The Labor MP Michael Danby has blasted Bob Hawke, Kevin Rudd and two former foreign ministers, Gareth Evans and Bob Carr, for calling for the diplomatic recognition of Palestine ahead of a visit to Australia by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Danby told Sky News on Tuesday the former Labor luminaries should raise concern about government conduct in China rather than about aggressive settlement building in Israel.
The Victorian right-winger said the “heroes” inclined to beat up on Israel – when the country was progressive enough to allow gay pride parades, and Christmas celebrations, in contrast to the less tolerant disposition of neighbouring countries – needed to raise their voices for any future state visit by the Chinese president.
“I think people are hyperventilating about settlements,” Danby said. “Why don’t they beat up on China when the Chinese president comes to Australia? Oppression of the Tibetans or the Uighurs is far worse than what’s happening to the Palestinians when some Israelis build houses 20m or 100m or a mile across the green line.
“Where is Bob Carr, Gareth Evans and Bob Hawke when the terrible things that are happening in Tibet are discussed?
“They never raise their heads, they never raise their heads to power. They want to try and provoke the Israeli prime minister and upset relations between him and the Labor party prior to Netanyuhu’s visit.”
Danby is a key factional ally of the Labor leader, Bill Shorten. There is a split in the ALP between the right faction in New South Wales and Victoria over the party’s policy stance on Israel.
Labor has been moving incrementally in the direction of adopting a more pro-Palestinian policy stance since 2012, with the ALP national conference in July 2015 passing the strongest resolution yet seen at the national level.
The form of words adopted by the conference says if “there is no progress in the next round of the peace process, a future Labor government will discuss joining like-minded nations who have already recognised Palestine and announcing the conditions and timelines for the Australian recognition of a Palestinian state, with the objective of contributing to peace and security in the Middle East”.
While the resolution clearly references Labor being in government when it would provide recognition for Palestinian statehood, a number of current Labor parliamentarians believe the “no progress” threshold has already been reached – some assert a majority of the caucus holds this view.
The national conference resolution of 2015 was resisted strenuously at the 2015 conference by senior players in the Victorian right, which is Shorten and Danby’s factional grouping. It passed ultimately because the NSW right split with Victoria and voted with the left to get it carried.
Netanyahu arrives in Australia on Tuesday and will be here for the remainder of the week.
The US president, Donald Trump, used Netanyahu’s visit to Washington last week to dump America’s 20-year commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as part of a permanent Middle East peace agreement.
The shift in the US stance prompted both the Turnbull government and Labor to reiterate Australia’s support for the two-state solution – although both the major parties are facing pressure in different ways.
Shorten is under pressure to adopt a more pro-Palestinian stance and Trump’s pivot on Middle East peace will put the Turnbull government in a position of being publicly at odds with the US on a key foreign policy question – a position the government has thus far been keen to avoid.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said the government in Canberra favoured the two-state solution but she nuanced that position slightly.
Bishop suggested on Sky News that Australia’s support for a two-state solution might shift in the future if Israel and Palestine favoured another means of resolving the conflict.
She said Trump had merely been pointing to the necessity for both parties to agree on the way forward. “The two sides need to sit down and negotiate a resolution – it can’t be imposed from outside.”
Bishop said if the parties came up with “another solution that they were prepared to live with, that ensured the Israelis and Palestinians could live side by side, together, between internationally recognised boundaries, then of course the world should support that”.
Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, has reiterated Labor’s support for a two-state solution, and played down the need for any immediate policy change, but she’s also telegraphed the fact Labor would raise concerns about Israeli settlement building when the opposition sits down with Netanyahu during this visit.
On Tuesday she said friends were entitled to put their views during state visits and she signalled Labor would tell Netanyahu a “number of actions” weren’t helping a resolution of the conflict in the Middle East.
The Greens’ foreign affairs spokesman, Scott Ludlam, said the Israeli prime minister should not expect a warm welcome in Australia.
“Mr Netanyahu should be aware that he will be met with demonstrations on the streets of Australia’s cities, not embraces,” Ludlam said. “The Australian Greens believe it is time the government joined the growing community of nations recognising Palestinian statehood.
“It is all very well for retired Labor figures to have an attack of conscience after they’ve left office but it is time that leaders from all sides of politics stepped up and got Australia on the right side of history.”
