Key Points
- Along with 43 other countries, Australia abstained from a non-binding United Nations vote passed on Thursday morning (AEST).
- The resolution, which passed with 124 votes in favour and 12 against, also called for an immediate military withdrawal.
- It also demanded Israel end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” within 12 months.
Australia was on the verge of supporting an international call for Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories but pulled the pin after the push went too far.
Australia abstained from a non-binding United Nations vote demanding Israel end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” within 12 months and called for an immediate military withdrawal.
The Palestinian-drafted resolution passed overwhelmingly with 124 votes in favour including New Zealand, 43 abstentions and 12 against including the United States and Israel.
Australia wanted to support a watered-down resolution that more closely reflected the ruling of a top international court but common ground couldn’t be found, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements were illegal and should end “as rapidly as possible”.
The UN resolution included clauses that went beyond the advisory opinion and made demands about a state’s legal obligations to counter Israeli policy and matters that have historically been seen as part of peace negotiations.
While Australia couldn’t support the resolution in that form, the Albanese government still supported “the principles of determination for the Palestinian people,” Senator Wong said.
“Therefore, we were not going to vote against and, like the United Kingdom and Canada, we sought to abstain and make clear our views,” she told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
“We voted for recognition and ceasefire — two different resolutions over the last few months — because we were able to get a set of words that we could support. Unfortunately, this was not the case.”
Australia supported the ruling that occupation was illegal, settlements needed to stop and extremist settlers needed to be held accountable, which was why the abstention came with “great disappointment”, UN envoy James Larsen said.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham decried the “one-sided motion” for not condemning the October 7 attack, Hamas’ atrocities or the remaining hostages.
Mixed response from Palestinian, Jewish groups
Palestine’s envoy to Australia Izzat Abdulhadi said he thought the updated motion reflected concerns from some states, including expanding the timeline from six months to 12, and was more compatible with the advisory opinion.
“We wanted more countries to support this resolution because supporting it means supporting the ICJ advisory opinion,” he told AAP.
It was important not to water it down too much and undermine the aims of the opinion, which included repercussions for Israel breaking international law, so the ruling didn’t become “just an intellectual exercise”, Abdulhadi said.
While he would have liked Australia to support the motion, he noted it didn’t vote against it and had taken previous steps to support Palestine including voting for greater UN participation, a ceasefire and recognition as part of a peace process.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network said it was “extremely disappointed” by Australia’s abstention.
It said that not supporting the motion undermined the rights of displaced Palestinians to return and for Israel to make reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by its illegal occupation.
Some Jewish organisations condemned the resolution and Australia’s abstention from the vote.
The Executive Council of Australian (ECAJ) Jewry argued Israel couldn’t give up “territories it captured in the course of defending itself” without a legally binding peace treaty.
“The resolution is an invitation to endless war and bloodshed, an encouragement to Iran and its proxies to step up their aggression and pursue their openly declared genocidal aims against Israel,” ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said.
“It (Australia) should have voted no instead of taking the morally cowardly way out and abstaining.”
Meanwhile, the Zionist Federation of Australia said Australia had “missed an important opportunity to take a strong stand against the politicisation of the UN and in favour of a negotiated, peaceful resolution benefiting both Israelis and Palestinians”.
Other Australian Jewish organisations took a different position.
The New Israel Fund Australia said it supported Australia “abstaining from this vote after attempting, unsuccessfully, to amend the resolution to reflect the timeline suggested by the ICJ”.
“In partnership with its international allies, the government needs to work towards ending the occupation on a feasible timeline, to help build a viable future for Israelis and Palestinians.”
The Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) said it “urge[d] the Australian government to join the vast majority of countries in the international community that are taking a firm stance.”
“Australia can and should be doing more to hold Israel accountable for its unlawful presence in Palestinian territories. The time for decisive action is now,” JCA executive officer Max Kaiser said.
Un vote reflects growing discontent as Gaza war grinds on
The vote reflects growing discontent within the international community at the sustained war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people after Israel launched a counteroffensive following an attack from Hamas on 7 October 2023.
Hamas and other militant groups killed some 1,200 civilians in Israel and took more than 200 people hostage, many of whom remain imprisoned 11 months later.
Since then, Israel’s military has levelled swaths of the Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The UN General Assembly on October 27 last year called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza with 120 votes in favour.
Australia also abstained on that occasion, because it failed to mention Hamas, the Palestinian political and military group, which has governed the Gaza Strip since the most recent elections in 2006.
Hamas’ stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state and stop the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, which is considered illegal under international law, including the Geneva Conventions and international legal jurisprudence.
Hamas in its entirety is listed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Paraguay.
Other countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group.
