Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that his country will recognize a Palestinian state in September, joining a growing list of Western allies as international condemnation and anger builds over Israel’s actions in Gaza.
A formal recognition will be made at the United Nations General Assembly next month, where “Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,” Albanese said at a press conference.
On Monday, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his country was also considering recognizing a Palestinian state, and would make a decision at a cabinet meeting in September.
“New Zealand has been clear for some time that our recognition of a Palestinian state is a matter of when, not if,” Peters said in a statement, echoing the language used by Australian officials in the weeks leading up to Monday’s announcement.
Describing the situation in Gaza as an “absolute human catastrophe,” New Zealand Prime Minister Chrisopher Luxon said in a press conference that it was “entirely appropriate that we take the time to actually make sure we weigh up our decision and work that through in a sensible way.”
Australia joins the United Kingdom, France and Canada in announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September. The move leaves the United States increasingly isolated from some of its closest allies in its defense of Israel’s escalating military campaign that’s decimated the besieged enclave after almost two years of war.
If Wellington also moves, it will mean that four of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, will recognize Palestinian statehood.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark later criticized Luxon for not moving to quickly join Australia and other western allies.
“We now really seem to stand for nothing except you know somehow wanting to save our own skin in a tariff war” she told RNZ on Tuesday. “I think it’s it’s really quite a humiliating position for New Zealand to be in.”
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she’d spoken to US Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio in a call Sunday to give him advance notice of Australia’s impending announcement. A read-out of the call released by the US did not mention Palestinian statehood.
In an interview with Catholic broadcaster EWTN last week, Rubio said that declarations of support for a Palestinian state were “largely symbolic” and only “emboldened Hamas and made it harder to achieve peace.”
Albanese said Australia had sought and received assurances from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas would play no role in any future Palestinian state.
Other conditions include a commitment to demilitarize and to hold general elections, abolish a “system of payments to the families of prisoners and martyrs,” and governance and education reform, as well as “international oversight to guard against the incitement of violence and hatred,” Albanese said.
“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict suffering and starvation in Gaza,” he said.
“This is about much more than drawing a line on a map. This is about delivering a lifeline to the people of Gaza.”
In a subsequent interview with Australia’s public broadcaster ABC, Albanese said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but found him to be “in denial” about the human cost of the war in Gaza.
“He (Netanyahu) again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people,” Albanese said.
‘This is starvation, pure and simple’
Canada and France have both said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September, when world leaders meet in New York for the UN General Assembly. The UK has said that it will, too, if Israel does not meet conditions that include agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.
On Sunday, Netanyahu gave a rare press conference with international media in which he called steps by Western nations to recognize Palestinian statehood “shameful.”
“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that, fall right into it, and buy this canard is disappointing,” Netanyahu said. “But it’s not going to change our position. We will not commit national suicide to get a good op ed for two minutes.”
Australian Foreign Minister Wong said, “we cannot keep doing the same thing, and hoping for a different outcome. We can’t keep waiting for the end of a peace process that has ground to a halt.”
Wong framed the decision as an “opportunity as a nation to contribute to momentum towards two states” which she underscored was “the only prospect for peace.”
Israel announced an expansion of its war in Gaza on Friday, with a planned military takeover of Gaza City that is expected to involve the forced evacuation of up to a million people.
On Sunday, United Nations officials and UN Security Council member states condemned the plan, saying it would lead to “another calamity” and constitute “further violations of international law.”
Ramesh Rajasingham, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva said what is unfolding in Gaza “is no longer a looming hunger crisis – this is starvation, pure and simple.”
Last month, the UN-backed food security agency the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned that “the worst case scenario of famine” was unfolding in Gaza, its starkest alert yet as starvation spreads.
Hunger-related deaths are rising in the enclave, especially among children, Rajasingham told the UN Security Council. Since October 2023, 98 children have died from severe acute malnutrition — 37 since July 1 alone, he said, citing health authorities in Gaza.
Israel is facing growing global condemnation over its conduct in Gaza, with large protests breaking out in major cities – including London and Australia’s Sydney – as people demonstrate their horror and anger over starvation in the territory.
More than 460 people were arrested at a massive protest in London on Saturday and, last week, more than 90,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Organizers put the figure at closer to 300,000 and plan more protests this month.
