The Albanese government has shifted Australia’s vote in the UN to recognise the “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians over the occupied territories and of Arabs over the Golan Heights, sharpening its differences with the Biden and incoming Trump administrations on Israel. Australia had abstained on the same question in UN votes since 2011, but switched its vote to “Yes” in a UN committee ballot that will proceed to a vote in the General Assembly. The resolution on “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources” was approved by 159 votes to 7, with 11 abstentions. Australia also changed its position on a second question that seeks to blame Israel for a historic oil slick affecting Lebanon during the countries’ 2006 conflict, voting “Yes” after rejecting past resolutions on the matter. The votes, in the second committee stage of deliberations, follows the government’s decision to break with the US earlier this year to support Palestinian membership of the UN General Assembly, and on two key UN resolutions on the war in Gaza.
The move comes amid high anxiety inside the government over its ability to forge a good working relationship with Donald Trump and his administration, which is set to strengthen US support for Israel. Incoming secretary of state Marco Rubio has previously rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. “On the contrary … I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on. These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes,” he said a month into the war. Mr. Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is also a hardline supporter of the Jewish state who has long rejected calls for a Palestinian state and once said he dreamed of building a holiday house in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Source: The Australian Newspaper
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