Extract from The Guardian
Penny Wong says she shares frustration of ‘great majority of countries’ about a lack of progress to recognise a Palestinian state.
Fri 27 Sep 2024 22.00 AEST
Australia has suggested the world should set “a clear timeline for the international declaration of Palestinian statehood” in a sign of increasing frustration about the stalled peace process.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will float the idea in a speech to the UN general assembly in New York on Saturday Australian time (Friday US time). Benjamin Netanyahu was also due to address the gathering amid mounting concern about an escalating regional war.
Wong will tell the general assembly that “every country in this room” must abide by the rules of war, and Israel “must comply with the binding orders of the international court of justice”, according to speech remarks distributed to media in advance.
Wong will say the Hamas-led attacks on Israel nearly one year ago “cannot and should not be justified” and the group must release all Israeli hostages.
But she will say 11,000 Palestinian children have been killed and two million people in Gaza face acute food insecurity in the resulting war. “This must end,” Wong will say.
“All lives have equal value.”
One of the most significant parts of Wong’s speech is her offer for Australia to “contribute to new ways to break the cycle of conflict”.
She will say Australia “shares the frustration of the great majority of countries” about a lack of progress, more than 77 years after UN general assembly resolution 181 outlined “a plan for two states side by side”.
Israel seized the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war and most countries, including Australia, consider these to be occupied Palestinian territories.
Wong will say Palestinian statehood was “long held out as the promise at the end of a peace process that has ground to a halt”.
Wong will remind diplomats that Australia voted in May to express support for the Palestinian delegation’s aspirations for full UN membership and has also imposed sanctions on Israeli extremist settlers.
But she will argue actions by individual countries alone are not making a real difference. Palestine is already recognised as a state by more than 140 UN member states, including Spain, Norway and Ireland, which took the step in May this year.
Since April, Wong has indicated Australia no longer sees recognition of Palestine as the step taken only at the end of a peace process, but an action that might help kickstart progress.
“The international community – including the security council – must work together to pave a path to lasting peace,” Wong will say in her speech.
“Australia wants to engage on new ways to build momentum, including the role of the UN security council in setting a pathway for two states, with a clear timeline for the international declaration of Palestinian statehood.”
Wong will not spell out what date should be set for such a deadline, but the comments represent a step up in her language about the need for a circuit breaker.
It would likely be difficult to secure a binding resolution of the UN security council, as the US has used its veto power several times in defence of Israel’s position over the past year.
But it would not be unprecedented for the US to abstain, as it did in December 2016 when Barack Obama’s administration refused to veto a landmark resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Netanyahu said in January he would “not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River”.
That message was reinforced by Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who said in June he saw it as his “life’s mission” to “thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state”.
Smotrich said he was establishing “facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] an integral part of the state of Israel”.
Wong will argue a two-state solution would “strengthen the forces for peace across the region and undermine extremism”, while reiterating that Israel’s security must not be threatened and “there can be no role for terrorists”.
In wider remarks, Wong will say the UN is meeting at a time when “so much of the human family [is] enshrouded in darkness” including Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon.
Wong will say differences should be managed through dialogue and following rules “not simply by force or raw power”. She will say that is why Australia has “consistently pressed China on peace and stability in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait”.
Wong will also condemn the Taliban for having “erased women from Afghanistan’s self-portrait” and effectively halving the country’s potential.
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