In a statement issued, deleted, then reissued on the social media platform X early Monday, Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese formerly announced the recognition of the state of Palestine effective 21 September, 2025.
Earlier during the weekend two Australian doctors posted a video to social media platforms, collecting millions of views, pleading for action to end Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
Last week the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel concluded Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
Recognition with strings
The joint statement from Albanese and Foreign Minister, Penny Wong says:
Australia’s recognition of Palestine today, alongside Canada and the United Kingdom, is part of a co-ordinated international effort to build a new momentum for a two state solution, starting with a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken in the atrocities of October 7, 2023.
Australian government statement on the recognition of Palestine
The UN Independent Commission didn’t call for consensus building for a two state solution, neither did the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected and/or sabotaged every ceasefire agreement since 7 October, 2023. Israel has no intention of ending it’s genocide in Gaza, which has been illegally occupied since 1967 and its civilian population held under siege for almost 20 years.
Australian recognition of Palestinian statehood is tied to Israel ending it’s genocide and illegal occupation of Palestine. Absurd!
Israel held over 1200 Palestinian in jails using administrative detention in August, 2023. Israel’s use of administrative detention is widely regarded as illegal and a form of hostage taking.
By December, 2024 the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem reported that number had ballooned to 3,327.
Defense for Children International Palestine reports the number of children held in Israeli jails under administrative detention is at it highest level (112 at December, 2024) since they began monitoring child administrative detainees in, 2008 and they report almost all of these children were detained after October 7, 2023.
A large number of Israelis taken prisoner by Palestinian resistance factions on 7 October, 2023 were Israeli security forces and Israeli Defence Forces. The main points of attacks by the Palestinian resistance factions were security posts and IDF facilities enforcing the siege on Gaza.
Photographs and video of Naama Levy on 7 October, 2023 showing blood soaked pants, became a symbol in global propaganda and western media reports about alleged rapes of civilians during the Palestinian resistance operation, Al-Aqsa Flood.
Hello, my name is Naama Levy. You have all seen on that darkest day on October 7th, 2023 at the age of 19 I was kidnapped. Violently dragged from a black jeep, wounded, terrified, bleeding and helpless. Paraded in front of a hateful raging mob with the terrifying sounds of gunfire and cheering all around me.
Naama Levy speaks at Hostage Aid Worldwide 2025 | UNGA 80 Event
I’m sure being a prisoner is a terrifying experience, however Levy plays the part of innocent victim speaking for ‘other innocent victims like herself’.
Naama Levy was taken prisoner from the Nahal Oz IDF base near Gaza – she was an enemy combatant and wounded during the battle.
What Levy describes during her speech at, Hostage Aid Worldwide is the reality millions of Palestinian civilians live every moment of everyday with one major exception, she at times got some respite with the relative safety of the tunnels, even if the stuffy and uncomfortable conditions were also an ordeal.
IHL, or the laws of war … … the modern version is set out in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, alongside other treaties, and customary international law.
Human Rights Watch
It binds states, including Israel, as well as non-state armed groups that are involved in conflict, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, even though they cannot formally ratify the treaties.
I don’t know how many Israeli captives of Palestinian resistance factions still in Gaza are IDF or Israeli security forces, I couldn’t find an authoritative source, but what I do know is that many who have been released were also enemy combatants just like Levy.
Palestinians have a right to resist Israel’s occupation that’s enshrined in international law, including armed resistance. Israel would have us all believe that as an illegal occupying power, their forces are ‘innocent victims’ and not enemy combatants.
Since 2007, but before October 7, 2023, Israel had bombed and/or invaded Gaza seven times, killing almost 4,000 Palestinians and destroying many thousands of homes, as well as schools, universities, hospitals and other community facilities, many of them several times over. Before October 7, 2023, Gaza tried to rebuild several times, only to face more destruction.
Independent Jewish Voices Canada – before October 7, 2023: IJV Factsheet
If the starting point of the Australian government is the “atrocities of October 7”, they’re intentionally erasing decades of illegal occupation and attacks against Palestinian civilians by, Israel that have since intensified to unprecedented genocidal levels.
From as early as December, 2023 the IDF admitted that one in five IDF deaths were a result of ‘friendly fire’ and the IDF were responsible for an “immense” number of Israeli deaths on 7 October, 2023.
Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF believes that beyond the operational investigations of the events, it would not be morally sound to investigate these incidents due to the immense and complex quantity of them that took place in the kibbutzim and southern Israeli communities due to the challenging situations the soldiers were in at the time.
Ynet Global
It’s since been revealed many Israeli deaths during Al-Aqsa Flood were a direct result of Hannibal Directive orders being given by IDF commanders
It’s a war crime to target any civilians, including your own nationals. There were war crimes committed by Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces on 7 October, 2023 and all must be prosecuted.
The terrorist organisation Hamas must have no role in Palestine
Australian government statement on the recognition of Palestine
Hamas is a legitimate political organisation and it’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades a legitimate resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and its ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians.
Sinn Féin is now the largest Irish republican political party. It was closely associated with UK designated terrorist group the Irish Republican Army. The political movement of the Irish resistance was part of the solution to peace.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Australia officially designated the African National Congress as a terrorist organisation, which extended to its armed wing – as the leader of both, Nelson Mandela was officially a terrorist.
In all Israel’s failed assassination attempts against Yahya Sinwar, even before his death, they creating his legendary status as a symbol of ‘Palestinian steadfastness’.
The way Sinwar died, on the front line fighting with his troops, injured on a chair, defiantly defending against the occupiers drone with all he had left, a stick – the opposite of what we were told by our mainstream media. The legend of Palestinian steadfastness was cemented.
It’s easy to forget Sinwar tried “peaceful, popular resistance” to the Israeli occupation with the Great March of Return. Israel responded by slaughtering hundreds of unarmed Palestinians and injuring thousands, including children.
Sinwar’s legacy is he built Hamas (and al-Qassam) into a credible resistance movement that functioned well politically as an under-siege government, while also being engaged in armed struggle. He also left the organisation a shit load of political capital.
Right now, there is no peace between Israel and Palestine without Hamas in one form or another as part of the peace process. I doubt Israel’s ISIS linked gangs and militias led by former Palestinian Authority security services people will change that.
Israel's Channel 12:
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) September 21, 2025
A new militia has emerged in Khan Yunis, south Gaza, founded by 50-year-old Hossam al-Astal, a former member of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security services.
The armed group operates east of Khan Yunis against Hamas and cooperates with Israel.
In… pic.twitter.com/14KtLCN5bL
Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas’ call for Hamas to disarm while there’s a genocidal expansionist Israel next door to deal with is magical thinking, it’s not going to happen.
The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination means Palestinians decide who governs a free Palestine, no one else and especially not the occupying colonial power and their “friends”.
Foreign powers dictating which Palestinians get to participate in the future of Palestine is not democracy – that’s a stitch up.
The so-called “two state solution” is no solution while ignoring the Palestinian inalienable right of return. Inalienable rights can not be taken away or given away by a possessor, the right of return can not be extinguished through peace negotiations.
The Palestinian right of return to their homes and property in what is now ‘officially’ Israel, is reaffirmed as an inalienable right by UN General Assembly Resolution 3236 (1974), which also reaffirmed Palestinian rights to self-determination and sovereignty.
Israel and western powers seem to fight a sneaky battle against the Palestinian right of return, a battle that’s without any legal legitimacy, using the proposed two state solution as a carrot, on the never never with a nudge nudge wink wink, Israel will never agree anyway.
The two state solution is pulled out of the draw and dusted off every time the Palestinians resist Zionist Israeli aggression, then it falls off the agenda until the next major act of resistance. Rinse repeat.
Once Palestinians finally realise their right of return, Israel becomes a majority Palestinian nation and Zionist Israel is over.
Perhaps recognition of Palestine is a path to the only viable solution in the Holy Land, a peaceful single secular state in which there’s democracy, rule of law and equality is for all of Abraham’s children?
Let’s be clear, statehood for the Palestinians is a right, not a reward.
Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres
But the most urgent issue is the genocide. A livestreamed genocide with Palestinian Australians watching in real-time, while their family and friends in Gaza are being exterminated by expansionist Zionist Israel.
I’ve photographed many anti-genocide Melbourne rallies and it’s a better connected and more organised movement of greater diversity than it was in late, 2023.
Recognition of Palestine is Not Enough, Sanctions Must Follow to Stop the Genocide.
— Jewish Council of Australia (@jewishcouncilAU) September 22, 2025
Read our full statement on Australian recognition of Palestine at: https://t.co/JiM8LXTiId pic.twitter.com/4HoWuzyYgF
They won’t be backing down despite what political and media powers throw at them.
Times I’ve tweeted “you ain’t getting a socially cohesive genocide, so stop fucking asking for it, Albo” is just a statement of fact.
Lately I’ve been thinking about a Palestinian Australian originally from the West Bank, the first person I spoke to at a rally for Palestine. Over the course of a few months he went from elation at the level of support for people in Gaza, to an obvious state of depression when he told me his family were having trouble getting his two young cousins out of Gaza.
A while after his cousins had been successfully evacuated to Australia, I asked him if he still had any family in Gaza. He told me his grandmother was in Gaza City – ‘she didn’t want to leave, but at least could eat because of her little garden’.
Gaza City and all civilian life in it is currently being obliterated by Israel’s genocide machine.
My statement formally recognising the State of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/LnmrX29TCV
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 21, 2025
Aussie doctors plead for mercy
Two Australians Dr. Nada Abu Alrub and Dr. Saya Aziz volunteering for Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association, posted a video over the weekend from al-Shifa hospital pleading with the world to end the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza saying, “we’re doing this video because we know that we might die at any time”.
Al-Shifa Hospital has been attacked many times by Israel and the doctors said there are “more than 1,500 people still dead under the rubble in the hospital”. Unrecovered bodies still under rubble are not counted by Palestinian health authorities in the official death toll.
They described bombing after bombing around the hospital since their arrival:
Apache, F-35, F-16, Robots all sort of weapons attacking us from everywhere around the hospital. The number of patients and the number of dead bodies arriving are ridiculous. So we’re just basically people dead … … Today, they bombed just in front of the main entrance of the hospital. Two days ago, they did the same.
Dr. Nada Abu Alrub
And they’re asking us to stay silent, otherwise our life will be in danger. What does that suppose to mean?
I don’t know what to say but I’m asking for help and I know that our life is in danger too. So if the help was kind of coming from any part of the world, just can anyone be able to stop this terror and horror please? Anyone, could you please stop it?
Both doctors describe a state of complete devastation, a lack of the most basic requirements to do their work and the constant state of horror and terror all at al-Shifa Hospital are living under.
We’ve come to Al-Shifa, and it is catastrophic. It’s cataclysmic. I can’t even begin to explain how horrific this is.
Dr. Saya Aziz
It’s intentional psychological warfare. I’m not sure what’s happening, but this has to stop. They need to stop throwing the bombs. We need absolute unimpeded medical aid.
It’s a stain on our humanity and I am ashamed to call myself human. I’m ashamed to be an Australian who has basically remained silent. The F35 parts are not non-lethal. They are absolutely lethal and I would want any, I would challenge any Minister in the Australian Parliament to come and spend a day here with us.
Dr. Nada Abu Alrub described performing an emergency caesarean section on a headless corpse in order to save the unborn child – “People here had enough. We had enough. There’s no word to describe”.
“Every few hours we have a kid with a cardiac arrest.”
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 21, 2025
Dr. Nada Abu Alrub, an Australian volunteer doctor in Gaza, says the water is unsafe and even medics now suffer gastritis. Malnourished children quickly develop diarrhea and severe hypokalemia, leading to cardiac arrests.… pic.twitter.com/dvqet9PXVB
Israel declared genocidaires
Last week the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel confirmed Israel is committing genocide in Palestine.
The recognition of the state of Palestine does nothing to satisfy Australia’s obligation to prevent Genocide, an obligation reaffirmed by the UN Independent Commission.
The Commission to UN member states:
- Employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide in the Gaza Strip;
- Cease the transfer of arms and other equipment or items, including jet fuel, to the State of Israel or third States where there is reason to suspect their use in military operations that have involved or could involve the commission of genocide;
- Ensure individuals and corporations in their territories and within their jurisdiction are not involved in the commission of genocide, aiding and assisting the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide and investigate and prosecute those who may be implicated in these crimes under international law;
- Facilitate the investigations and domestic proceedings and take action (including imposing sanctions) against the State of Israel and against individuals or corporations that are involved in or facilitating the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide;
- Cooperate with the investigation of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Obligation to prevent genocide
Credible sources now put the real death toll in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians at between 200,000 and 680,000 mostly women and children.
When the ICJ made it’s January, 2024 ruling in South Africa v. Israel ordering Provisional Measures against Israel to prevent a plausible genocide in Gaza, the onus fell onto UN Member States to enforce the court’s ruling not just as a group nations through UN processes, but also to take action as individual nation states.
ABC News 24 Host: And it [genocide] is yet to be proven and could take years to be examined. If the purpose of this… [guest interrupts]
Full ABC TV June, 2025 interview
UN Special Rapporteur oPt Francesca Albanese: It’s not, no no no no no no, you’re wrong you’re wrong you’re wrong, excuse me.
It doesn’t need to be proven in order to trigger the obligation to prevent, there is an obligation to prevent genocide. And it can not wait for an international tribunal because an international tribunal, as you rightly say, might take years and we can not wait for the genocide to be completed before intervening.
So excuse me, as of January, 2024 your state like my state and all others are obliged to prevent genocide.
So the question is why are you still mentioning what Israel says, instead of mentioning the International Court of Justice?
Today we witness in real time how the promise of never again is broken and tested in the eyes of the world. The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency. Member states must act now. There is no need to wait for the International Court of Justice to declare it a genocide, all states are obligated to use whatever means within its power to prevent the commission of genocide.
UN Independent International Commission Chair Pillay
Authoritative legal experts insist the obligation on nation states to prevent genocide, under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, without doubt kicked in with the ICJ ruling of January, 2024 of a plausible genocide in Gaza and order of Provisional Measures against Israel’s actions.
Right now, in the current context, the allusive two state solution is nothing more than a delaying tactic as Israel ethnic cleanses and genocides it’s way through the occupied Palestinian territories.
The only legitimate response from the Australian government is to finally do what it is obligated to do according to international humanitarian law, take actions it can to prevent genocide.
It’s way past time to sanction Israel now.
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