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Anthony Albanese has raised with Israel’s prime minister international concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as Australia joins a growing list of countries planning to recognise a Palestinian state. By Jonathan Pearlman.
Working towards Palestinian statehood
Last Sunday at 4.30pm, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the rare step of holding a press conference for the foreign media. Rarer still, he used the occasion to discuss the foreign policy of Australia.
Shortly before the press conference began, Netanyahu’s adviser told the assembled media at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem only pre-registered outlets would be able to ask questions – a small group that included Reuters, CBS and CNN.
Netanyahu then gave a prepared talk and took questions from the arranged outlets, as well as some additional questions, from Germany’s Welt TV, America’s Newsmax and Britain’s Sky News.
As he was leaving, journalists yelled further questions. One, a question about Palestinian statehood from the ABC’s Matthew Doran, caught Netanyahu’s attention. He said he “couldn’t resist that”.
Netanyahu then shared his views on Australia’s reported plans to recognise a Palestinian state, which, he said, would reward Palestinian militarism and “bring the next war closer”.
“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that, fall right into it and buy this canard, is disappointing,” he said.
“It’s not going to change our position. Again, we will not commit national suicide to get a good op-ed for two minutes.”
Three days earlier, on August 7, Netanyahu had received a phone call from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who revealed that Canberra planned to join France, the United Kingdom and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state. It was a lengthy call – more than 40 minutes.
Albanese, who prides himself on his ability to go beyond prearranged talking points when speaking to world leaders, expressed grave concern about Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Albanese told Netanyahu the war had devastated Gaza, caused massive loss of life and was a humanitarian catastrophe. He noted concern from the international community and from the public – including in Australia – and said Netanyahu had failed to propose a political solution.
When Netanyahu responded by saying Israel needed to destroy Hamas and prevent it from launching attacks such as the one it carried out on October 7, 2023, Albanese told the Israeli prime minister that these were the same arguments he had made when they spoke in April 2024.
Back then, Albanese had been trying to dissuade Netanyahu from launching a ground invasion of Rafah; now, he was trying to persuade him not to launch a campaign to enter Gaza City and occupy the 25 per cent of Gaza that Israel does not yet control.
The latest conversation, Albanese later told reporters, was “civil”. It was also the last step before bringing the proposal to recognise Palestine to cabinet on Monday morning and then announcing it to Australia and the world.
The move was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, and by Hamas. In Ramallah, in the West Bank, local resident Saida Shahout told ABC News: “Honestly, it’s amazing … More countries are siding with us and seeing the injustice that’s happening with our country and with the people of Gaza.”
Addressing the media in Canberra on Monday, Albanese said: “The toll of the status quo is growing by the day and it can be measured in innocent lives … There is a moment of opportunity here, and Australia will work with the international community to seize it.”
In late September, Albanese is expected to address the yearly leaders meeting of the United Nations and formally recognise Palestine, joining 147 of the 193 UN member states to have already done so.
For years, Australian governments have supported a Palestinian state but viewed recognition of statehood as part of a two-state solution to the longstanding Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
This has changed in response to the mounting civilian toll in Gaza, Netanyahu’s expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Israel’s rejection of Palestinian statehood. Last April, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong declared that the government was willing to recognise statehood even if it was not part of an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, she said, statehood was “a way of building momentum towards a two-state solution”.
In recent weeks, as Canada joined the UK and France in announcing recognition, Albanese decided recognition was politically and diplomatically feasible. Last Sunday, Wong called her United States counterpart, Marco Rubio, who has dismissed recognition as a reward for Hamas, to disclose the government’s position.
The moves by the UK and others appeared to have given Canberra the cover it needed. When Rubio’s office released a readout of his call with Wong, it said simply that the two had discussed “issues in the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East”.
Australia’s recognition, according to international law experts, will not change Palestine’s legal status. Palestine already has effective statehood, although moves to grant it full membership of the UN have been blocked in the Security Council by the US, which has veto power.
The recognition will allow Australia to engage in relations with Palestine, including potentially setting up a future embassy in Ramallah and enabling the establishment of a Palestinian embassy in Canberra.
Dr Melanie O’Brien, associate professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told The Saturday Paper that Australia’s recognition was “highly significant”, but its relevance was “more practical and political than legal”.
“Palestine is a state and has been for some time,” she said. “They have a government, they have a territory and they have a permanent population. They have capacity to enter relations, and do enter relations, with other states … The more countries that recognise Palestine, the more pressure it will put on Israel and the US.”
On Tuesday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the Coalition would revoke the recognition of statehood if it were to win government, saying such recognition would not “deliver a two-state solution, see the free flow of aid, support the release of hostages [taken in 2023] nor put an end to the terrorist group Hamas”.
Albanese said recognition would strengthen the Palestinian Authority and isolate Hamas, which does not recognise Israel. He said recognition was based on commitments Canberra received from the Palestinian Authority, including promises to exclude Hamas from governance, to demilitarise and to hold elections.
Ian Parmeter, a former diplomat in the Middle East who is now at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, said recognition will not affect the war in Gaza, particularly as Netanyahu’s domestic political motivations “override anything that foreign countries may say to him”.
Parmeter backed Albanese’s decision on recognition, however, saying that following in the footsteps of France, the UK and Canada provided an opportunity to “push this momentum and underline to Israel that the tactics it is using in Gaza are causing harm to Israel and to its image abroad”.
“Recognition underlines to Israel that, because of the horrors of what is happening in Gaza, it is becoming more isolated in the world,” he told The Saturday Paper.
“Even its friends – and you would certainly say Australia has historically been a friend – have said we cannot condone what you are doing.”
More immediately, Netanyahu is preparing to expand the military offensive in Gaza, even as the enclave faces widespread hunger and a severe humanitarian crisis.
Netanyahu plans to seize Gaza City, an operation that will reportedly be launched in early October after the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents. The move is unpopular with the Israeli public and has been opposed by Israel’s military chief, Eyal Zamir, who believes it is unnecessary and will endanger the lives of the remaining hostages.
Netanyahu is pressing ahead regardless, which is why he held a press conference for the foreign media and a separate one in Hebrew for local media last Sunday to justify his plan. On Tuesday night, Israel launched air strikes in parts of Gaza City, killing 123 Palestinians, according to local officials.
Hamas leaders arrived in Egypt this week and Israeli officials were expected to travel to Qatar amid efforts to revive a US-backed ceasefire plan. The latest talks stalled last month, as Hamas refused to disarm and Israel refused a complete withdrawal of troops. A Hamas official told Reuters this week it would not disarm before a Palestinian state is established.
Meanwhile, increases in aid flows have not staved off malnutrition in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry said five people died of starvation and malnutrition on Tuesday. Israel says the cases have involved pre-existing illnesses.
On Wednesday, a group of 24 countries, including Australia, said the humanitarian crisis had reached “unimaginable levels” and called for Israel to remove all blocks to aid flows into Gaza. As the crisis continues and Netanyahu moves to intensify his campaign in Gaza, calls for recognition of Palestine are likely to grow.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on August 16, 2025 as "Palestinian statehood".
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