Israel ‘must accept its share of responsibility’ for Gaza war: Australian PM
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the UN conference that Gaza is “in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe” and said Israel “must accept its share of responsibility”.
“Throughout this conflict, Australia has supported calls for a ceasefire because every innocent life matters. Every Israeli life. Every Palestinian life,” he said.
“Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed. Desperate people, including children, denied vital aid. Aid workers killed. Journalists killed trying to bring the truth out.”
Albanese also condemned Israel’s “continued illegal expansion of settlements… and an increase in settler violence” in the occupied West Bank as well as “threats to annex parts of Palestine, and permanently displace the Palestinian people”.
“Such conduct risks putting a two-state solution beyond reach,” he said. “That is where the current road leads. We must choose a different path. We must break this cycle of violence and build something better.”
Two-state solution a ‘security imperative’: Egypt
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly says the two-state solution is “not just a political choice or a moral obligation” but “a security imperative”. “The only path to a secure and stable Middle East is to guarantee the Palestinian people a right to freedom, dignity and independence,” he said.
Madbouly stressed that Egypt rejected any attempt to displace Palestinians or “liquidate their cause”.
He added that Egypt would host an international reconstruction conference, as soon as a ceasefire was in place, to mobilise funds and “ensure Palestinian people will remain in their land”.
Spain’s PM says no solution possible when Palestinians victim to genocide
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, says a two-state solution is not possible “when the population of one of those two states is the victim of a genocide”.
While he described recognising Palestinian statehood as a “crucial step forward”, he told the summit that ensuring the Palestinian people are able to remain within a Palestinian state is even more urgent than recognising statehood.
“The Palestinian people are being annihilated, [so] in the name of reason, in the name of international law and in the name of human dignity, we have to stop this slaughter,” said Sanchez, noting that “at this precise moment, bombs continue to fall indiscriminately on the civilian population in Gaza”.
He concluded his speech by calling for Palestine to become a “fully fledged member of the United Nations as soon as possible” and for countries to take “immediate… measures to halt the brutality and make peace”.
Recognition of Palestinian statehood disconnected from reality on the ground
Ines Abdel Razek, the executive director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, says the recognition of Palestinian statehood by Western countries was “long overdue” and comes at a time when it is increasingly disconnected from the reality on the ground.
Abdel Razek said the move will do little to “prevent Israel from destroying the very state that [governments have] recognised” unless they take meaningful measures to halt Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The analyst added that the recognition was likely greenlit by Western leaders to “self-aggrandise” and decrease public pressure within civil societies, rather than trigger meaningful changes on the ground.
