Share and Follow
Albanese is due to address the UN General Assembly in New York City hours after Australia formally recognised a Palestinian state.
“Working together, we can build a future where instead of children in Gaza dying in pain, living in fear, or being taught to hate – they can go to school, build a ‘life in larger freedom’, aspire to raise children of their own,” he will say on Tuesday morning AEST.
“That future depends on recognition being followed by reconstruction and reform.”
“We join with our allies and partners in calling for the hostages to be returned immediately and with dignity,” he will say.
“It will not happen,” he said. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”
Australia’s move took formal effect on Sunday night alongside the United Kingdom and Canada.
Albanese said in a statement that the three announcements were “part of a coordinated international effort to build new momentum for a two-state solution.”
Meanwhile opposition leader, Sussan Ley says she has told Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar of her “disappointment” over Albanese’s move.
“I expressed my disappointment at this break with bipartisanship and reiterated the Coalition’s long-held position that recognition must only come at the end of a genuine two-state process,” she said on Twitter.
“Now is the wrong time while Hamas holds hostages and while conflict still rages.” she said.
Almost 150 nations recognise Palestinian state
The UK and Canada also formally recognised a Palestinian state on Sunday, joining nearly 150 countries that have already done so, and France was expected to do the same at the General Assembly.
Portugal also joined the group, announcing its recognition later on Sunday from New York.
France and Saudi Arabia hope to use this year’s gathering of world leaders and the increasingly horrific war in the Gaza Strip to inject new urgency into the quest for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But the efforts to push a two-state solution face major obstacles, beginning with vehement opposition from the United States and Israel.
The US has blocked Palestinian officials from even attending the General Assembly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has threatened to take unilateral action in response — possibly including the annexation of parts of the West Bank.