The Albanese government has condemned Israel’s move to expand settlement construction in the West Bank as Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Canberra on the second leg of his contentious Australian visit.
Herzog met with Governor-General Sam Mostyn at Government House on Wednesday morning before visiting Parliament House, where he will meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.
A few hundred protesters had gathered outside Parliament House on Wednesday morning with a banner calling for Herzog’s arrest. There was no indication of the violent clashes between police and demonstrators that marked Monday evening’s anti-Herzog rally in Sydney.
The Israeli security cabinet agreed over the weekend make it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land and extend Israeli control in the occupied West Bank. The move has been criticised as undermining the Oslo Accords and hopes of a two-state solution.
“We are deepening our roots in all parts of the land of Israel and burying the idea of a Palestinian state,” Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said when announcing the new policy.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “Australia objects to the Israel Security Cabinet’s decision to expand Israel’s control over the West Bank.
“This decision will undermine stability and security.”
The spokesperson said: “The Australian government has been clear that settlements are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace. Altering the demographic composition of Palestine is unacceptable.
“A two-state solution remains the only viable path to long-term peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Israel’s actions “destabilising”, pointing to an International Court of Justice finding that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory was illegal and should be ended as soon as possible.
Guterres warned the changes were “eroding the prospects for the two-state solution”.
A group of human rights groups, including Amnesty International, has called for Australia to impose targeted sanctions on the World Zionist Organisation for its role in promoting settlement building in the West Bank.
The organisation’s chairman Yaakov Hagoel is travelling with Herzog’s delegation to Australia.
The Australian Centre for International Justice and Palestinian rights groups wrote to the Australian Federal Police on Tuesday, asking them to investigate whether Hagoel has breached Australia’s Criminal Code through the promotion of settlement building, which is considered illegal under international law.
“If the Australian government is serious about the illegality of settlements and its so-called commitment to peace, then it must not provide diplomatic cover for the enablers of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. Hagoel must be investigated,” the centre’s executive director Rawan Arraf said.
Referring to the biblical name for the West Bank, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said: “Judea and Samaria is the heart of the country, and strengthening it is a paramount security, national, and Zionist interest”.
Herzog told this masthead before arriving in Australia that the “two-state solution” is not workable at the moment, meaning fresh ideas are needed to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
“We’re a tiny strip of land, and the people who were attacked on October 7 were the biggest supporters of peace,” Herzog said.
“They were the first ones to be butchered, slaughtered, raped, burnt and abducted. You cannot ignore it. It’s a national trauma.”
He continued: “We have to go through a healing process. To come and tell Israelis, ‘Hey guys, divide your land again for a two-state solution’ doesn’t operate on the, I would say, emotional side of a dialogue with Israelis.”
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