PM defends Palestine recognition after US ‘disgust’
Australia’s decision to recognise Palestine was made in the interest of its citizens, the prime minister has said, after a US official decried the move.
Anthony Albanese
The prime minister has returned verbal fire at a US diplomat, throwing his words back at him to defend Australia’s recognition of Palestine.
Australia on Monday revealed it would join other Western nations, including the UK, France and Canada, in recognising a state of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September, in response to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Mike Huckabee, who was appointed America’s ambassador to Israel by President Donald Trump in April, said the US was taken aback and stressed there was an “enormous level of disappointment and some disgust” over the announcement.
But Anthony Albanese backed Australia’s decision, saying the continued human suffering in Gaza had disgusted the nation.
“He is an ambassador of a country – not Australia – to another country,” he told ABC Radio on Friday.
“My job is to represent Australia’s interests, and Australians have been disgusted by what they see on their TV every night.
“When you have children starving, when you have children losing their lives with families queuing for food and water, that provokes – not surprisingly – a human reaction.”
Australia’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state was fuelled in part by Israel’s newly unveiled plans to occupy Gaza City and came after at least 90,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Palestine.
“There have been tens of thousands of people suggesting this is not the way forward. You just can’t continue with the same pattern without an endpoint,” Mr Albanese said.
“The endpoint has to be to isolate Hamas.”
The conditions for Australia’s recognition include assurances that the designated terrorist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, plays no role in a future state.
By: Andrew Brown and Kat Wong/AAP
Sir; You cannot defend the indefenseble! You an only make excuses!
Seemingly PM Albanese believes in acting on his perception of the emotions of Australians after they view television. He bases his decision to recognise Palestine on this? He also warns us not to believe the propaganda of Hamas who praise his decision, because they’re terrorists. And yet doesn’t seem fazed by the Hamas statistics spouted daily on the deaths of Gazans. Do I need to say more?
Albanese is all over the place. He warns against trusting Hamas propaganda and then repeats Hamas lies and talking points. We saw him point to Mohammed, the emaciated Gazan child who appeared on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age in a story that claimed he was a victim of an Israeli policy to starve Gazan children. When it turned out that Mohammed suffered from cerebral palsy, neither the newspapers nor the PM apologised or retracted the blood libel. No wonder Hamas loves Albo!
In view of this govt’s transparent lies to the inept local Jewish leadership, Australia and France now compete for the label of the most anti-semitic country in the Western world.