Former prime minister Bob Hawke has slammed Israel for its expansionist settlement policy and challenged the Turnbull government to grant diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine ahead of an historic visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Hawke is a long-time supporter of the state of Israel and its right to exist. But writing in today's The Australian Financial Review he is scathing of the Israeli parliament's decision to approve a law retroactively legalising 4000 settler homes built on privately-owned Palestinian land.

The aspirations of all those who had fought hard for peace in the Middle East are being "trashed by the inexorable expansion of Jewish settlement in the West Bank", he writes.

Bob Hawke, pictured at a previous event, said there were too many career politicians in office. Andrew Meares

"Australia was there at the very beginning.

"The least we can do now, in these most challenging of times, is to do what 137 other nations have already done - grant diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine."