There will be no peace until the Palestinians are genuinely recognised as a nation – recognised in action not just words.

Pressure on the Australian government to change its policy towards Israel and Palestine continues to grow and the government continues to resist the pressure to make any substantial changes. It has, however, been forced to change its rhetoric, although not in a way as to have any significant impact on the situation in Palestine.

Other governments in the “western” (i.e. imperialist) countries are coming under similar pressure. There are shifts in rhetoric in many places as these governments resist the demands for substantial change: such as ending all “defence” (i.e. war) ties with Israel. Many people are also demanding sanctions on Israel.

In Australia, on August 2 the Victorian Labor Party Annual Conference overwhelmingly voted for the Albanese government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state and step up sanctions against Israel. This comes after 78 Labor branches in various regions also called for sanctions and a two way arms embargo.

Then on August 3, at least one hundred thousand of people – up to 300,000 the organisers say – rallied and marched onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge in probably the biggest show of opposition to Israel’s policies to date. This huge demonstration followed successful court cases that defeated the NSW Labor government’s attempt to stop the Bridge march.

Last week, as pressure increased, Prime Minister Albanese escalated his rhetoric criticising Israel’s policies in Gaza and Israeli denials of starvation occurring there. The Israeli Ambassador has twice been called in to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allegedly to be confronted on these denials. Albanese himself has publicly stated that such denials are incomprehensible. Even US President Trump has contradicted Israel on these denials.

The central strategy in rhetorical shift among the imperialist countries, except – so far – Australia, has been to make statements of recognition or intentions to recognise a Palestinian state. The strongest case is that of France which threatened Israel with Palestinian recognition as a punishment for Israel not halting its anti-humanitarian policies in Gaza. Australia has not gone that far, although there are signs it may be preparing to do so.

In the current context what does such recognition mean?

To begin with, it does not represent any shift in the fundamental position of any of these imperial states. They have always stated support for a “two state solution”. This support always implied a recognition of a Palestinian state but at some unstated time, when certain conditions, decided by themselves, were met. Actually, as of September 2022, 138 member states of the United Nations recognise Palestine as a sovereign state. Since then, 9 more states, including the imperial bloc countries of Ireland, Norway and Spain have recognised a Palestinian state. The imperialist bloc countries of France, United Kingdom, Canada and Belgium have all stated conditional intent to recognise Palestine, perhaps at the coming September U.N. General Assembly. Albanese has stated Australia is not following the French example. That statement was later nuanced to imply that such a move was just a matter of time.

One condition that Albanese and other supporters of Israel continually emphasise is that any Palestinian state must exclude a role for Hamas, which is condemned and officially registered in Australia as a terrorist organisation. In fact, most of the countries promising to recognise Palestine insist on the exclusion of Hamas from governance in Palestine and its disarming. These include the key countries such as France and the United Kingdom. In this, at the recent U.N. conference in New York, they were supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

Additionally, at the recent conference on the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians at the United Nations in New York, Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, of the Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah in the West Bank, stated “Israel must withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip and Hamas must relinquish its control over the strip and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority,” 

A state without sovereignty is a nation without sovereignty

How are we to understand all this? For the last 20 years, since the Oslo Accords, the support for the ‘two state solution’ has been, at best, nothing more than a casual rhetorical ruse. None of the countries involved have ever attempted to seriously work towards it. They have sat and watched, funded and armed Israel as it invaded and bombed Gaza, long before October 7, 2023, and expanded settlements in the West Bank. “Two state solution” rhetoric was simply held up occasionally to cover the reality of Israeli expansion and the increasing Bantustan reality of the Palestinian Authority (PA).  As its control over territory in the West Bank has continually decreased the PA, in effect, has full control over only 18 percent of the West Bank – less than 4 percent of historical Palestine.

Recognition of a Palestinian State that controls so little Palestinian territory does not change very much. Recognition by foreign states of such a state on the condition that a significant political organisation with a serious measure of popular support be excluded from governance is a purely colonial mentality. This colonial mentality, in fact, is a refusal to recognise the Palestinian nation. Only the Palestinian nation, its people, have the right to decide who governs. A nation without that right has no sovereignty, and neither will any state connected to it. The argument that Hamas should be excluded because it has committed acts of violence within Israel ignores the reality that the Palestinians have been a militarily occupied people with the right to resist.

Further, despite Prime Minister Mustafa’s statement above, we must note that among all of the Palestinian political representatives, the totality of the political representation of the nation, Hamas is an accepted participant. In this respect, it is important to note the meeting in July 2024 in Beijing, of representatives of 14 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah. Fatah is the dominant party in the Palestinian Authority. The Beijing Declaration was signed by representatives of the following 14 Palestinian factions. These were:

• Fatah – Represented by Mahmoud al-Aloul, Vice Chairman of the Fatah Central Committee.
• Hamas – Represented by Mousa Abu Marzouk, senior member of Hamas’s Political Bureau.
• Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) – Represented by Ihsan Ataya, member of the Political Bureau.
• Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – Represented by Jamil Mazhar, Deputy Secretary-General.
• Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) – Representative not specified in sources.
• Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) – Represented by Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General.
• Palestinian People’s Party (PPP)
• Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF)
• Fida (Palestinian Democratic Union)
• Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF)
• Arab Liberation Front (ALF)
• Arab Palestinian Front (APF)
• Palestinian Popular Liberation Organization (PPLO)
• Palestinian Democratic Alliance (PDA)

Among the 8 points made in the statement are these:

The declaration emphasises the formation of unified Palestinian leadership ahead of future elections and the free election of a new Palestinian National Council to strengthen national unity.

Resistance to Displacement: The signatories commit to “resist and thwart attempts to displace our people” from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, and affirm the illegality of settlement and settlement expansion in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions.

Obviously, implementation of these and other of the points in the Beijing Declaration remain almost impossible while Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza and expansionism in the West Bank continue.

Any genuine recognition of a sovereign Palestine requires a commitment to achieve the conditions under which the two points above can be implemented. Palestine belongs to the Palestinians. The Palestinian nation must decide its future. It must be the Palestinian nation that decides what, if any, dialogue it wishes to pursue with the non-Palestinian residents of current Israel regarding the future of the whole of Palestine. However, neither the implementation of the Beijing Declaration nor any kind of dialogue with non-Palestinians in current Israel can ever be possible with a genocidal cannon aimed at the Palestinian nation.

For Palestine to survive these basic demands must be met: recognise the nation and all its representatives, recognise its right to decide its own future over all its territory and recognise the rights of its people to form their own national leadership in a situation of peace.

Such recognition will not be enough if just in words. The Israeli occupation project must be defeated and halted. Recognising the Palestinian state may be an important rhetorical shift, but it is nowhere near enough.

The countries funding and supplying weapons to Israel must stop doing so. All such ties between Australia and Israel must be cut. Israeli troops and armed militias and the settlers must leave Gaza and the West Bank.

There will be no peace until the Palestinians are genuinely recognised as a nation – and in action, not just words. Only organised and focused massive popular pressure will force the current inhabitants of the Australian parliaments to do that. 

A version of this article originally appeared on Max Lane’s Substack on 4 August, 2025