Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese has said that Benjamin Netanyahu, is “in denial” about the suffering inflicted on Gaza, claiming after a phone call with the Israeli leader that the international community is now saying, “Enough is enough.”
Speaking in an interview a day after announcing that Australia will recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations next month, Albanese said that frustration with the Israeli government amid the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza had contributed to Australia’s decision.
“[Netanyahu] again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people.”
Anthony Albanese
Albanese disclosed that he spoke with Netanyahu last week to inform him of Australia’s decision to join France, Canada and the United Kingdom in recognising a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly meeting in September.
Netanyahu, he said, continued to make the same arguments he made last year regarding the conduct of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has now killed more than 61,500 Palestinians since October 2023. “That if we just have more military action in Gaza, somehow that will produce a different outcome,” Albanese said, recounting his call with the Israeli leader.
Announcing Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood on Monday, Albanese said that “the risk of trying is nothing compared to the danger of letting this moment pass us by.”
He noted that the toll of the “status quo is growing by the day, and it could be measured in innocent lives,” adding that the decision was made as part of a “coordinated global effort” on the two-state solution, which he had discussed with the leaders of the UK, France, New Zealand and Japan
Australia’s decision comes amid deep frustration at Israel’s continuing atrocities and deliberate starvation in Gaza.
Israel also plans to take military control of Gaza City, risking the lives of more than a million Palestinians and instigating what a senior UN official said would be “another calamity,” as deaths from starvation and malnutrition continue to grow across the enclave.
Albanese said that Australia’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state was “predicated” on conditions agreed to by the Palestinian Authority, which included no role for Hamas in a future government.
Meanwhile, there are a raft of unanswered questions including how the Palestinian state will be formed, how it would be demilitarised, and where Australia would establish an embassy.
Albanese and the Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, shrugged off repeated questions in media interviews on Monday and Tuesday about how Australia would respond if the Palestinian Authority’s commitments were not met, or if they would reverse their recognition pledge.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, said today that the government had not clarified its position on how those conditions will be met.
“[Albanese] actually refuses to say what will happen if the conditions that he sets out for recognition are not met.
“Those conditions are unlikely in many views to be met. One of them is that there can’t be a role for the terrorists in any future Palestinian state, but Hamas is there, they’re on the ground, they’re in control.”
Sussan Ley
Israel Critical Of Australia’s Decision
Israel’s government has been deeply critical of Anthony Albanese’s decision, and also said that Albanese’s party is rewarding Hamas.
In a statement on X, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Foreign affairs, Sharren Haskel, said that the move was about domestic politics, not peace.
“50 of our hostages remain in Hamas’s dungeons of torture, being starved to death – being forced to dig their own graves, yet the Australian government has decided now is the right time to reward the monsters of October 7 with recognition of a Palestinian state.”
Sharren Haskel
Haskell asserted that Australia’s decision by Australia “won’t change anything in Israel or Gaza.”
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