Albanese Government backs ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestine at UN

The Albanese Government has shifted its position in the UN to back the ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestinians over natural resources in a move set to reignite domestic tensions over Israel.

The significant change is also likely to widen the gulf between Australia’s policy on Israel and the incoming Trump administration.

Canberra on Thursday backed a draft resolution in a UN committee on the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources.” The document will now proceed to a vote in the General Assembly.

Australia had previously abstained on the same question in 2011 and the change in policy is likely to rekindle tensions domestically with the Coalition over the direction of the Albanese government’s stance towards Israel.

The Government also shifted its policy on a second question that seeks to blame Israel for a historic oil slick affecting Lebanon during the countries’ 2006 conflict. The draft resolution was carried by 161-7 with nine abstentions.

The US and Canada voted against both resolutions, while the UK and New Zealand supported them.

“Australia voted in favour of this resolution alongside more than 155 members of the international community, including the UK, New Zealand, France, Germany and Japan,” said a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

“While Australia does not agree with everything in the resolution, this vote reflects international concern about Israeli actions that impede access to natural resources, and ongoing settlement activity, land dispossession, demolitions and settler violence against Palestinians,” the spokesperson said.

“We have been clear that such acts undermine stability and prospects for a two-state solution.”

It is understood that Australia’s position remains the same that final status issues, including concerning borders, security and Jerusalem, will need to be resolved as part of negotiations toward a two-state solution.

Canberra’s longstanding position that the Golan Heights are a matter for Israel and Syria to determine through negotiations in the context of a comprehensive peace settlement also remains unchanged.

However, in a sign of the widening split with the Opposition over the Middle East, shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham accused Labor of again changing position.

“We’re concerned that this is yet another shift in position by the Albanese Government, who prior to the last election, reassured Australia’s Jewish community and other voters that there was no difference between the major parties when it came to their positions on Israel, Palestine and those Middle East questions,” Senator Birmingham said.

“And yet, since then, again and again and again, the Labor government has shown that they are dramatically changing those positions, that they’ve significantly changed it in relation to the pathway to a two-state solution.”

The position on the UN vote may also create friction with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, which is expected to take a more hardline pro-Israel stance than the outgoing Biden White House.

Incoming secretary of state Marco Rubio has previously rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“On the contrary … I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on. These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes,” he said shortly after the war began last year.

Mr Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is also a hardline supporter of the Jewish state who has long rejected calls for a Palestinian state.