The Australian government will reinstate the term “Occupied Palestinian Territories”, vowing to strengthen its objections to “illegal” Israeli settlements before next week’s Labor party national conference.
The move sparked claims from the Coalition opposition that “the faceless men and women of the Labor party” were dictating foreign policy, but the government maintained it was acting in line with Australia’s key allies.
Some delegates at the Labor national conference in Brisbane are expected to agitate for the party to take a stronger position and commit to a timeframe to recognise Palestinian statehood.
The government has given no indication it is ready to go that far, but has signalled a return to more forthright language about the occupation.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, outlined the position to Labor MPs and senators at Parliament House on Tuesday. In a sign of internal concerns, it was the second time members of caucus have raised questions about Israel in two weeks.
Wong later told the Senate the Australian government was “gravely concerned about alarming trends that are significantly reducing the prospects of peace”.
“The Australian government is strengthening its opposition to settlements by affirming they are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace,” she said.
Wong also indicated the government would return to the position of previous governments of explicitly referring to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
When asked by the Coalition to explain the precise boundaries, Wong said the stance was in line with UN security council resolutions. She said it matched “the approach taken by key partners including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the European Union”.
“In adopting the term we are clarifying that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza were occupied by Israel following the 1967 war and that the occupation continues and reaffirms our commitment to negotiate a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist.”
Wong said the Australian government had engaged with the Israeli ambassador on the issue because it remained “a committed friend of Israel”.
She said the government had “rebalanced Australia’s positions in international forums, while opposing anti-Israel bias in the UN”. Australia would continue to condemn “all forms of terrorism and violence against civilians”, Wong said.
Sources with knowledge of the policy shift said ministers had broadly refrained from using the term “occupied” or “occupation” since 2014, even though Australia had continued to support UN general assembly and security council resolutions that use such language.
The reluctance to use the term began early in the life of the former Coalition government.
“The description of East Jerusalem as ‘occupied’ East Jerusalem is a term freighted with pejorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful,” the then attorney general, George Brandis, told a Senate hearing in 2014.
But Scott Morrison told the Sydney Institute in 2018 that Australia was “subject to UN security council resolutions that apply to the Jerusalem issue, including resolutions 478 and 2334”.
The latter “reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law”.
The Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, denounced Tuesday’s announcement.
He said it had “everything to do with managing factional differences ahead of the Labor national conference and nothing to do with advancing a lasting two-state outcome”.
The Liberal MP Julian Leeser went further, telling ABC TV the decision showed Australian foreign policy was subject “to the whim of the faction bosses” and it showed “a weak prime minister and foreign minister”.
Leeser said next week’s national conference was “controlled by the hard left and trade union movements and the Jeremy Corbyn faction [that] doesn’t even want to recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist”.
In fact, the government continues to express its strong support for Israel.
In 2018 and 2021 Labor’s national conference backed a resolution that “supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders” and “calls on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state”.
But Wong has so far declined to commit to a timeframe for recognising a Palestinian state.
Labor figures are working behind the scenes before the conference to ensure the government is not embarrassed on defence and foreign policy, including Aukus.
Last October, Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the Australian ambassador for a diplomatic dressing down after the Albanese government reversed the former Morrison government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
At the time Wong said Australia was restoring its “previous and longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final-status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people”.
The Palestinian foreign ministry welcomed Tuesday’s announcement as a “significant and important development in the Australian position”, but said it should go further and “recognise the state of Palestine swiftly, in accordance with international law and international legitimacy”.
Comment has been sought from the Israeli embassy. The ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, has previously appealed to the Albanese government not to recognise Palestinian statehood before a final peace agreement.
