Exclusive: Faction considers bringing motion to ALP national conference in response to Binyamin Netanyahu declaration there would be no Palestinian state

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The New South Wales right faction of the ALP is contemplating bringing a stronger motion recognising Palestine to the party’s national conference following Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s declaration that there would be no Palestinian state on his watch.

It is expected that Tony Burke, the opposition finance spokesman and a prominent member of the NSW right, will move the resolution.

Labor figures met at the start of this week to consider the shape of the draft national platform and to identify points of dispute before the July conference.

Party sources say internal discussion has opened around a motion that was passed by the NSW state Labor conference in 2014. That motion was drafted by the former NSW premier and federal foreign minister Bob Carr.

The Carr motion called on a future Labor government “to consult like-minded nations toward recognition of a Palestinian state”.

It backed the two-state solution – Labor’s longstanding policy position on the Middle East – while noting the lack of current progress; and recognised explicitly that “a Middle East peace will only be won with the establishment of a Palestinian state”.

The Carr motion noted if there was no progress towards meaningful peace, “and Israel continues to build and expand settlements, a future Labor government will consult like-minded nations towards recognition of the Palestinian state.”

The passing of the motion was viewed as a significant pro-Palestinian policy shift. A similar motion has also passed in Queensland.



But some party figures believe the 2014 wording does not go far enough, because implicit in the NSW resolution was an assumption that the Israelis were negotiating in good faith.

Earlier this week, the shadow treasurer and Burke’s NSW right faction colleague, Chris Bowen, told the National Press Club the ALP needed a foreign policy that included “practical steps” to achieving a two-state solution in the Middle East – not just words.

The day before Israel’s elections in March, Netanyahu declared there would be no Palestinian state while he remained the country’s leader.

During a campaign visit in east Jerusalem, Netanyahu said: “I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state today, and evacuate areas, is giving radical Islam an area from which to attack the state of Israel.”

“This is the true reality that has been created in past years. Those that ignore it are burying their heads in the sand. The left does this, buries its head in the sand, time and again.”

Netanyahu softened his rhetoric after winning the election, but the declaration has prompted the US president, Barack Obama, to reassess his stance on the Middle East. The US president said after the Israeli election: “We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership.”

Palestine used to be an exclusive preoccupation of the Labor left, but there has been a sea change in thinking in elements of the party’s right faction over the past few years, particularly in Sydney.

A number of party figures believe the numbers will be there at the July conference for a pro-Palestinian resolution to pass, with left votes and some support from the right.



But the political power base of the federal leader, Bill Shorten – the Victorian right – backed by the powerful rightwing Australian Workers Union and Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, has thus far resisted even incremental change to Labor’s foreign policy.

The expectations are that the Victorian right would marshal a national right position opposing any pro-Palestinian shift, but the NSW right would split from that position if no compromise could be brokered.



It is envisaged Palestine will be dealt with by resolution, not by an amendment to the national platform.

A platform amendment would, in essence, define Labor’s foreign policy until the next national conference, rather than giving a future Labor government flexibility to respond to changing events in the Middle East.