despite Albanese and Wong’s continuing emphasis on the importance of a two-state solution.
The first conversation between Albanese and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas since November 2023, according to the ABC, took place on Tuesday.
In response to inquiries about the protest in Sydney, Albanese responded, “It’s not surprising that so many Australians have been affected because they want to express their concern about people being denied access to essential services like food and water.”
However, the state government in New South Wales, which is led by Albanese’s Labor Party, attempted to stop the march from crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the week leading up to the protest.
The protest only continued after Supreme Court Justice Belinda Rigg’s ruling that “the march at this location is motivated by the belief that the world’s people must respond urgently and extraordinaryly to the horror and urgency of the situation in Gaza.”
According to Rigg, “the evidence indicates significant support for the march.”
In an effort to bridge the party’s growing party gap, several state and federal Labor ministers also took part in the march.
According to independent journalist Antony Loewenstein, the march on Sunday demonstrated how frustrated Australians are that our government is currently only speaking in terms of rhetoric.
Loewenstein, who spoke at the march on Sunday, said, “People are so outraged, not just by what Israel is doing in Gaza, but also by the Australian government’s complicity.”
Source: Aljazeera
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