Albanese responds to question of recognition of Palestine following Starmer announcement
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The National
2 hours ago
- The National
History will judge monsters who enabled a genocide
Keir Starmer's announcement that Britain will recognise the State of Palestine in September if Israel doesn't agree to a ceasefire and a two-state solution sums up his political project. Starmer himself is an empty vessel, a mere frontman for Labour's most reactionary and self-serving political faction: his own advisers briefed that he thinks he's driving a train, but they had placed him in front of London's driverless District Light Railway. This faction is defined by its cynicism, lacking not just a vision for our disunited kingdom, but a moral core. They saw that growing numbers of MPs were demanding Palestinian recognition, including some of the drones they parachuted into the parliamentary party, whose blind loyalty has been frayed by the realisation they're heading towards electoral apocalypse. READ MORE: Gaza detainees 'tortured and raped' by Israeli forces, United Nations hears The SNP were preparing to force a parliamentary vote on statehood, which would leave Labour exposed. And indeed other European states, like Spain, have already taken this step, with the likes of France making clear they will too. But all Starmer's aides care about is political game playing, rather than what happens to be the right thing to do. And here's the thing – they're not even good at it. They scrapped the universal Winter Fuel Payment because they thought it would win respect as a 'tough decision'. Alas, they project their lack of a heart on to the electorate, who shocked Labour goons by being averse to freezing their grans. They decided to wage war on disabled people with cuts which would drive hundreds of thousands into hardship, and were again shocked at being stopped in their tracks by the consequent revulsion, including from the malfunctioning androids who benefited from their rigged parliamentary selections. In this case, their ruse is as cackhanded as it is morally bankrupt. Any move which recognises the humanity of Palestinians is going to provoke the pro-Israel lobby, who long sank into a sewer of genocidal depravity, and so it proved. What about everyone else – that is, popular opinion, given the polling shows overwhelming public support for recognition of a Palestinian state, an arms embargo on Israel, as well as the arrest of its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes and crimes against humanity? Starmer's team are essentially arguing that if Israel tones down its genocide, then it will withdraw support for Palestinian statehood. The inalienable right of a people to be free is reduced to a crude bargaining chip, a chess piece on a board to be discarded for a greater strategic cause. So who is this supposed to please, exactly? Here's the gruesome truth. Obviously, Britain should have supported Palestinian national self-determination many moons ago. But there won't be any Palestine left to recognise at this rate. Here is the most symbolic gesture on offer, and even that is reduced to a cynical ploy. There is growing pressure on the Government, because they are facilitating what the former UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, calls the 'worst crime of the 21st century'. Here is an attempt to deflect from action they could be taking, like ending all arms sales to Israel, including crucial components for F-35 jets that are exterminating Palestinians, or imposing sweeping sanctions on Israel. Indeed, earlier this year, Britain joined other Western states in imposing sanctions on two particularly extreme Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. They are both genocidal maniacs who belong in jail, sure, but it is easy to make them the bogeymen in order to absolve the wider guilt of the Israeli state. Notably, the sanctions were justified on the grounds of their incendiary comments, rather than their actions, because the latter implicates the British government. Nothing our government has done remotely meets the scale of the crime. A consensus of genocide scholars – including Israeli scholars – long ago concluded this is genocide. B'Tselem was one of two Israeli human rights organisations to reach the same conclusion this week, alongside Israeli author David Grossman, who won Israel's top literary prize in 2018. Gaza has been plunged into deliberate famine by an Israeli state which repeatedly broadcast to the world that it was intentionally starving the strip. More hungry Palestinians have been massacred at aid points alone since late May than the total number of Israeli civilians and soldiers killed on October 7. And even the BBC is now having to report that Palestinian children are being systematically shot in the head or chest – evidence which points in only one direction: that the Israeli army is deliberately shooting kids. The depravity is so extreme, documented and confessed to, that it is difficult to know either where to begin or end. The British government had a choice when confronted with an incontrovertible criminal reality: to make itself complicit in this historic abomination, or to abide by the most rudimentary building blocks of international law. It chose the former, and now it seeks to wash away its guilt by publicly agonising over Israel's crimes while making tokenistic gestures about a Palestinian nation it has literally helped to massacre. You would have to be either terminally gullible, or a dupe, to be beguiled by this. Throughout history, monsters didn't realise that that is what they are, but they were still monsters. The same applies to Westminster's rulers – and that will be the definitive conclusion of history and, we can hope, the courts, too.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Wong criticises Israel's conduct in Gaza in closed-door meeting with Israeli ambassador
In a private meeting with Israel's ambassador to Australia, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, criticised Israel's conduct in Gaza and called for it to urgently comply with international law and increase the supply of food to Palestinians. Wong's Thursday meeting with Amir Maimon was requested by the Israeli embassy, according to federal government sources, and took place inside Wong's office at Parliament House in Canberra. The meeting was held days after Australia joined 27 other countries in condemning Israel for denying humanitarian aid to Palestinians. At the time, Wong said the decision to sign the statement reflected the 'concern' and 'distress' Australians felt from seeing the images of starving Palestinians in Gaza. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The Thursday discussion followed another meeting between Maimon and lower-level foreign affairs officials in Canberra earlier in the week, as reported by the Nine Newspapers. Australian sources said Wong repeated her public criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza during the meeting with Maimon. This included a request for Israel to comply with international law and ensure enough food was being provided to Palestinians. Wong's office declined to comment on the meeting, and the Israeli embassy has been contacted for comment. Before both meetings took place, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, accused Israel of 'clearly' breaching international law and said Benjamin Netanyahu's government was 'losing support' internationally. After those comments, Wong said: 'It is forbidden to withhold aid from civilians, that is not consistent with international law, but actually, just as importantly, it's morally the wrong thing to do.' Earlier in the week, a select group of journalists attended a briefing at the Israeli embassy where Israel's deputy ambassador, Amir Meron, reportedly said: 'We don't recognise any famine or any starvation in the Gaza Strip.' In response, Albanese said that statement was 'beyond comprehension' and raised concerns about Israel restricting journalists from visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory. Dozens of Palestinians have died of hunger in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by the UN and other humanitarian organisations to Israel's blockade of almost all aid into the territory. Two Israeli-based rights groups this week declared that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, with reports citing evidence including the weaponisation of hunger. B'tselem described an 'official and openly declared policy' of mass starvation. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion On Wednesday, Australia joined 14 other countries in describing the recognition of Palestine as 'an essential step towards the two-state solution', linking progress on statehood to the upcoming United Nations general assembly meeting in September. But Albanese also criticised calls for further actions against Israel as 'slogans' as he faced intensifying pressure from his MPs, Labor members and the Greens to reconsider his position on the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He has so far stopped short of matching his UK counterpart Keir Starmer's promise to recognise the state of Palestine in September unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and commits to a two-state solution. 'What I've said is that it's not the timeline, that's not what we're looking at. What we're looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation of two states,' Albanese said on Wednesday, a day before Wong met Maimon.
South Wales Guardian
5 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
US special envoy Witkoff visits food distribution centre in Gaza
International experts warned this week that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is playing out in Gaza. Israel's near 22-month military offensive against Hamas has shattered security in the territory of some 2.0 million Palestinians and made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving people. Envoy Steve Witkoff and the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, toured a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, which has been almost completely destroyed and is now a largely depopulated Israeli military zone. Hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while heading to such aid sites since May, according to witnesses, health officials and the UN human rights office. Israel and GHF say they have only fired warning shots and that the toll has been exaggerated. In a report issued on Friday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said GHF was at the heart of a 'flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.' Mr Witkoff posted on X that he had spent more than five hours inside Gaza in order to gain 'a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza'. He did not request any meetings with UN officials in Gaza during his visit, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. UN agencies have provided aid throughout Gaza since the start of the war, when conditions allow. Chapin Fay, a spokesperson for GHF, said the visit reflected Mr Trump's understanding of the stakes and that 'feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority'. The group said it has delivered over 100 million meals since it began operations in May. All four of the group's sites established in May are in zones controlled by the Israeli military and have become flashpoints of desperation, with starving people scrambling for scarce aid. More 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli fire since May while seeking aid in the territory, most near the GHF sites but also near United Nations aid convoys, the UN human rights office said last month. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Officials at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said on Friday they received the bodies of 13 people who were killed while trying to get aid, including near the site that US officials visited. GHF denied anyone was killed at their sites on Friday and said most recent shootings had occurred near UN aid convoys. Mr Witkoff's visit comes a week after US officials walked away from ceasefire talks in Qatar, blaming Hamas and pledging to seek other ways to rescue Israeli hostages and make Gaza safe. Mr Trump wrote on social media that the fastest way to end the crisis would be for Hamas to surrender and release hostages. The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on October 7 2023 and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, including about 20 believed to be alive. Most of the others have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
