WELLINGTON: Australia will recognize a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday, joining the leaders of France, Britain and Canada in signaling they would do so.
His remarks followed weeks of urging from within his Cabinet and from many in Australia to recognize a Palestinian state and amid growing criticism from officials in his government over suffering in Gaza. Australia’s government has also criticized plans announced in recent days by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu for a sweeping new military offensive in Gaza.
Albanese told reporters after a Cabinet meeting Monday that Australia’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state will be formalized at the United Nations General Assembly in September. The acknowledgement was “predicated on commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,” Albanese said.
Those commitments included no role for Hamas in a Palestinian government, demilitarization of Gaza and the holding of elections, he said.
“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said.
Ahead of Albanese’s announcement, Netanyahu on Sunday criticized Australia and other European countries that have moved to recognize a Palestinian state.
“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole ... this canard, is disappointing and I think it’s actually shameful,” the Israeli leader said.
Nearly 150 of the 193 members of the United Nations have already recognized Palestinian statehood, most of them decades ago. The United States and other Western powers have held off, saying Palestinian statehood should be part of a final agreement resolving the decades-old Middle East conflict.
Recognition announcements are largely symbolic and are rejected by Israel.
A two-state solution would see a state of Palestine created alongside Israel in most or all of the occupied West Bank, the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war that the Palestinians want for their state.
Albanese dismissed suggestions Monday that the move was solely symbolic.
“This is a practical contribution toward building momentum,” he said. “This is not Australia acting alone.”
In neighboring New Zealand, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Monday that his government “will carefully weigh up its position” on recognizing a Palestinian state before making a formal decision in September.
“New Zealand has been clear for some time that our recognition of a Palestinian state is a matter of when, not if,” Peters said in a statement.
Australia will recognize a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Albanese says
https://arab.news/wvs7v
Australia will recognize a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Albanese says
- France and Canada last month said it planned to recognize a Palestinian state
- Britain has said it would follow suit unless Israel addresses the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and reaches a ceasefire
Obama deplores lack of shame after Trump racist monkey clip
- The video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5 sparked censure across the US political spectrum
- White House initially rejected “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and taking it down
WASHINGTON: Former US president Barack Obama criticized a lack of shame and decorum in the country’s political discourse, responding Saturday for the first time to a post on Donald Trump’s social media account that depicted him and first lady Michelle as monkeys.
The video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5 sparked censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and taking it down.
Near the end of a one-minute-long video promoting conspiracies about Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas — the first Black president and first lady in US history — were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.
Obama responded to the video for the first time in an interview with left-wing political podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen released Saturday.
“The discourse has devolved into a level of cruelty that we haven’t seen before...Just days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face on an ape’s body,” Cohen said in the interview.
“And so again, we’ve seen the devolution of the discourse. How do we come back from a place that we have fallen into?“
Without naming Trump, Obama responded by saying the majority of Americans “find this behavior deeply troubling.”
“There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? That’s been lost.”
Obama predicted such messaging will hurt Trump’s Republicans in midterm elections, that “ultimately, the answer is going to come from the American people.”
Trump has told reporters he stood by the thrust of the video’s claims about election fraud, but that he had not seen the offensive clip at the end.
