Israel accuses Albanese Government of diplomatic ineptitude over Palestinian recognition

The top Israeli diplomat responsible for relations with the Asia-Pacific region accused Australia of making peace harder and unnecessarily damaging a potentially lucrative commercial relationship between the two countries by recognising a state of Palestine.

The deputy director-general of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for the Asia-Pacific, Aviv Erza, accused Australia of diplomatic ineptitude by granting the Palestinians their long-sought-after wish at the United Nations last September.

Israel retaliated by withdrawing the credentials of three Australian diplomats in the West Bank.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, Israeli officials said the Palestinians had not delivered on the main conditions set for diplomatic recognition by the Albanese Government, which was to disarm Hamas and remove it from power in the Gaza Strip.

“It gives an incentive to the other side not to compromise in any shape or form,” Mr Erza told a briefing of Australian journalists in response to a question by The Nightly.

“It’s creating a lose-lose situation. We feel that the bilateral relationship has been affected.”

The Israeli Government’s decision to double down on criticism of Australia is a sign of the deep concern in Jerusalem that the Albanese Government has joined an alliance of Western nations pulling back their support for the Jewish state.

Israel’s former ambassador to Britain, the Melbourne-born Mark Regev, said the diplomatic relationship was in “crisis”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have argued their support for the Palestinians is good for Israel because it makes peace more likely.

Even if Israel’s hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loses this week’s election, the main opposition bloc has promised it will not grant the Palestinians their own state.

‘Mind boggling’

Last September Australia joined with Britain and Canada last September to recognise Palestine. In August, 2023, Senator Wong said the Government would refer to the “occupied Palestinian territories”, a sign that it regards the Gaza Strip and West Bank as being under Israeli control.

Australia hasn’t opened an embassy in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is based, and Australian diplomats’ ability to work in the area is restricted.

“Australia has long supported a two-state solution, which remains the only path to enduring peace and security for the people of Israel and Palestine,” a government spokesperson said.

In private, Israeli officials went went further, arguing Australia’s decision was “mind boggling” and had damaged efforts to fight Islamic terrorism. The questioned if the government’s policies to Israel were driven by Australia’s large Muslim population.

Annual trade between Israel and Australia is only $1.23 billion. Israeli officials argue their country’s expertise in artificial intelligence, cyber security and quantum computing could be attractive to Australian companies.

Israel has built strong commercial ties with India, Japan and Vietnam.

“There is so much we could do together — at this point they are limited,” Mr Ezra said.

Last year’s massacre at Bondi Beach has also made the treatment of Australian Jews a prominent issue in Israel and contributed to the tension between the countries.

A prominent Israeli human rights lawyer, Ayelet Razin Bet-Or, said she could not get Australian officials to discuss allegations of sexual violence by Hamas fighters in the 2023 invasion of southern Israel.

Ms Bet-Or, the co-founder of The Dinah Project, which seeks justice for the victims, said Australia was a “beacon for the treatment” for victims of rape, but had shown no interest in her investigations into October 7.

“I repeatedly got an answer from Australia: no one will meet with you,” she said.

Ms Bet-Or is Israel’s candidate for the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

In 2024 Senator Wong condemned Hamas’s “use of sexual violence as a weapon to maximise terror and fear” after a meeting with Cochav Elkayam-Levy, an Israeli human rights activist documenting abuses by Hamas.

Israeli officials said they had provided evidence to the Albanese Government that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, known as UNRWA, employed Hamas fighters.

After a pause in funding following Hamas’s invasion of Israel, Foreign Minister Penny Wong suspended annual payments to UNRWA of $20 million. The funding was resumed in March, 2024, triggering outrage from Jewish groups.

Australian officials have privately said it was not surprising that some of UNRWA’s 15,000 employees participated Hamas in the attack and the relief agency has fired those who survived the war.

Aaron Patrick travelled to Israel courtesy of the NSW Board of Jewish Deputies.