It’s coming up to a year since Australia recognised an independent and sovereign Palestine, ostensibly to “support the aspirations of the Palestinian people”, and “advance prospects for peace and stability in the region”. Of course, this was a momentous decision, and signalled a shift in diplomatic thinking but what, if anything, has changed?
It didn’t change Australia’s relationship with Israel – not one bit – and this is from a Labor government which continues to facilitate the illegal occupation, violent colonisation and settlement of the West Bank, where the military partnerships with Israel have actually become stronger, humanitarian access to Gaza is still blocked, and no action has been taken to force the Netanyahu government to retreat.
Almost a year after recognition, the disconnect between the symbolic and the substantive is already proving to be very embarrassing for this Australian government.
Still no justice for Zomi Frankcom
Nothing highlights this more than the case of Zomi Frankcom. As we’ve reported before, her killing and those of her six colleagues were committed with impunity, despite Israel’s initial admission that the incident occurred while the aid workers were in an official convoy under the protection of the IDF.
Their convoy was repeatedly targeted by Israeli drones while attempting to transfer from one vehicle to another, and Israel’s military responded by suspending two officers and taking disciplinary action against others. But Israel’s military advocate general then ruled in August 2026 that there wouldn’t be any criminal prosecution and this is where the matter would end.
The Australian government responded by saying that was “far too lenient”, with Wong and Albanese taking umbrage at the lack of accountability, but once again Australia’s diplomatic protests failed to produce results, and they always will fail to produce results until the government decides to support these words of condemnation, with meaningful action against Israel.
The issue was then further exacerbated during the week when former IDF reservist Nochi Mendel – the one who gave the order to strike Frankcom’s convoy – told the ABC that he had no regrets and would make the same decision again if he had the chance. He also accused Frankcom and her colleagues of being Hamas agents, which was the purported reason for the attack, and, of course, there’s no evidence to support this claim.
And people such as Mendel are so vile, that they can’t even be bothered to go to the effort of public relations and attempting to hide their offensive actions and attitudes. They’re showing us exactly who they are, yet the Australian government continues to accept these standards.
The recognition of Palestine didn’t produce an independent Australian inquiry into the killing of Zomi Frankcom. It didn’t result in targeted sanctions against Israel, nor did it result in the expulsion of its ambassador or a reciprocal recall of the Israeli ambassador to Australia. And above all, it hasn’t affected Australia’s broader strategic and military relationship with Israel: in fact, it seems to have strengthened it.
Military assistance and illegal settlements
While officially denying direct military assistance to Israel, Australia’s government position hides a far more complicated reality.
Australia is currently in possession of an unusually high number of F-35s planes, when compared to other countries in its region, and Israel has unrestricted access to the joint production and support network for these aircraft. Reports tabled during Senate estimates named at least 68 deliveries of F-35 parts to Israel from Australia between October 2023 and September 2025, and there’s no doubt that there would have been many more over the past year.
Despite repeated calls for them to do so, the Australian government has stopped well short of officially restricting this trade, arguing that these are military parts, not armaments. But this totally misses the point. If Australia manufactures components for F-35 jets that are used by Israel to strike Gaza and kill civilians, how can this be described as anything but military support? The government’s position is also evasive when it comes to Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, which of course, is in the heart of the Palestine that Australia recognised last year as an “independent and sovereign” nation.
After Britain announced its intentions to impose direct trade restrictions on Israel, including bans on the import of goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, former Labor minister Ed Husic called on Australia to follow suit.
Minister Wong then responded by announcing that Australia is “not at this time pursuing a blanket-style import ban” on these illegal settlements, claiming that would hurt Australian business interests (somehow), but suggested that she would take further steps to restrict the expansion of settlements and the violence directed against Palestinians, which we can assume would be more words of outrage.
If Australia regards illegal Israeli settlements as inherently unlawful, why should trade with them not also be banned? By continuing to allow imports from these settlements, Australia accepts Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and facilitates this through trade and technology. If most other people can recognise this contradiction, why not Wong?
It’s a policy of insufficient consequences, and it has damaging implications for Australia’s diplomatic and moral credibility, especially when the minister speaks so easily from both sides of the mouth. And once again, the question has to be asked: how have the minister’s actions changed in the year since Palestine was recognised as an independent state?
“Voluntary” exodus and forced displacement
Israel’s latest proposals for Gaza provide us with a further insight into why its military and political leaders believe they are entitled to treat Palestinians in this horrendous way.
These draconian measures – which most of the world would consider to be ethnic cleansing and further evidence of Israeli war crimes – have been pushed by far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has proposed a “voluntary” evacuation of Gaza, beginning with 250,000 Palestinians in the first year and eventually removing the entire Palestinian population, not even hiding these fascist Zionist intentions.
And it’s not just Ben-Gvir: with a general election just around the corner, many other Israeli MPs and officials have advocated the forced removal of Palestinians from Gaza, actions which violate a range of international laws.
The logical response to such policies would be for Australia to take stronger diplomatic and economic action. Instead, Australia finds itself in the same position as before: recognising the right of Palestinians to self-determination while supporting policies that facilitate the ethnically cleansing of Gaza. How does that equate to “support the aspirations of the Palestinian people”? Clearly, it doesn’t.
Antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and criticism
While the government’s attitude towards Palestine has been duplicitous and reprehensible, there have been no such problems when it comes to supporting the state of Israel and Zionist interests within Australia. Whatever is asked for from Australia, the government will give, and there’s certainly been no shortage on this.
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, has an annual operating budget of $131.1 million and over the next four years, the government will provide $604 million as part of the “Bondi response” package of ongoing safety, education, and counter-terrorism measures, and it’s safe to say that most of this “education” component will be used to gaslight the public about the virtues of the state of Israel, produce even more pro-Zionist propaganda and close down any debate of the perspectives that might be contrary to this.
Already, there have been demands from pro-Israel and Zionist groups to extend the position of the Special Envoy for Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, past the July 2027 expiry date of her tenure – and we assume that it would be for more time to bed down the contentious International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism – which threatens to conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism – implement her recommendations of conditional university funding, cultural spending reviews and monitor ABC/SBS broadcasts, with the grand aim of eliminating the legitimate criticism of Israel.
At the time, Albanese did claim that the recognition of Palestine was to “advance prospects for peace and stability in the region”, which would then further the prospects for domestic stability and result in equal treatment for all communities within Australia, but so far, he’s provided everything that’s been asked for by pro-Israel and Zionist groups in Australia – whether it be reasonable or not – but for the Palestinian community, it’s been the total opposite.
Since 2023, Australia has rejected 7,111 visa applications to Palestinians but only rejected 235 Israeli applications during the same time. Australia created a special three-year humanitarian visa for thousands of Ukranians following the invasion by Russia in 2022, but no such program was created for Palestinian refugees, and the very few who managed to arrive in Australia had to seek accommodation, food, transport and legal support through mosques, charities and community organisations.
Family reunifications for Palestinians were made exceptionally difficult, were subject to intense security and character checks, and ad hoc cancellations of visas were made on spurious grounds, usually at the last minute. And, suffice to say, none of the green light processes that were applied to the 39 former IDF soldiers which allowed them to run in the Sydney Marathon a few weekends ago, have been applied to Palestinians.
The recognition of an independent state must have meaning
Australia’s recognition of Palestine wasn’t totally meaningless. We can see now that it hasn’t changed anything at all, but at least it broke the policy inertia that has afflicted Australia for many decades, and sent a small signal to the international community that Australia was willing to take some kind of principled stand on an issue of global strategic importance, even if it did only move the dial by a few millimetres and is barely perceptible.
But if recognition doesn’t serve to force Australia’s policy hand on sanctions, trade with illegal and violent settlements and colonisation, or affect the military trade of F-35 parts that are being used to kill Palestinian civilians, then it will ultimately amount to nothing more than a symbolic gesture that created an impression that something meaningful was being done for a people that have suffered for far too long at the hands of a brutal Israeli government when, in fact, it was just going to be more of the same and nothing much has changed at all.
We know that it’s no longer a question of whether Albanese and Wong will take action against Israel – they simply won’t, for as long as the pro-Israel and Zionist groups funnel massive donations into the coffers of the Labor Party – but how long can they kid themselves that Israel is acting in Australia’s best interests? And how long will they continue to accept Israel as a trusted ally, while the illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing and the murder of Palestinian people continues?
Recognition should mean accepting the existence of Palestine – what else does it mean – that its people are entitled to their own country, and that those rights should be delivered without exception or qualification. Like an insecure child, Israel always asks others to confirm that question of whether it has the right to exist but it never bothers to consider whether Palestine also has that right, even though 157 of the 193 UN member states agree that yes; Palestine does have a right to exist.
Australia is one of those 157 countries, but in our case, it’s all lip service and unprincipled: the recognition of Palestine has been written down on an official piece of paper held somewhere in Canberra, but the recognition won’t mean anything at all until the government starts to match its rhetoric with action. Unfortunately, we may be waiting for that moment for some time to come.
What policy isn’t it just do what the US says on Israel
Great article, all true. The Labor Party needs to remember that 79% of Australians are against Israel. Albo and Wong's weasel words about the genocide show one thing - that they stand with money, the big end of town, and the powerful. Everyone else has to fend for themselves. They're a disgrace.