Australia should recognise Palestine. To not do so only rewards Israel's crimes
The momentum is driven by horror at Israel's relentless destruction in Gaza, the failure of more than 30 years of negotiations for a two-state solution since the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel's persistent denial of Palestinian self-determination, de facto annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank by illegal Israeli settlements and the extremism of the Netanyahu government. Also, no-one believes that the United States is an honest broker for peace, having fuelled Israeli war crimes with an endless supply of weapons and even threatening to seize Gaza.
Current moves are a long-overdue circuit-breaker in a century of conflict when everything else has failed. The Palestinians were first promised a state over a century ago. A 1947 United Nations proposal to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into two states did not go to plan.
Israel unilaterally declared statehood in 1948 after an insurgency against the British, terrorism against civilians and even assassination of UN officials. It established effective control and independence after a war with invading Arab countries. Australia recognised Israel within six months.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation declared Palestine a state in 1988. International law does not prohibit unilateral declarations, as by Kosovo in 2008, but they do not create a state unless legal criteria are met. According to classical international law, statehood is a test of power. A state exists if it has a defined territory, a permanent population, an effective government, an ability to enter into foreign relations and relative independence from other states.
Palestine largely meets these. There is international consensus that its territory is presumptively defined by the pre-1967 war borders, encompassing the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza. The precise borders remain to be agreed, but this has never been fatal to the existence of states, many of whom disagree with neighbours about borders.
There is a core national population of Palestinian residents, potentially supplemented by Palestinian refugees returning from abroad, and excluding almost 700,000 Israeli settlers.
There is a clear capacity to enter into foreign relations. Palestine engages diplomatically with other states, is an observer state in the United Nations, and makes treaties with other states.
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