By SARAH ISON,  8:50PM JUNE 6, 2023 (The Australian, 7/6/2023)

Anthony Albanese will be called on in the upcoming ALP ­national conference to reverse language supporting recognition of Palestine as a state, with Jewish lobby groups warning not doing so would be “harmful to the prospects of peace” in the Middle East.

Previous national confer­ences passed motions that called on Labor to recognise Palestine as a state when it was next in government, with the 2019 platform noting such a change should be “an important priority”.

In October last year Labor reversed recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but it has not yet moved on formally recognising Palestine as a state. The issue is expected to be debated at ­national conference in August.

Former Gillard government foreign minister Bob Carr said there was growing momentum for federal Labor officially to ­acknowledge Palestine as a state.

“There is certainly pressure to recognise Palestine forthwith,” he told The Australian.

“Israel since the last national conference has entrenched the most right-wing and hard-right government in its history. The conditions of the Palestinian population on the occupied West Bank have worsened.”

But the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council called on Labor to return to neutral language that did not include the push to recognise Palestine as part of the party’s platform.

“There is a reason almost no Western democracy recognises a ‘state of Palestine’,” AIJAC executive director Colin Rubenstein said.

“Not only does such unilateral recognition violate existing Israeli-Palestinian agreements such as the Oslo Accords, it ­rewards the intransigence of the Palestinian leadership, which ­rejected several offers of statehood and has refused all peace negotiations with Israel for ­almost a decade.”

AIJAC national chairman Mark Leibler confirmed the ­organisation would be talking to the government in the lead-up to national conference to express its position.

The Zionist Federation of Australia also stressed calls to recognise Palestine as part of the ALP platform “would be harmful to the prospects of peace”.

“The Albanese government has made clear that it opposes unilateral measures when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian relations (and) Foreign Minister Penny Wong has stated that final status issues must be negotiated,” ZFA president Jeremy Leibler said.

“Any ALP national conference resolution that calls for a Labor government to unilat­erally move on a final status issue would be inconsistent with Albanese government policy.”

A spokeswoman for Senator Wong said Labor was “guided by the principle of advancing the cause of peace and progress ­toward a just and enduring two-state solution”.

“The government recognises the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state of their own and is committed to a negotiated two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders,” she said.