Pro-Palestine advocates have labelled Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s move to recognise Palestinian statehood as “symbolic” and a “distraction”, saying it will not help the situation on the ground.

Monday’s announcement confirmed Australia will join the United Kingdom, Canada and France in recognising Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

The move is underpinned by commitments from the Palestinian Authority, including reaffirming recognition of Israel, the demilitarisation of Hamas, holding elections, governance and education reforms, and isolating Hamas from the future state.

Ramia Abdo Sultan, the executive member of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, has been calling for action for her family members and others in Palestine.

But she said the government’s recognition was merely a “symbolic step” that did not address the ”immediate and imminent” issues faced by Palestinians.

“[My family] received news about Australia, as well as various other countries around the world, recognising Palestine in the next month, and they said, ‘We want to hear about our right to actually exist first before an ocean of recognition. We want to know that we have a right to live, a right to self-determination and autonomy and agency, like every other person around the world’,” she said.

“That’s what Palestinians on the ground in Gaza are saying.”

Mussa Hijazi, a lawyer who spent some of his childhood growing up in Palestine, went further to call the prime minister’s recognition “a bit more sinister” than a “distraction”.

“Number one: it’s very late. Two: it’s symbolic. Three: it’s creating a distraction from what is actually going on,” he said. 

“We end up with this half-arsed attempt to basically quieten the public down by proposing possibly recognising a state at some stage, later down the track, subject to conditions,” he added.

Albanese’s sudden shift in policy followed building international momentum, sparked on July 25 when France announced it would be the first G7 country to move to recognise Palestine at the upcoming UN meeting.

Albanese’s decision has put him at odds with the United States, which was notified of Australia’s plan to recognise Palestine ahead of the announcement. 

Organisers of the mass bridge protest accused the government of acting with political motivation, adding that recognition is meaningless without sanctions.

“This decision is not borne of principle, but of political heat,” Palestine Action Group Sydney said.

Pro-Palestine protesters have been calling for the government to go further, to sanction Israel and stop any arms trade with Israel.

“We don’t want symbolic steps and moves. We want actual tangible actions that are going to stop Israel from killing people again,” Sultan said. 

“Once we have got a ceasefire, once people are being fed, once the Israelis have withdrawn, we can talk about all sorts of things, including a two-state, but right now it’s a distraction,” Hijazi said.

Israel’s security cabinet last week approved a plan to take over Gaza City, ramping up military action in the besieged enclave. 

The United Nations has warned that this plan would trigger more calamity in Gaza, causing the “unbearable suffering of the population”.

The World Health Organisation said the number of starvation-related deaths and malnutrition rates have spiked, while the United Nations estimates that at least 1300 Palestinians have been killed trying to access food since May 27.