Plan to seize Gaza City pushed Australia to recognition

The prime minister hopes recognition will help lay the path to peace after revealing Australia’s decision was spurred by Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City.

Israel’s plan to take over Gaza City helped spur Australia’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state, the prime minister has revealed.

Anthony Albanese on Monday confirmed Australia would join the UK, France and Canada in recognising Palestine at a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York in September, following mounting pressure to take action to support the suffering people of Gaza.

While the federal government had previously insisted that the recognition of Palestine was a matter of “when, not if”, the announcement was a shift from those comments made less than two weeks prior.

This was because Australia’s decision was partially fuelled by the Israeli government’s decision on Friday to approve a plan to seize Gaza City, Mr Albanese said.

“We make assessments based upon the totality of what is before us,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.

“The other thing that is occurring is … the decision by the Israeli government to double down on its military solution … with the decision that they’ve made to go in and to occupy Gaza City.

“We have seen too many innocent lives being lost.

The international community is saying that we need to stop the cycle of violence.”

In late July, Mr Albanese stressed he would not be “driven by a time frame” on the recognition issue.

But less than a week later, Foreign Minister Penny Wong revealed Australia was coordinating with other countries on the issue amid concerns “there will be no Palestine left to recognise”.

Recognition could be used to “isolate Hamas” – a line the government has continued to lean on – she added, referring to the designated terrorist group that controls Gaza and is in a fight to the death with Israel.

Senator Wong has said practical steps for recognition will be tied to commitments made by the Palestinian Authority, which exercises partial civil control in the West Bank.

The commitments include assurances that Hamas will play no role in any future government.

More than 140 of the 193 United Nations member states already recognise Palestine.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the decision “does not deliver a two-state solution, it does not improve the flow of aid, it doesn’t support the release of the hostages and it certainly doesn’t put an end to the terrorist group Hamas”.

Former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison, whose government controversially recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital before Labor reversed the decision, branded any recognition of Palestine as a “hollow gesture”.

The crisis in Gaza began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and taking about 250 hostage.

French President Emmanuel Macron praised Australia’s decision.

But Israel said recognition would be counterproductive to peace in the Gaza Strip and its demands for the release of the remaining hostages.

By: Kat Wong, Andrew Brown and Poppy Johnston/AAP