Australia plans to recognize Palestinian state within days: Sydney Morning Herald
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could sign off on the move after a regular cabinet meeting on Monday, the SMH reported, citing unidentified sources.
Albanese's office did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
France and Canada last month said it planned to recognize a Palestinian state, while Britain has said it would follow suit unless Israel addresses the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and reaches a ceasefire.
Israel has condemned decisions by countries to support a Palestinian state, saying it will reward Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza.
Netanyahu told reporters on Sunday that most Israeli citizens were against establishing a Palestinian state as they thought that would bring war and not peace, even as thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Tel Aviv, opposing his plan to escalate the nearly two-year war and seize Gaza City.
"To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole just like that, fall right into it ... this is disappointing and I think it's actually shameful but it's not going to change our position," Netanyahu said.
Albanese has been calling for a two-state solution, with his center-left government supporting Israel's right to exist within secure borders and Palestinians' right to their own state.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers last month said it was "a matter of when, not if, Australia recognizes a Palestinian state."
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Japan Today
4 hours ago
- Japan Today
Netanyahu hints that Gaza ceasefire talks now focus on the release of all hostages at once
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Israel has threatened to widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, and where most of the territory's 2 million residents have sought refuge. Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive. In an interview with Israel's i24 News network broadcast Tuesday, Netanyahu was asked if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal. Egyptian Foreign Ministry Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce. 'I think it's behind us,' Netanyahu replied. 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The Diplomat
5 hours ago
- The Diplomat
Why Australia Intends to Recognize Palestine
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Relations between the two countries will now require a change of government in Israel to mend. For Australia, the recognition of a Palestinian state is a gambit of its own. It is a change in policy less designed to pave the international conditions for a functional Palestinian state, and more designed in concert with its allies to shift Israel's behavior. Even if successful, the path toward a Palestinian state will remain highly complex. The policy shift may therefore be more about changing domestic conditions in Australia: Hoping that an end to the conflict, and an alleviation of the humanitarian crisis, can ease the passions on the streets in Australia that both Hamas and Israel have aroused.
Japan Times
16 hours ago
- Japan Times
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A growing willingness among Israeli news media to critically explore the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip has all but evaporated in recent weeks after militant group Hamas released videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages. In late July, as images of starving Gazans stirred international outcry, some Israeli press and broadcasters began to carry reports on the worsening conditions there, urging a more robust aid response. Yonit Levi, the main news anchor of Channel 12, branded the humanitarian crisis in Gaza a "moral failure" live on air, and the heads of some universities and the national Holocaust memorial appealed to the government to help hungry Gazans. Israeli media has largely focused during 22 months of war on the trauma and impact on Israelis of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack, in which, according to Israeli tallies, some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Coverage has concentrated on the fate of the hostages and the casualties suffered by the Israeli army. 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Videos of Gazans crowding around hostages in the immediate aftermath of the raid, filming them on their mobile phones, spitting on them and beating them also fueled lasting resentment. Harel Chorev, a senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University specializing in media and Palestinian society, said such incidents made it difficult for many Israelis to feel sympathy for people in Gaza. While international media, barred by Israel from entering Gaza, have relied on Palestinian journalists, many Israelis have little faith in their reporting. Some cite the lack of press freedom in Gaza under Hamas' authoritarian rule. Elnav Zangauker, center, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, holds a sign as she joins in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday, calling for a deal to free hostages held in Gaza. | AMIT ELKAYAM / THE NEW YORK TIMES "I don't think there is a famine in Gaza," said Orit Maimon, 28, a lawyer from Tel Aviv. "I don't think the situation there is ideal or very good but I don't think there is a famine." The Gaza health ministry says 222 people have died of starvation and malnutrition, including 101 children, since the war began. Right-leaning Channel 14 has devoted coverage in recent weeks to discrediting some reports of starving children. When a child featured in a front-page photograph in Britain's Daily Express newspaper was discovered to have a preexisting health condition, some Israeli outlets reacted with outrage. A poll released this month by The Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank, found that 78% of Jewish Israelis think Israel is making a substantial effort to avoid Palestinian suffering while only 15% think Israel could do more and chooses not to. The Israeli offensive makes reporting in Gaza perilous. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, a professional body, Israel has killed more than 230 journalists in Gaza since November. Those figures could not be independently verified. Israel denies deliberately targeting journalists and says many of those killed were members of militant groups working under the guise of the press. On Sunday, Israel's military said it killed an Al Jazeera journalist in an airstrike: it accused 28-year-old Anas Al Sharif of being a Hamas cell leader. Al Sharif had rejected the accusations, which Israel made before he was killed, and rights advocates said Al Sharif was targeted for his reporting. More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's military campaign, according to Gaza health officials Criticism of the government Polls conducted over the course of the war found that around 70% of the Israeli public wants to see Israel make a deal to release the hostages, even if that means ending the war immediately. Several Israeli media have criticized Netanyahu's government for failing to bring the hostages home or to enunciate a clear plan for Gaza after the conflict. Among its most outspoken critics has been left-leaning newspaper Haaretz, which has also published considerable reporting on the suffering in Gaza, including investigative pieces on army operations there. In November, Netanyahu's cabinet — which includes far-right ultranationalist parties — approved a ban on officials talking to Haaretz and government advertising boycott of the paper, accusing it of supporting "the enemies of the state in the midst of a war." The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment for this story. Netanyahu's ministers have also put forward a proposal to privatize Channel 11, the public broadcaster, which a spokesperson for his Likud party criticized for serving the radical left and damaging Israelis' morale. Some media experts have warned this could have a chilling effect on media coverage of the government. Asa Shapira, head of the Marketing and Advertising studies at Tel Aviv University, said the government's actions impact what Israeli channels decide to show. While editorial decisions to focus on the fate of Israeli hostages was a response to public concern, there was also fear of attracting government disapproval, he said.
