SYDNEY (Dispatches) – The Australian Labor Party has passed a resolution, during the final day of the Victorian party conference, calling for the federal Australian government to recognize the state of Palestine.
“In re-affirming the resolution carried at the 2018 and 2021 national conferences, the Albanese government will join with 138 countries and the Vatican, which have already done so,” the motion read.
In 2018 and 2021, Labor’s national conference backed a resolution that “supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist within secure and recognized borders” and “calls on the next Labor government to recognize Palestine as a state”.
The move comes after the Australian Labor Party’s decision to reverse the previous government to recognize West Al-Quds as the ‘capital’ of the Zionist regime in 2018, four years after its initial announcement that it would move its embassy to the city.
The initial decision to recognize West Al-Quds as the capital of the occupying regime was made by former Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, in 2018, a year after the United States and its former president, Donald Trump, first announced its own recognition and called on other countries to do so.
The move caused a domestic backlash in Australia and led to friction with neighboring Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation – temporarily derailing a free trade deal.
The decision was also denounced by Palestinians as an obstacle to achieving peace in the region. They urged Arab countries to review their trade and political ties with Australia.
The Palestinian Authority commended the Australian government’s decision to reverse the previous administration’s recognition of West Al-Quds despite fierce criticism from the Zionist regime.
“We welcome Australia’s decision with regards to Al-Quds & its call for a two-state solution in accordance with international legitimacy,” PA’s civil affairs minister Hussein al-Sheikh said on Twitter at the time.
Sheikh also hailed Australia’s affirmation that the future of sovereignty over Al-Quds “depends on the permanent solution based on international legitimacy.”