Labor Friends of Palestine has criticized the Australian federal government for declining to join the UK, Canada, and France in banning trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, urging Foreign Minister Penny Wong to adopt a stronger response to violence against Palestinians.
Group calls for coordinated action with allies
The group, a campaign body within the Labor Party's rank-and-file membership, wrote to Wong on Wednesday, calling for Australia to join a coordinated approach with allies and partners overseas, consistent with changes to the party's national platform agreed in July. The letter, provided to Guardian Australia, emphasized the need for careful policy design rather than “inaction,” including how targeted trade restrictions could be implemented while protecting Palestinian workers and avoiding unintended consequences.
This week, Wong confirmed Australia was preparing another round of sanctions against Israel but stopped short of joining the UK in banning trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, called efforts by Israel to control the territory unlawful and agreed there was “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists.”
Party platform backs sanctions
Convenors of the group told Wong that joining the new push led by the UK would be consistent with principles endorsed by Labor members at the party's national conference in Adelaide. Labor's platform, which guides policy development, opposes the annexation of Palestinian territory and calls for Israel to end illegal settlement activity and the occupation. It also calls on the government to end any support for illegal settlement activity or extremist violence and to implement further action and sanctions as necessary.
“The announcement by Canada, France and the United Kingdom provides Australia with an opportunity to give practical effect to those commitments,” the group said in its letter. “Australia has already worked alongside these countries in responding to escalating settler violence. In June, Australia joined Canada, France, Norway and the United Kingdom in coordinated sanctions and other measures against extremist settlers and those supporting violence against Palestinian civilians.”
UK, France, Canada announce measures
The UK will ban goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories and introduce a new ban on arms licences and other exports. Sanctions against individuals are also planned, but the plan could take six to nine months to be implemented. In a joint statement, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said they were taking further action to push for progress on a two-state solution. Nine European countries also said they were considering similar measures.
While Australia has previously acted in concert with partners overseas, Wong said this week that Australia was not currently pushing for a broad ban on goods produced in Israeli settlements. She told the Senate on Thursday that claims by the Greens that Australia was trying to placate the Netanyahu government were wrong. “I think the Prime Minister Netanyahu's government has made very, very clear their displeasure at the actions that the Albanese government has taken,” she said.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi challenged Wong to say if she agreed with Miliband that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians was taking place in the West Bank. Instead, Wong said Australia had “sanctioned Israeli extremists for the abhorrent settler violence terrorising Palestinian communities.” Wong has also been working with the family of killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom on a response to the Israel Defense Forces' decision not to open a criminal investigation into Gaza strikes that killed her and six of her colleagues.
