Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday, the twenty third of September.
I'm Lucy Tassel, I'm Emma Gillespie.
Early on Monday morning, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi announced the government had recognized the State of Palestine. Albanezi joined the heads of Canada and the UK in making the announcement ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York City this week. Then early this morning, countries met at the UN to discuss the future of the two State solution. In today's podcast, we'll explain what it means to recognize the State of Palestine and how it relates to the two state approach.
We'll get into that right after a quick word from today's sponsor Lucy. We have known for a couple of months now that Australia was going to recognize the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly this week, but we didn't exactly know how it would play out, what
that would look like. I had kind of assumed up until this week that it would be a speech on the floor of the UN in front of all the world leaders of the General Assembly, but instead, at least for Australia's part, it played out in a statement at first that was released from New York by the Prime Minister over the weekend. There is a lot to unpacking today's episode, but I think a good place to start is probably with that statement and Australia's kind of pledge here.
Yeah, so we've known since July basically that these are the government's plans. Back then, the government followed announcements from France, the UK and Canada and committing to recognizing the state
of Palestine in September. It's now September. In July, Albanizi said the process was necessary to ensure lasting peace in the region, and he echoed those comments with his statement on Monday, saying a two state solution with Israeli and Palestinian states quote has always been the only path to enduring peace and security for the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples.
And he noted that Australia's recognition came with some what he called requirements, so ensuring that Hamas, which Australia lists as a terrorist organization, has no role in the state and HAMAS has run Gaza since the two thousands.
Okay.
He also said he'd received assurances from the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, that it would hold democratic elections and carry out reforms.
So a lot of stakeholders that you've introduced their lucy, not just Australia, but also the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank, Gaza. Are those the territories that Australia now considers the state of Palestine.
I believe so, although I'll note that none of the government's statements have said this explicitly. To find out more, I went to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trades website, which until now has had a page for the occupied Palestinian territories. If you click on that, it redirects you to a page simply titled Palestine.
So that's new.
That's new, And then if you follow I confirmed this also on the web archive, if you follow a link on that page to Smart Traveler, which is defat's travel advice website for Australians. It also is titled Palestine, and it has a new map that you can view, and that map highlights Israel in one color and Palestine in another. Color, and it has lines clearly delineating what Australia's government now considers to be these two states. And so the Palestine part is as of now, the West Bank and Gaza.
Okay, Lucy, I know this is a complicated question, but to help our audience understand a little bit more about the context behind all of this, how did these areas, so Gaza and the West Bank come to be known as the occupy Palestinian territory while Israel is a nation.
Well, where to begin? I have to pick somewhere to begin. And something that we've talked about a lot over the last couple of months in the office is sort of this idea that you could write a book about how this happened and still not cover every detail. But I'll start somewhere, and that somewhere is World War One. So during World War One, Britain and France believed that the Ottoman Empire, which then existed and controlled much of the modern Middle East and was opposed to them in the war,
would crumble. So they believed that this was an eventuality that was going to happen. They signed a secret agreement to divide up the Ottoman Empire and at the same time, Britain promised independence to Arab communities that fought with it during the war, and around that time, Britain made a commitment to create quote a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. So we've got these kind of like side by side promises.
Okay, side by side promises that would ultimately be conflicting led by Britain and France at the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Yes after the war, there was the creation of the League of Nations, which is the precursor to the UN. It agreed that Britain would carry out its previous commitment to create this quote home in Palestine, and it also required Britain to commit to avoiding anything which quote might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non Jewish
communities in Palestine. After World War Two and the Holocaust, when the United Nations was created, Britain brought what it was now calling the Palestinian Question to the UN, which was that there were these different commitments that it had made over the same piece of land. The new organization voted to end British rule and split Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Israel then declared its
independence in nineteen forty eight. There has been ongoing violence and war in the region was before and it continues, causing the mass displacement of Palestinians. Attempts to negotiate a two state solution in line with what the UN voted on have failed. Israel has since violently taken control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Under international law, these are known as the occupied Palestinian territories.
Now that is a very brief, broad snapshot of the last say, seventy years. What about the status quo today in terms of those territories, in terms of the West Bank and Gaza.
Yeah, so today the Palestinian authority governs some of the West Bank, while Hamas runs Gaza. The Israeli government recently approved plans to expand their settlements in the West Bank, which, as I said, are considered illegal under international law. UN spokesperson Stefan Dujeriq said this would be quote an existential threat to the two state solution.
Okay, Now, the two state solution is something that you have mentioned a couple of times already. It's an idea that we hear about a lot in the coverage of this conflict. In this region. But what does that actually mean? What is a two state solution?
So this has been interpreted as meaning what the UN originally voted for, which is a Jewish and a Palestinian state side by side in that territory. For many years, the US and its allies, including until now Australia, only planned to recognize the second of those two states after it reached a negotiated agreement with Israel. That has changed recently in light of Israel's ongoing campaign in Gaza, which a UN Human Rights committee found last week is a genocide against Palestinians.
So that all sort of brings us to the present with Australia recognizing Palestine after many years of saying that it would not recognize Palestine until it reached a negotiation and agreement with Israel for that two state solution. But we have moved past that on the world stage as this conflict has escalated. What will happen next, I suppose for Australia specifically, what really kind of materially changes, if anything, now that Albanesi has declared that recognition right now?
Not a lot. As I mentioned earlier, Australia says it has requirements for the Palestinian authority once those are in place. Albanesi's statements said, Australia will think about establishing a diplomatic relationship with this state that it's now recognized, and possibly open an embassy. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has previously had an office in the West Bank.
Okay, So when we say diplomatic relationship, that kind of opens up the doors for yeah, things like embassies, consulates, more negotiations, maybe trade and other kind of partnerships.
Yeah, exactly. And early this morning more countries have taken those steps towards recognition, including France.
What has the reaction been, you know, we've known that this list of countries were going to make these declarations and announcements at the General Assembly this week, but now that it's actually happened, how has the world responded?
From Israel, the Foreign Ministry said it quote categorically rejects the country's announcements, and Israeli authorities have said before that they consider recognizing Palestine to be rewarding humas. The Palestinian authority has welcomed the move, calling it a courageous decision
in line with international law over here in Australia. Both the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network and the Executive Council of Australian Jury expressed displeasure with the announcement, although for different reasons. APAM said the decision quote remains well short of Australia's international moral and legal obligations to stop Israel's genocide. They're referring there to the UN Commission of Inquiry findings yep, which we also talked about on the pod last week.
YEP. What about The Council of.
Jury ECAJ criticized the announcement as and said it fails to make clear what will happen if the authority doesn't make the changes that Australia requires, or quote, if Hamas continues to control Palestinian territory. And from the Coalition, we've got a joint statement from Opposition Leader Susan Lee and Shadow Foreign Minister Mikhalia Cash saying the government had proceeded with recognition without what they called quote crucial conditions because they said Hamas is still in power in Gasa.
Lucy, thank you so much for explaining that. I think there was a little bit of confusion maybe when you know Albanesi released that statement on Sunday ahead of the meeting. But I suppose we've got two kind of separate announcements here really. One is you know, how the Australian government will move forward in its relationship with Palestine. And then also this global collective of world leaders coming together on the floor of the UN to declare statehood, you know,
at that level, this kind of global diplomacy moment. As we know, this story is ongoing, unfolding rapidly every week, and we will continue to keep you up to date here on the podcast. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. That is all we have time for, but we'll be back a little later on with your evening news headlines. Until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present,