By Marcelle Mansour OAM
Former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr has urged Australia to recognise Palestine as a state at the NSW ALP Policy Forum on Palestine.
“The time has come for Australia to recognise Palestine.” He said
A policy forum on Palestine was hosted by the Hon Tony Burke MP and the Hon Anthony Albanese MP of the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales at the RSL Hurlstone on Tuesday 27th of June 2017. The event was attended by Senator Shawquet Muslemani, MP of the Legislative Council of the Australian Parliament, Shadow Minister for Education Mr Jihad Dib, MP, Member of the Legislative Assembly, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the Commonwealth and Australia Dr Izzat Abdul Hadi and First Secretary Ms. Noura Saleh from the Palestinian Embassy in Canberra, former Mayor of Bankstown, Khal Asfour, various heads of associations, media representatives and a crowd of members of the Arab and ethnic communities.
Tony Burke gave a brief introduction about the guest speakers Aletia Dundas, who recently came from Palestine, spoke of her experience while working for the Palestinian-Israeli program. She holds graduate studies in community development, non-violence, human rights, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding. Aletia described the continuing suffering of Palestinians under the torment of the Israeli occupation where the areas are subject to severe restrictions in Palestinian cities. a thousand Palestinian suffer at the checkpoints per hour, Israelis and soldiers are leading to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians, particularly those facing serious challenges to access to basic services, along with the ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes and allowing Israelis to build additional illegal settlements.
Bob Carr the former Foreign Minister of Australia was the keynote speaker, spoke explicitly about his discussion with the former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard during his career as a diplomat in Canberra since 2012-2013, on the issue of the occupation of Palestine and the lack of world support for it. He spoke about his criticism of the fabrication of history, race and religion and his opposition to the activities of the Israeli illegal settlements that spread and hinders the peace process. “If the settlements have to be withdrawn in the context of the peace offer why are they planting more of them, and why about 60% of them being planted in the state of Israel deeply towards East?” Bob Carr questioned and pointed out that the majority of the Israeli government’s members oppose to the two-state solution where only 4 out of 22 members support it and 65% of The Israeli cabinet disagrees with this principle. He also praised the Jews who are against the occupation and who believe that the intolerable occupation is going to degrade them and will damage Israel, and therefore they support the solution of a just peace between the two sides.
Bob Carr clearly called on the Australian government to recognise Palestinian State, In his own words, he said: “Fifty years have passed since the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza since June 5, 1967… the continuation of the Israeli occupation severely poisoned Palestinian society violated the human rights of the Palestinian people and increased their suffering, the Palestinian resistance outlasts the occupiers ten times … today we face the issue of justice, and the Australian Palestinians will not leave their land… there must be a just settlement because there is no peace without justice … it is the time to be prepared to listen to the alternative voice and to recognize the humanity and dignity of Palestinians and to send the message to both sides. As a result, we support the Palestinian cause for Palestinians there is hope and prospect at the end of the process, a Palestinian state will happen and it is time for Australia to recognize Palestine.”
Bob also informed of the upcoming NSW ALP conference which aims to recognize the state of Palestine and to save the two-state solutions.
The Q & A discussion included many topics of interest to the audience regarding the policy on the Palestinian issues and the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.