
The national conference of Australia’s Labor Party (ALP) on Tuesday passed a resolution calling on the next Labor government to proceed with recognition of “Palestine”, The Guardian reports.
The resolution, passed during the closing session of the 2018 conference, supports “the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognized borders” and “calls on the next Labor government to recognize Palestine as a state”.
Labor’s shift on “Palestine” follows the announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in which he formally recognized western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, though he said he would not relocate the Australian embassy.
In seconding the motion, the New South Wales rightwinger Tony Burke, who has been at the forefront of internal efforts to shift ALP policy to a more “pro-Palestine” stance, told the conference the resolution was clear in its intent.
Burke said Labor had always recognized the right of Israel to have a land of its own, “and today we say the Palestinians also deserve a land of their own.”
Back in 2015, rivaling factions of ALP agreed on a resolution that should the party come to power, it would consider recognizing Palestinian statehood.
The motion approved at the time stipulated such course of action on a lack of progress in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Before Morrison recognized western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, there had been conflicting reports about whether he would go ahead with the move.
Early last week, The Australian reported that the Australian government would formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of the State of Israel, but is not planning on relocating its embassy from Tel Aviv in the near future.
Morrison later rejected that report, saying it was too early to discuss such matters and that "when I’m in a position to make that announcement, I will.”