Penny Wong says Australia still 'negotiating' over United Nations Palestine vote

Penny Wong says Australia is still negotiating over the UN vote.  ()

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong says negotiations about a United Nations vote to adopt Palestine as part of its body are still underway and the country’s position has not been finalised.

As the Israel-Gaza war continues, the UN General Assembly is set to vote late on Friday night in Australia, on the resolution.

Senator Wong said Australia was still considering its vote, as are other countries as new information is shared between them.

“Countries are still negotiating … there is a lot of negotiation and discussion,” she told ABC’s RN.

“We will look at what the actual meaning [of] the resolution is, we will look at and we are focused on the situation on the ground, we want a humanitarian ceasefire, we want the release of hostages, we want to increase humanitarian aid.”

The senator said that timing and the “situation on the ground” were impacting the country’s decision on how it would vote.

“It’s not a question of if we will recognise a Palestinian state, it is a question of when,” she said.

In early April, the senator used an address at the Australian National University to announce that the federal government continued to contemplate recognising Palestinian statehood, which she said remained in line with Australia’s long support of a future two-state solution.

“There is a distinction between this vote in the United Nations and bilateral recognition, that is recognition by Australia, and one does not necessarily lead to the other,” she said.

When asked if Australia, which had previously abstained from voting on a call for an immediate humanitarian truce in the war last year, would abstain from this UN vote, the senator wouldn’t be drawn. However, she did defend the choice of abstaining.

“It can send a message that whilst you don’t agree with it in full, you’re not going to stand in the way. So, abstentions are a common diplomatic position that countries take on matters,” she said.

Wong weighs in on encampments

The senator’s comments come as encampments continue at Australian universities in support of Palestine. The encampments sprung up at campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, last week. With participants calling on their teaching institutions to disclose and cut ties with weapons manufacturers they say are supplying arms to Israel.

The senator said on Friday morning some of the language being used on campuses was “anti-Semitic” after the opposition had called for there to be an inquiry into anti-Semitism on campuses.

“Universities have to ensure that they are safe spaces for all students, regardless of who they are. Secondly, we do have a right to peaceful protest in this country. And people are entitled to protest in support of their views in a democracy,” she said

Senator Wong referred to her speech given in April, which touched on social cohesion in Australia over the conflict in the Middle East.

“We must defend people’s right to disagree, respectfully. We must ensure that we don’t diminish each other in how we disagree,” she said.

“There is too much of that … not only on campuses, but in our parliament, and amongst our politicians. The diminution of the other, the personal denigration, and the tenor of the language used by some in this debate, I think, is irresponsible.”

The senator said she hoped the Coalition was “genuine” in its calls for an inquiry.

“If the objective is to actually try and generate social cohesion, then I’ll be supportive. But if the objective is to create conflict and division, I think that’s a problem,” she said.

Albanese says chant ‘not appropriate’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese doubled down on comments that the chant, “from the river to the sea” would be incompatible with a two-state solution.

“The reason why ‘from the river to the sea’ is not appropriate whether it be, and it’s been used from time to time over the years to describe either Palestine or Israel as one state, we support a two-state solution,” he said.

He also echoed the call for social cohesion and respect in the debate over the conflict in the Middle East. He said there was no place for anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.

Senator Wong said she had always believed the chant was contrary to a two-state solution.

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said this week the prime minister was “using the words of Palestinians against us, and is in essence telling us that the colonisation of Palestinian land is not enough”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the pro-Palestinian chant was about “elimination, annihilation, extermination of the race of people of the Jewish faith – it’s as simple as that”.

On Sunday, Minister for Education Jason Clare said the phrase means different things to different people.

“I’ve seen people say that those words mean the annihilation of Israel. I’ve seen people say that it means the opposite. I’ve seen people say that they’re slogans that Israeli political parties have used too,” he said.

“What I’d say is this: what I want all Australians to be calling for is a two-state solution.”