Hi, I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven Am. Anthony Albanesi has been waiting decades to recognize a Palestinian state. Now, as countries like France, Canada and the UK all declare their own intentions to do so, the Prime Minister is weighing up how Australia will respond. It's a delicate balance with competing pressures from within his own party and an
opposition denying there's a starvation crisis in Gaza Today. Press Gallery veteran Paul bon Jorno on the growing political momentum behind the case for statehood and the private phone calls shaping Albanese's plans. It's Friday, August one, Paul. The push for Palestinian statehood by Australian politicians goes way back. Can you take me back to the lateties, to the formation of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group? He was in it.
Yeah, it's quite fascinating to see the history of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, founded in the nineteen nineties, as you're saying, by a backbencher, young backbencher called Anthony Albernizi and a new junior minister in the Howard government called Joe Hockey. Now Hockey's very interesting. He is the son of Armenian refugees that fled Turkey and they fled to Palestine.
So the two of them formed the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, and a couple of years later, when Susan Lee joined the Parliament after defeating the Nats for her seat of Pharah, she too joined the Friends of Palestine. People don't know this, but she's the daughter of a British intelligence agent who has a child, spent time in the Middle East, and she had a working knowledge of Arabic as a child.
Susan Lee in two thousand and three said, for those of us who look forward to an independent Palestinian state and wish to advance the cause of viable sovereign statehood, this group, that is the Parliamentary Group, gives us an opportunity to hold out the hand of friendship, understanding and trust.
So that background is fascinating, and it also gives color to why a lot of people were scratching their heads at a news conference on Tuesday when she refused point blank about four or five times to say there was starvation in Gaza.
Can I just move on?
Now I've said, I'm very distressed by the images that I've seen.
Do you believe that that's evidence and Stuffy?
It's a complex situation on the ground. Like everyone, I'm very distressed by the images I've seen.
So Albanez has wanted a two state solution for a long time, Paul, But how has his government balanced that since October seven with not wanting to reward her mass for a horrific terrorist attack.
Well, what we've seen is the Albanesi government. He and Penny Wong. By the way, Penny Wong was a big mover getting the Labour Party at its national conference in twenty twenty one to say that an incoming Labor government should move quickly to recognition of a state of Palestine.
It reflects our belief that Israelis and Palestinians deserve to prosper in peace behind secure and recognize borders. It reflects our belief that a true friend of Israel is a true friend of the rights of Palestinians to statehood.
That incoming government, of course, is the Albanesi government. Now with Wong as the Foreign Minister.
We continue to call for a ceasefire, We continue to call for hostages to be released. We continue to say that har Mask can have no role in a future Palestinian state, and we continue to call for aid to be allowed to the people of Gaza. Every innocent life matters.
We don't have a formal alliance with Israel, but we have been very close to Israel, and in fact the Australian government under the Australian Labor Party in nineteen forty eight rather played a key role in the United Nations in the founding of the state of Israel. So all of that would weigh heavily on an Australian Prime minister, even one like Albanizi, who is under if you like, riding orders and agrees with these riding orders to quickly
advance the recognition of Palestinian statehood. Alberanizi says that whatever is done must be more than slogans.
What we have from some of the campaign that has taken place is slogans, and what we are about is meaningful action.
But what we saw this week, of course, was an uppying of the ante where on a Wednesday, Australian joined fourteen other nations calling for an immediate recognition of the state of Palestine. When the United Nations General Assembly gathers in September.
We have signed a statement today, another statement with many nations. That statement, I think has a number of things in it that are important.
It was noted, for example, by the fourteen Nations that the Palestinian authority calls for the liberation of hostages and importantly the disarmament of hamas, commits to terminate the prison payment system, commits to schooling reform. This goes to the Palestinians being willing not to teach their children that the fate of Israel should be for all the Jews to be driven into the sea. And commits to hold elections within twelve months.
What we will continue to do is to put forward a principal position consistent with our unwavering commitment to the vision of the two State solution.
Now, France, a leading G seven nation, led the charge with an unconditional statement that it would recognize Palestine in the UN in September.
In relation to the two state solution and the recognition of Palestine, that this has been long starting Labor Party policy. It was in our manifesto we talked about the right of the Palestinians to recognition.
And then the United Kingdom Kiirs Starmer came out and said that the UK two would join France in doing this, but put some conditions on the recognition. I was.
In contact with Prime Minister Starmer overnight.
Alban Is, in a news conference on Wednesday, revealed that he'd been talking to Starma about these things.
What I've said is that it's not the timeline, it's not what we're looking at. What we're looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation of two states.
So how's the push by France and others being received in the Middle East?
Well, on Thursday there was further news that key surrounding Arab states also support these views and will recognize Israel as a legitimate state within the Middle East. So there's a lot of movement that in the past has blocked European nations friends of Israel from pushing for a Palestinian state. Now this is obviously going to put enormous pressure on Israel. The Trump administration in recent days has been critical of what's going on in Gaza, but the United States doesn't
back calls for immediate recognition. Donald Trump on Force one as he returned from his golfing holiday in Scotland, he told journalists that this would reward Harmas. So you're rewarding Hamas if you do that, and I don't think they should be rewarded. So I'm not end that gap, to be honest. And of course that's the line that the Nitan Yahoo government.
Takes after the break starvation in Gaza and the people saying it's not real if we go to the immediate humanitarian crisis in Gaza now, Paul, particularly the hunger crisis. Last weekend, Anthony Eberanezi called out Israel for breaking international law by withholding AID.
Well, quite clearly, it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was the decision that Israel made in March.
How were his his comments received in Israel well?
Interestingly, the Prime Minister repeated that he warned the President of Israel, Herzog in May when they were both at Francis's funeral, that what Israel was doing and the way it was doing it, it was losing international support.
People who are friends of Israel have to be able to say what you are doing is losing support, and that is what is happening.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, denied there was starvation in Gaza, and the Israeli Embassy in Canberra on Monday held a briefing for press gallery journalists where the Deputy ambassador repeated this view that there was no starvation, that it's based on misrepresentation and the falsification of images.
And on top of the Prime Minister of Israel's comments, the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sah in direct response to a question put to him in Jerusalem by an ABC Australian journalist, he said that Alberizi himself was lying.
So the Prime Minister Albinizi said that Israel was quite quite clearly reaching international law by beholding aid from Sadiliens.
So this is a lay.
Alberanzi told his labor caucus in response to that that it was beyond comprehension. The other thing that's beyond comprehension, Daniel, is this quibbling over the images that we're seeing. There's quibbling led by the Murdoch media that that image of the emaciated child in its mother's arms that David Spears on Insiders showed the Prime Minister was somehow docted because it was later revealed that this child had a precondition. This sort of quibbling, well, it certainly disgusts me.
Well, in the first instance, there are a lot of conflicting reports now coming out of Gaza.
And we saw an amazing example of it coming from not only Mechaalia Cash, the shadow Foreign Minister.
The moral obligation here lies directly at the foot of the terrorists. Hummus, they started this war.
But her colleague Dan Tien went on ABC Radio and he said that Harmas was solely responsible for what's happening in Gaza.
The problem all along has been an internationally listed terrorist organization HAMAS.
Now, look, this is really the old argument of look what you made me do? I mean, it is simply incredible and one has to wonder why is the Australian federal opposition taking such a blinked response to what's going on in Gaza and a refusal, even as a friend of Israel, to say to it, as your friend, please stop it. I frankly myself can't see that there is any for example, electoral advantage for the position that they've taken.
And the recent federal election shows that that the seats that had quite high Jewish voter population in them didn't all rush back to the Liberals as they thought they would for the stand that was taken.
And now and easy. He's facing pressure from within his own party, both from people like Edi Husick but also from the Labour friends of Israel. And we heard that this week the PM met with the Executive Council of Australian Jury. Do we know what he said in that, meaning Paul, and how he's handling these competing positions.
Well, look, there's been no official briefing of that meeting. The Executive Australian Jury are the most stridently outspoken supporters of Israel. Their statements and publications welcome the fact that Albanzi is upping Australia's relief effort for Gaza, but they do quibble with the Prime Minister over definitions of the
legality of what Israel is doing in international law. We can only assume that Albanezi gave a hearing to these Australian Jewish leaders but also left them in no doubt as to what his position is.
And finally, Paul, this issue has totally overshadowed Anthony Albanez's domestic agenda this week. But politically speaking, how do you think he's weathering this well.
Look, polling before the federal election showed around sixty percent of Australian support what the Albanesi government's doing in response to the Middle East crisis. The election result would tend to confirm that, and we've seen opinion polls in general just on the way the government is traveling that showed that the government's a good twelve or thirteen points ahead
of the opposition. So that would suggest that if people aren't all that happy with what the Albanese's doing about Israeli Palestine, it's not affecting their views of the government very much.
Paul, thanks so much for your time.
Thanks Daniel, great to talk to you.
Also in the news, Independent Senator Lydia Thorpe put forward a motion in the Senate on Thursday paying tribute to the seventeen First Nations people who had died in custody this year and paying respect to their families. The motion comes after the latest Closing the Gap report reveals only four of the nineteen targets are on track to be
met by twenty thirty one. We'll have an in depth look at the findings of the report next week, and the ABC is calling on Israel to allow international journalists into Gaza. ABC News director Justin Stevens has released a statement saying the public broadcaster has repeatedly tried to get reporters into Gaza since October seven, when Israel block international journalists from operating independently in the strip. Since then, reporting
from Gaza has been largely conducted by freelance journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalist, at least one hundred and eighty six journalists and media workers, mostly Palestinian, have been killed in Gaza while doing their jobs. Seven Am is a daily show from Solstice Media. Is made by Atticus Bastow, Shane Anderson, Chris Dangate, Ruby Jones, Sarah mcveee, Travis Evans, Zotnfad Joe and Me Daniel James. Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Portio.
Just before we Go, this marks the last show with our senior producer, Shane Anderson. Shane has been a great colleague and friend and we wish her the very best. If you like what we do here, at seven am. We would really appreciate your sharing it. Thanks for listening, and have a great weekend.