ALP Resolution: Statement from Labor MPS
Federal Labor politicians Mark Dreyfus and Michael Danby have welcomed the outcome of today’s Middle East resolution at the ALP conference.
Mark Dreyfus Photo: Henry Benjamin
In a joint statement, Dreyfus. the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for the Arts and Danby, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition said: “We welcome Labor’s rejection of unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
The resolution also unequivocally condemns the BDS campaign against Israel.
The resolution passed by ALP National Conference this afternoon rejects any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, while making clear that Labor will do all it can to advance and facilitate the peace process.
Labor is open to discussing with like-minded countries the best way to support negotiations toward a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. However, the conditions that would be necessary for the recognition of a Palestinian state do not presently exist.
There would need to be a unified and peaceful Palestinian entity that could enter into binding agreements with other states. The Palestinians will need to conduct free and fair elections, form a single government, and end the launching of rocket and other attacks against Israel. Hamas must meet the Quartet conditions of recognising Israel’s right to exist, renouncing violence, and accept all international agreements.
Whether in government or opposition, Labor will continue to work with the parties to the conflict, with our allies, and with the wider international community to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“We in the Australian Labor Party agree that an enduring and just two-state solution to the Israel–Palestine conflict must be directly negotiated between the parties and founded on the principle of self-determination – two states for two peoples” said Mr Dreyfus.
Michael Danby
“That is why we call on both Israelis and Palestinians to refrain from all unilateral actions and rhetoric which impede progress towards a just and enduring resolution of the conflict.
Specifically, I would call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to cease his use of divisive rhetoric and all public statements by ministers and officials that are inimical to the achievement of a peaceful, two-state resolution of the conflict. Prime Minister Netanyahu should follow the example of late Labor Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin, who defended Israel as one of its great soldiers, and who as Prime Minister served Israel again as a courageous warrior for peace” said Mr Dreyfus.
Michael Danby, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition and Member for Melbourne Ports said, “It is also imperative that the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Palestinian factions cease all public statements and incitement by their officials and in their media that promote political violence or that are otherwise inimical to the achievement of a peaceful, two-state resolution of the conflict.”
“Hamas must commit to re-establishing the rule of law, and ending summary executions and the persecution of minorities, including in relation to sexual orientation” said Mr Danby.
“We take this opportunity to applaud on behalf of Labor those Israelis, Palestinians, and members of the international community who continue to strive toward a just and lasting peace between Israel and a future Palestinian state.”
Mr Dreyfus needs to be reminded that Mr Netanyahu was a brave warrior defending Israel when Mr Dreyfus was serenely practising law and attending cosy ALP branch meetings.
Mr Dreyfus should lecture and admonish and moralise to those who are culpable in the conflict, not to Israel’s Prime Minister.
Mr Dreyfus should call on the Arab Palestinian ruling class to cease their antisemitic incitements against Jews, against Israel and against peace.
Placing Israel in the dock earns Mr Dreyfus points within the ALP, but what does it do to his conscience?
And from the point of view of the Australian citizens who pay his salary, most importantly, Mr Dreyfus must explain to Australia (an impossible task admittedly) what benefit Australia would derive from the fabrication of yet another aggressive Arab state.
One needs to move slowly from the overview to the nuts and bolts of what will and must be open to negotiations.
The ALP resolution first and foremost recognizes two states for two peoples.
That is a core fundamental–which in itself denies BDS founder Barghouti his stated wish of ” two states–a Palestine next to a Palestine.”
Then the ALP explicitly rejects BDS in all its connotations.
Remember that the foremost leader of the Left , Anthony Albanese campaigned against BDS explicitly in his electorate , as did Carmen Tebbit, the former State Left ALP member for Marrickville, when a significant chunk of potential voters could have moved to the Greens because of their principled stand.
So let us begin where fair minded people should– both peoples are a reality-in essence sharing one land, but different language, history, culture and religion.
We Jews have succeeded after generations of blood and toil in recreating an independent democratic homeland.
The Palestinian Arabs also should be given that same opportunity.
the details of how , I leave to others above my pay grade, but mutual respect of each other’s culture and history would be a start.
I agree with the comments of Dreyfus and Danby.
You need to preach this sermon to the Palestinian Arab leaders.
The JWire items by Danny Lamm, Ron Weiser and David Singer unmask the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of the ALP’s policy.
Why does a society that is drenched in antisemitism and categorical rejection of Jewish national rights anywhere, deserve a sovereign state which would be as peaceful as Hamastan in Gaza?
Why do they deserve to be given the opportunity to rocket Israeli airports, hospitals, kindergartens?
Why?
So that ALP antisemites and fellow-travellers (some of them Jews) can preen themselves on their illusory “humanitarianism?”
The oh so courageous Mr Dreyfus might care to read what the genuinely courageous Yitzhak Rabin envisaged as the path to a resolution of the Palestinian Arabs’ war against Israel.
This is what Yitzhak Rabin, of blessed memory, declared in the Knesset on 5 October 1995:
” We view the permanent solution in the framework of [the] State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
We would like this to be an entity which is LESS THAN A STATE, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority…We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”
The bulk of the Australian Labor Party, however, would like to see the creation of an armed Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, like Hamastan in the Gaza Strip, because the ALP knows that such a state would continue the Arab campaign for the phased destruction of Jewish national self-determination.
The invocation of Yitzhak Rabin by any member of the ALP is an affront to his memory.