Extract from ABC News
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the world should not "abandon hope" for a two-state solution recognising both a sovereign Palestinian and Israeli state, as Israeli politicians and officials openly reject it.
Key points:
- Anthony Albanese has urged onlookers to the conflict in Gaza not to "abandon hope" for a two-state solution
- Recent remarks by Israeli politicians and officials have downplayed that prospect
- More than 200 current and former politicians, including Labor MPs, have pushed for the government to support a ceasefire
Mr Albanese used his wide-ranging speech to the Lowy Institute to reiterate the Australian government's support for a "pause" in hostilities in Gaza and "urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire".
There was a heightened police and security presence outside Sydney Town Hall as hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered to call for an immediate ceasefire and demand "an end to the genocide in Gaza" and an end to "apartheid".
In his address, which touched on the China relationship, the AUKUS defence deal and climate change, Mr Albanese told attendees the world was "confronting new flashpoints, old fault lines, ongoing tests of the rules-based order".
He said that what Australia "says and does on the world stage matters" adding that "peace must be built, preserved, defended and upheld".
Mr Albanese said Australia had taken a "principled approach" to the crisis in the Middle East and said every sovereign nation had the right to "be secure in its own borders and to determine its own future".
"From the moment we learned of those horrific attacks on October 7th, our government has condemned Hamas and called for the release of all hostages," he said.
"We mourn the loss of every innocent life in this conflict, Israeli and Palestinian."
More than 19,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and almost 2 million displaced since Israel began bombing the besieged territory after the deadly Hamas attack more than two months ago killed around 1,200 people.
Australia last week shifted its position and split from the United States to vote in favour of a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire at the United Nations General Assembly.
Mr Albanese said civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected while urging Hamas to lay down its arms.
"There can be no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza — and Gaza must not be used as a future platform for terrorism," Mr Albanese said on Tuesday night.
"None of us should abandon hope in the ultimate goal: a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living securely and prosperously within internationally recognised borders."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire, saying "we will fight to the end" while also adding the Gaza Strip will "be under Israeli security control" after Hamas is eliminated.
Mr Netanyahu also recently boasted that he was "proud" to have prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state and labelled the Oslo Accords, agreements hoped to progress a path towards recognising two separate states, as "a fateful mistake".
Meanwhile, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Tzipi Hotovely, responded "absolutely no" when asked in a televised interview last week about the prospect of Israel agreeing to a two-state solution.
In another interview, senior Israeli government adviser Mark Regev equivocated when asked whether a Palestinian state should have the same rights as Israel, arguing it should not be able to have an army or air force.
Labor's national platform supports the right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure borders and calls on the government to make the recognition of a Palestinian state a priority.
State and federal Labor MPs sign Palestine letter
More than 200 current and former federal, state and local politicians across party lines have signed an open letter in support of an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the end of Israeli occupation.
The letter also criticises Israeli policies "designed to entrench the domination of one people over another" while calling on the Australian government to recognise Palestine as a state.
Federal Labor local member Maria Vamvakinou and senators Fatima Payman and Louise Pratt are amongst those who have signed the letter, along with former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr.
"For too long the human rights of the Palestinian people have been grossly violated, in the context of broader circumstances that also breach international law and pose a grave threat to international peace and security," the letter states.
"These violations began in 1948 with the violent displacement of some 700,000 Palestinian people from their homeland.
"The occupation by Israel of the West Bank and Gaza, ongoing since 1967, continues to involve military occupation, illegal settlement expansion, land theft, violence, discrimination, restrictions on movement and the subjugation of the Palestinian people.
"The situation is intolerable and to the shame of the international community."
The letter also urged the federal government to "examine its relationship with Israel" in an effort to try and resolve the current "intolerable and dangerous situation".
The Lowy Institute was founded by businessman Frank Lowy, who is a Holocaust survivor and fought as part of the Haganah paramilitary group in 1948, which later became the Israel Defense Forces.
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