Today, I can confirm that at the eightieth Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September, Australia will recognize the state of Palestine.
Prime Minister Anthony Alberanesi has announced that from next month, Australia will recognize a Palestinian state, alongside allies including the UK, Canada and France. Albanzi claims that doing so would move the Middle East back toward a two state solution.
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.
But as Israel ramps up its military campaign in Gaza once again, what difference does recognition really make? I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM today contributing editor of the New Daalie Amy Ramikuz on what the international community is trying to achieve and whether it's too late. It's Tuesday, August twelfth. Amy, We've just heard the Prime Minister Anthony Abernezi announce that Australia will recognize a Palestinian state.
So what does that actually mean in practical terms? It's largely symbolic. It is not going to do anything to end the military offensive that Israel is carrying out in Gaza. It's not going to do anything to start the flow of aid. It's not going to be able to stop Israel or pressure.
Them into doing anything that Israel doesn't want to do, particularly why the United States remains so strongly allied with Israel in this campaign. What it will do, though, is it does isolate Benjamin Ettanyahu within the international community. It also sets up stronger diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority, which is who every Western government is talking about when
they talk about recognizing Palestine. They're talking about the Palestinian Authority, which is in the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority has already agreed to these preconditions to recognition.
The Palestinian Authority has reaffirmed it recognizes Israel's right to exist in peace and security. It has committed to demilitarize and to hold general elections. It has pledged to abolish the system of payments to the families of prisoners and martyrs, and promised broader reform of governance, financial transparency in the education system, including international oversight to guard against the incitement
of violence and hatred. These detailed and significant commitments have been given even greater weight by the Arab leagues unprecedented demand for Hamas to end it to rule in Gaza and surrender its weapons to the Palestinian authority.
So every Western country is already speaking as if the Palestinian Authority is going to be the authority for all of Palestine, including Gaza. So it strengthens those diplomatic relations. It probably also will help the Palestinian authority rebuild to a place where they do have authority because they will have Western support in this.
And we've had many times in the lead up to this announcement the criticism that recognizing Palestine now ultimately rewards the mus for their actions on October seven. So how is the Australian government responding to that claim?
What's your answer to that assertion?
Har Mass don't support two states. A mass support one state. In their words, from the River to the Sea, A mass do not support recognizing the right of Israel to exist. This is an opportunity to isolate Hamas that has been forged by the very clear statements of the Palestinian Authority on June ten and the very clear statements of the Arab loke.
At this point, Australia, like most of the Western world, is talking about establishing relations with the Palestinian authority, which is separate to Hamas, and they're still saying Hamas is not going to be part of any further negotiations. I mean, realistically, it is not for any Western government to say how the Palestinians form government. It's for the Palestinians to decide who forms their government, and then it is for the countries to work out how they have those relations with
you know, that government down the track. We do it with several nations that we don't have an exact agreement on or we have ideological opposition to, and it will be no different here. At this point. It's about, i suppose, diplomatically trying to say, well, we're not going to negotiate with terrorists, but it is international law that we cannot install a government in Palestine. That is for the Palestinians
to do so. At the moment, I think we're talking a big game, but the future is not ours to declare.
Nevertheless, though we have had the ab and easy say that you know, as you've mentioned, there'll be no role for Hamas in a Palestinian state, and that the plan is for the Palestinian authority to be in charge. So I just wanted to ask what state the Palestinian authority is in and whether it's realistic that they would be ready to govern.
I think that's why the recognition from the Western countries at this point is so important. There's so far to go in this. I mean, the Palestinian authority will need quite a bit of help in terms of the direction that it chooses to go. There is going to be borders that need to be decided on, There's going to be you know, what role does Israel play in establishing
these two states? And there's also the question of what is left of Gaza in terms of there actually being a second state here, what is left of Palestine, what is the right of return? All of these other questions that have not yet been reckoned with. There are no answers for from the Western community because at the moment, the end goal is to try and pressure Israel into stopping its military assault on Gaza. That right now is the goal of all the Western countries that have decided
to finally recognize a Palestinian state. But in terms of what it means for Palestinians. It's really difficult to say, because it's not going to stop anything, and every country that has decided to recognize Palestine now has to follow through in concrete action to ensure that there is a Palestine left to recognize.
Coming up, what recognizing Palestine means for Australia's relationship with Israel and the United States.
If there is a concern on Australia's part about international law being violated here, I'm just wondering what further steps might be taken here. Germany is going to block or suspend arm sales to Israel that could be used in Gaza. What about the armored steel and the F thirty five components that Australia contributes.
Would they be blocked?
Oh, well, let's be clear, we don't supply weapons to Israel.
The armed steel and the F thirty five components is what I'm asking about.
The Australian government has also been criticized for selling weapon pats to Israel. So would recognition trigger any change or any review of that arrangement.
Well, it probably already should have under international law. And if this ever gets to the Hague, which many believe that it eventually will. Australia, like all nations in the F thirty five supply chain, will have a case to answer. The answer from the Isustralian government is that we're not directly supplying weapons parts.
Well, we're in F thirty five country and we have been that for a couple of decades, and that is a multilateral arrangement with supply chains that are organized by Lockheed Martin in the United States and have multiple supplies in respect of all of those supply chains. So really that is a very different question, and we are a part of that process.
We're just supplying part non lethal parts that end up in these lethal planes that then end up dropping bombs on guars and civilians. It could instigate a review, but again this is going to depend on how much pressure is applied to Israel. And the big sticking point here is the United States. The United States has shown no sign that it will be recognizing Palestine, that it's going to stop supplying arms to Israel, or indeed that it's going to support any of this international push to try
to pressure Israel into complying with international law. So it really is going to depend on how the United States acts here, how much pressure is put on the United States to start complying with its own international obligations, and how willing Australia is going to be as being part of that international pressure.
And we know that Penny Will has already spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. So what do you think that this move of recognizing a Palestinian state will mean for our relationship with the US as it already caused tension.
It has already caused tension, but I think that was coming regardless of whether or not Australia took this step now next week, last week, it didn't matter.
On the Ruvio phone call, did you get any assurances that our decision on this will not affect the rest of the biolateral relationship with the US given the Trump administration's opposition, You're not expecting any blowback on things like trade or orcus or anything else.
We speak first and we make our sovereign decisions. But you will see from the reader. I think that the State Department have issued since the call. We spoke about a range of batterms, including the Indo Pacific. Insecurity in the Indo Pacific.
It was interesting that the readout that the White House provided of that phone call, there was only a couple of lines and it essentially just said that it would discuss the Middle East as well as the strategic partnerships that Australia has throughout the Pacific. And I think that that is the line that Penny Wong is trying to speak to is that we're going to disagree on this, but our allyship is still quite tight when it comes
to our region. We're just going to disagree over how to handle the Middle East.
And Benjamin Netanya who has said that recognition by Australia would be shameful, and these comments come off the back of Israel's Foreign minister calling Albneazi a liar for saying that aid was being restricted from coming into Gaza. So how is the Australian government attempting to navigate its relationship with Israel in this moment.
I think that there's been a lot of work that the Australian government has put in to keep Israel's government in the loop of where Australia is thinking on this. There has been a lot of diplomatic pressure applied, and of course we've also seen the Australian government seek to soothe Israel at different times by saying we are addressing
anti Semitism in Australia, we are reacting to that. What we are standing for is international law and this has all very much been couched in these diplomatic terms that Australia is upholding international law obligations and humanitarian law obligations. Australia didn't really start really strengthening its language until we saw the United Kingdom and Canada and parts of the U start to really toughen up their stance against Israel.
And that started when the images of the Stage five malnutrition started coming through from Palestinian journalists, when they started showing the real effects of a deliberate starvation campaign on a civilian population. And that's when we saw the international community really start to step up. So Australia has been able to toughen its language, but of course I think we also need to recognize the Australian people and the protesters and that giant display in Sydney not so long ago.
It's no surprise that the Australian government has been pressured into moving perhaps faster than they anticipated, and it's because of the groundswell of support from Australian people who said.
Enough, why and me, thank you so much for via Tan.
Thank you.
Also in the news today, a journalist described as one of Al Jazeera's most recognizable faces reporting from Gaza has been killed alongside four colleagues in an Israeli air strike. Anas Al Sharif, who was twenty eight, was among a group of Al Jazeera's staff who died in a strike on a tent near Schifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday.
According to Gaza officials and Al Jazeera, and electric car drivers could be hit with a road tax, with federal MP Tanya Plibersek framing it a sensible move as more people switch to evs. The comments come ahead of the federal government's Productivity roundtable next week. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. See you tomorrow.