Australia will recognize the State of Palestine on the occasion of the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Monday, followed by other countries such as France and Canada.
“A two-state solution is the best hope of humanity to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and lead to an end to the conflict and sufferings” in Gaza, said the Labor Government to the press in Canberra.
And to add: “Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to its own state”. “Peace can only be temporary” as long as the Israelis and the Palestinians do not have their states, he said.
The war in the Gaza Strip, launched after the unprecedented attack on the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, rekindled the inclinations to recognize the State of Palestine.
Mr. Albanese says he has received guarantees from the Palestinian authority, so that “no place (is given) to Hamas terrorists in any future Palestinian state”.
International pressures are accentuated on the Israeli government to find an outcome to the conflict, which led to a serious humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian enclave, where some 2.4 million people live.
Violence in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, have also intensified since the start of the war in Gaza.
At the end of July, the French president Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to recognize the State of Palestine on the occasion of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September, hoping to create a collective dynamic in this sense.
A decision which “rewards terror”, had then judged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in reference to the attack on October 7. The United States, the first support of Israel, has “firmly” rejected an “reckless” measure.
– Elan international –
A few days later, Canada also expressed its intention in favor of a State of Palestine. The United Kingdom has also announced that it would recognize it, unless Israel took a series of commitments, including that of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
In total, three -quarters of the UN member states recognize the State of Palestine, proclaimed by the Palestinian management in exile in the late 1980s. This diplomatic act was carried out by a dozen countries since the start of the war in Gaza.
At the end of July, Australia and 14 other Western countries, including France and Canada, had “invited” the international community to recognize a state of Palestine.
Monday, it was also New Zealand, close to Australia, who said that it would think by September to recognize a State of Palestine.
Mentioning “the humanitarian disaster” in progress in Gaza, the head of diplomacy Winston Peters said: “We intend to assess the question (of the recognition of the State of Palestine, editor’s note) and to act under the principles, values and national interests of New Zealand”. The minister said that a decision would be announced at the UN in September.
A few hours before the statement to Anthony Albanese’s press, Benjamin Netanyahu had criticized an international “shameful” and “disappointing” momentum which was not going to “bring peace”, but “war”.
Solicited by AFP, the Embassy of Israel in Australia said its ambassador “unavailable”.
The attack on October 7 led to the Israeli side of 1,219 people on the Israeli, mostly civilians,, according to an AFP count made from official data.
Israeli reprisals in Gaza have already left 61,430 dead, mainly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Hamas, deemed reliable by the UN.
Posted on August 11 at 7:10 a.m., AFP
