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The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Penny Wong, told the country’s media that “there is a risk that there would be no more Palestine to recognize”, in the middle of the devastating war of Israel against Gaza and the growing violence against the Palestinians in occupied West Bank.
Wong, who did not indicate that Australia plans to change its position and recognize the Palestinian state, made its comments on Tuesday morning in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), where she answered questions on a mass manifestation In Sydney, hundreds of thousands of people joining the War of Israel against Gaza.
The organizers said that between 200,000 and 300,000 people had joined the demonstration through the Emblematic Sunday Sydney Harbor on Sunday. Police had initially estimated that around 90,000 people had participated.
Wong said the Australian government shared the demonstrators “desire for peace and ceasefire”, and that the enormous participation reflected “the horror of the large Australian community” and the “distress of the Australians, on what we see taking place in Gaza, the catastrophic humanitarian situation, the death of women and children, the restraint of aid”.
However, asked if Australia planned to take other concrete actions, such as imposing sanctions on Israel, Wong said: “We are not specifically specifically specified for the obvious reason that they have more effect if they are not reported.”
She noted that Australia had Sanctions already imposed On two far-right ministers of the government of Netanyahu, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, in June of this year, as well as “extremist” Israeli colonists.
On the position of Australia concerning the Palestinian state, Wong said: “Regarding recognition, I have said it for more than a year now, it’s a question of moment, not so.”
Wong’s interview came while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would seek to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the demonstration on Sunday.
Answering questions about what he plans to discuss with Netanyahu, Albanese said he would again express his support for a two -state solution.
Rawan Arraf, Executive Director of the Australian Center for International Justice War crimes and crimes against humanity“.
Albanese “should not give legitimacy to an accused war criminal,” wrote Arraf in an article on X.
While Albanian and Wong continued to highlight the importance of a two -state solution, Australia has not yet followed other countries, especially France And Canadawho recently announced their intention to recognize the Palestinian state and join the vast majority of countries Which already does it.
Albanese also received a telephone call with the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, the first call publicly recorded between the couple since November 2023, according to the ABC.
Answering questions about the Sydney protest rally, Albanese said: “It is not surprising that so many Australians have been affected in order to want to show their concern about people deprived of food and water and essential services.”
But the government of the state in New South Wales, led by the Labor Party of Albanians, had sought to prevent the march from crossing the bridge of Sydney Harbor in the week preceding the demonstration.
The demonstration was only after the judge of the Supreme Court of the State, Belinda Rigg, ruled that “the march there is motivated by the conviction that the horror and the urgency of the situation in Gaza require an urgent and extraordinary response of the people of the world”.
“The evidence indicates that there is important support for walking,” added Rigg.
A certain number of ministers of labor and federal labor have also participated in March, in an indication of an increasing fracture within the Albanian party.
Independent journalist Antony Loewenstein told Al Jazeera that Sunday march showed that Australians are “frustrated that our government is only doing so much to speak at this stadium”.
“People are so indignant, not only by what Israel does in Gaza, but also by the complicity of the Australian government,” said Loewenstein, who spoke on Sunday.
Australia “is part of the F-35 Fighter Jet world supply chain, which Israel uses on Gaza every day, and the parts of these parts of the plane are likely to come from Australia,” he said.
