Images of children starving in Gaza have shaken some world leaders out of inertia – but what will Labor do?

The Guardian

3 days ago

Images of emaciated, skeletal children in Gaza landed on news outlets' front pages last week. It seemed to shake some world leaders and ordinary citizens out of a stupor.
It's a year and nine months since Israel began laying siege and raining devastation on Gaza, after the slaughter of Hamas' 7 October terror attacks. After 21 months of bombing and civilian death tolls now reported in the tens of thousands, a new word has begun appearing ever more prominently in media coverage.
Famine.
Not a famine driven by extreme weather, crop failure or pest infestation, but an entirely human-made famine. The type that could be fixed with the stroke of a pen, a bureaucratic shift, a political agreement.
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It's why, half a world away in Australia, Anthony Albanese's government will enter its first full week of federal parliament under pressure, facing calls from outside and inside its ranks to do more.
My colleague Benita Kolovos' exclusive on Monday, that Victorian Labor's state conference will probably back a series of motions urging the federal government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state and sanction Israel – expanding existing sanctions on two Israeli ministers – is the latest pressure point on Albanese and the foreign minister, Penny Wong, to do more, and faster. It's also a demonstration of the emotion of the party's rank-and-file members.
The intervention of former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr on Friday, calling for immediate recognition of Palestine and sanctions against Israel's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, was significant. Former cabinet minister Ed Husic, Labor's most publicly thoughtful and compassionate voice on Gaza, said 'the time is now'.
Their comments came two days after Labor condemned Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi for holding a sign reading 'sanction Israel now' during the opening of parliament.
Albanese, Wong and the government say Australia is not a major player in the Middle East, that they have consistently called for adherence to international law, and have contributed large sums in aid – $100m, Wong said on Friday. All true.
But according to Palestine supporters inside Labor, there is 'near unanimous' sentiment in party ranks for the government to move beyond statements to concrete actions of the kind it has so far downplayed.
Even if it means leading or moving ahead of global sentiment.
Wong joined more than two dozen countries last week, expressing horror at hundreds of Palestinians' deaths at aid sites. It was notable, then, that Albanese still felt the need to put out an extra statement, with stronger language, days later. On Sunday, Albanese went further again, explicitly accused Israel of breaching international law.
That's not nothing.
Noting those 'heartbreaking' pictures of starving children, he told Insiders: 'A one-year-old boy is not a Hamas fighter'.
In the same breath, Albanese rejected 'imminently' recognising Palestine, placing conditions on such a shift – including US support – that seem months, if not years, away.
But wheels are turning. There is growing outrage in Labor ranks about Gaza.
The Victorian Labor motion is the latest of many, with more to come. The motion comes from Labor Friends of Palestine, an internal campaign group. It has circulated similar motions, supported by 80 (and climbing) local ALP branches, according to Peter Moss, a national co-convener. One of the latest, he tells me, is the Wentworth branch, the eastern Sydney electorate with one of Australia's highest concentrations of Jewish voters.
Moss maintains there has 'never been a more urgent time to assert the rights of the Palestinian people'.
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Wong has said for some time Australia no longer sees Palestine's statehood as coming necessarily at the end of the peace process, which leaves open the door to recognition at any time. Albanese on Sunday, however, cautioned that US involvement 'is critical.'
Still, backers say Australia wouldn't even be an outlier if it made recognition moves today.
Carr said the French president, Emmanuel Macron's pledge to recognise Palestine should be enough for Australia, with no need to move in concert with the UK or US. He told me such a shift would win Albanese credit for foreign policy, for 'having a mind of our own'.
It is true Albanese, Wong and Labor have spoken strongly in support of Palestinian civilians and international law, and given harsher criticism of Israel than many governments before. This has opened them to criticism from the opposition, Israel's own government and the screeching outrage machine of the right-wing press.
Equally, for some, Labor haven't gone far enough. The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said: 'Words, while welcome, won't feed starving kids.'
But sentiment has seemed to shift, albeit glacially, even inside the Coalition. After Wong's statement on Tuesday, the opposition could barely muster a word for the plight of starving Palestinians in Gaza.
The shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, took five paragraphs to mention the 'suffering of the people of Gaza', and another two before adding 'it is important that aid flows', in a statement otherwise nearly entirely devoted to criticising Hamas – a terrorist group Labor has condemned, said can have no role in the future governance of Gaza, and must return Israeli hostages.
By Friday, Cash's statement at least opened with a concession of 'strong concerns about the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza'.
Some in the Coalition are uneasy their positioning in recent days has not paid enough heed to the human-made catastrophe. But chalk that up to another issue where the opposition finds itself at a loss, dealing itself into irrelevancy.
The greater issue is for Labor. On the back of a thumping election win and an energised party base, its members want the government to stand up, be bold and help set a global example. Albanese says Palestinian statehood won't come as a 'gesture', but on this issue, the party faithful have made it clear: words aren't enough.