On August 11, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September, Australia will recognise ‘the State of Palestine’.
This is not symbolic diplomacy. It is a profoundly immoral act which is flagrantly inconsistent with international law which the Prime Minister sanctimoniously purports to respect and uphold.
The recognition is unconditional – not even tied to the release of Israeli hostages currently being starved and brutalised in Hamas tunnels.
As US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned in condemning France’s identical move, such recognition instantly emboldened Hamas, causing them to walk away from ceasefire talks after Israel had accepted every proposal on the table. It further endangered the hostages – and it will have the effect of prolonging the war.
Albanese’s vacuous gesture of announcing recognition of the [non-existent] State of Palestine was an important gift to Hamas: it told them they can achieve their goals through violence, without any need for negotiation or compromise.
Unsurprisingly, Albanese’s decision has been publicly praised by Hamas as reflecting ‘political courage and a commitment to the values of justice and the right of peoples to self-determination’.
High praise indeed from a listed terrorist organisation that openly calls for the annihilation of the one and only Jewish State, and the death of every Jew on the planet.
Albanese and Wong must be very proud.
Legitimising Terror, Undermining Democracy and International Law
The Prime Minister speaks of a ‘commitment’ from Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas will not govern a Palestinian state. This is fantasy. Hamas defeated Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) in the 2007 Gaza elections, then threw PA officials off rooftops. In Judea and Samaria today, Hamas is more popular than the PA. Any future Palestinian vote would almost certainly deliver Hamas, Hezbollah, or another Islamist death cult into power – just as it did in Gaza.
Albanese also cites Abbas’ commitment to him to end ‘pay-for-slay’ – the PA’s policy of paying terrorists and their families lifelong stipends for murdering Jews. But last year Abbas made a public commitment never to end ‘pay-for-slay’ to the holy ‘martyrs’ who murder Israelis.
So on what basis does Albanese consider an Abass ‘commitment’ to be reliable?
Is it because Abbas is only in the 20th year of his four-year term, or because he openly traffics in antisemitic conspiracy theories, and blames the Jews for the Holocaust, or because the PA is universally recognised as being corrupt?
Albanese claims that he has a commitment from Abass to recognise Israel. But what does that mean? Abass has said he will never renounce the so-called Palestinian ‘right of return’ – the ‘right’ to flood Israel with millions of [alleged] descendants of Arabs who left Israel in 1948, effectively erasing the Jewish state.
And what about international law? Recognising such a ‘state’ violates the Montevideo Convention of 1933, which sets the criteria for statehood: a defined territory, a permanent population, a functioning government, and capacity to enter into relations. The ‘State of Palestine’ meets none of these. Unless one is suffering a delusion, one cannot recognise that which does not exist.
The Historical Record: No Interest in Coexistence
But the most egregious statement about Australia’s intention to recognise ‘the State of Palestine’ was made by Foreign Minister Wong; she said that it has been ‘more than 77 years since the world promised a Palestinian state’.
True – but why did she not explain that it has been more than 77 years since the Palestinians rejected a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian leadership rejected statehood seven times – in 1937, 1947, 1967, 2000, 2001, 2005, and 2008 – each time preferring war over peace. Between 1948 and 1967, when Gaza was ruled by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan, no Palestinian state was declared. The PLO, created in 1964, existed solely to destroy Israel, not to coexist with it.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, evacuating every soldier, settler, and even the dead from their graves. There was no blockade, no Israeli presence. Within two years, Gazans had elected Hamas – and tens of thousands of rockets followed. On 7 October 2023, Gaza became the launchpad for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. As US commentator Mark Levin observed, October 7 happened not because Hamas lacked a state – but because they effectively had one.
The Real Goal: Not Two States, But One – Without Israel
The slogan ‘From the river to the sea!’ is not about peaceful coexistence. It is a call to erase Israel entirely – from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. This has always been the goal, whether voiced by Hamas or the PA. The pre-1967 lines – described by former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban as ‘Auschwitz borders’ – would leave Israel indefensible and invite further slaughter, not peace.
Those urging recognition today are not ignorant of this history. They know it. They simply choose to ignore it in favour of a politically fashionable mirage.
A Dangerous Precedent
By recognising a fictitious state led by corrupt, violent, and antisemitic actors, the Albanese government is not advancing peace. It is rewarding terror, undermining international law, and signalling to the world that hostage-taking, rocket fire, and mass murder can achieve political legitimacy.
In the end, this is not moral foreign policy. It is appeasement – and history is merciless in its judgment of those who appease the violent.
Truth is Albanese and Wong probably don’t care – because their performative platitudes are for their local domestic electorates; they have nothing to do with peace; nothing to do with justice.
The two-state ‘solution’ is no solution at all. It is a dangerous and immoral mirage – and Australia should have no part in it.
