Australia’s left-wing Albanese government abandoned nearly twenty years of policy on Thursday by supporting a UN committee vote that recognizes Arab “permanent sovereignty” over “occupied territories” within the Jewish homeland.
Australia’s dramatic shift came alongside 158 nations voting in favor of the motion – including the predictably wavering UK and New Zealand – while leaving steadfast allies like the United States and Canada isolated in their opposition. Only seven nations total maintained their resistance to the resolution.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office attempted to justify the reversal, claiming the vote reflected international concern for Israel’s actions, including its “ongoing settlement activity, land dispossession, demolitions and settler violence against Palestinians,” while glaringly avoiding mention of Hamas’ ongoing atrocities.
The UN committee also passed a second resolution demanding Israel compensate Lebanon for environmental damage stemming from a 2006 oil spill that contaminated Lebanese and neighboring coastlines. While Australia joined 160 nations in supporting this measure, diplomatic sources reveal to the Guardian that Australian officials privately expressed disappointment over the resolution’s glaring omission of Hezbollah’s actions against Israel, even as they publicly backed the measure.
Needless to say, Australia’s departure from norms angered the country’s Jewish community.
“This shift in voting won’t change much in Israel where the nation is concerned with Hamas and Hezbollah and hostages rather than the judgments passed by our government,” noted Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of Executive Council of Australian Jewry. “But it will be noticed in Washington and certainly by Australians with a connection to the conflict, which may well be the point.”
While Palestinian advocates, such as the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, predictably celebrated Australia’s diplomatic capitulation as “long-overdue recognition,” serious questions remain about the Albanese government’s commitment to regional stability and traditional Western alliances at a time of unprecedented Middle East turmoil. In May, Australia had already shown signs of abandoning Israel when it backed a UN vote on Palestinian membership to the UN assembly.
