Australia: former Labor Minister Ed Husic calls for a recognition without delay the state of Palestine

Former Labor Minister Ed Husic called on the Australian government on Monday to recognize the state of Palestine without delay, believing that “The time has come” For Canberra to take a position in the face of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

In a platform published by the Guardian Australiathe Federal MP for Chifley, a district located in the west of Sydney (New South Wales), now relegated to the rear benches (backbench), returns to the images of hungry children in the Palestinian enclave, especially that of Muhammad al-Matouq, a one-year-old baby barely more than a newborn. “It’s not a famine, it’s a political choice”he writes, accusing the Netanyahu government of deliberately hindering humanitarian aid. Husic welcomes France’s recent decision, the first country of the G7 to announce that it will officially recognize the Palestinian state in September, and press Australia to follow this example. He recalls that 147 countries have already taken this step, and that an Australian gesture would strengthen international pressure.

“We cannot wait for a non-existent peace process with an Israeli government that even refuses to sit at the table,” he said. For him, recognizing Palestine would be a strong signal against the fragmentation of Gaza in “concentration zones”. Last week, Ed Husic participated in a vigil in Parliament where the names of 17,000 children killed in Gaza since October 7 were read one by one. “Each name, each age-sometimes 0-tears your heart,” he said. “These children deserved to live, not to end up in a book of deaths. »»