Julian Hill labels Israeli prime minister’s position ‘appalling’ as he calls for financial consequences for Israeli settlers

The Guardian | Paul Karp | 20 January 2024

Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration he rejects any moves to establish a Palestinian state after Israel’s offensive in Gaza has been labelled “appalling” and a step toward “apartheid” by influential Labor MP Julian Hill.

Hill has called for a suite of measures to respond, including financial consequences for Israeli settlers and an international push to fast-track recognition of a Palestinian state. The left faction convener argued that the “vast majority of the world recognises Israeli sovereignty only within the 1967 borders”.

The condemnation of the Israeli prime minister’s position appears to put Hill at odds with his own leader, Anthony Albanese, who declared on Friday that Australia’s support for “the existence of the state of Israel is completely unconditional”.

The Albanese Labor government has reinstated the term “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and long supported a two-state solution. Hill is more outspoken than the foreign minister, Penny Wong, who this week called for a “pathway to a Palestinian state” on her visit to the Middle East.

After Netanyahu declared that all territory west of the Jordan River should be under Israeli security control, the White House responded by saying the US would continue working towards a two-state solution and that there could be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza when the war concluded.

Hill told Guardian Australia: “Amidst the ongoing hostage crisis and the horrors in Gaza, we must maintain focus on a sustainable resolution to this decades old conflict and Australia’s longstanding support for a two State solution.”

“The grave implication of Netanyahu’s comments is that he is hellbent on formalising a policy of apartheid. What else can he possibly mean?

“This is devastating for all who want peace and security for Israel alongside a Palestinian State and cannot be tolerated by the international community.”

Israel rejects application of the term “apartheid” – a system of political discrimination and segregation – to describe its policies and practices towards Palestinians. The term has been used in that context by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Israel’s former attorney general, Michael Ben-Yair, and the former head of Israel’s intelligence agency the Mossad, Tamir Pardo.

Hill said the declaration “demands an urgent international response” including fast-tracking Palestinian statehood and “tough action to curb and reverse illegal Israeli settlements and extremist settler violence in the West Bank”.

“Without action now then a viable Palestinian State will soon be impossible and conflict in the Middle East further inflamed.”

Hill praised Wong for engaging with “victims of Hamas and extremist settlers” on her trip. But he argued more needs to be done to impose “financial sanctions” on construction, finance and agricultural companies “directly linked to settler violence and Palestinian dispossession” and to ensure that Australia’s relationship with Israel ends at its 1967 borders.

Australia should not be an “active or passive” participant in Israel’s settlements which “breach international law,” he said.

“There is no reason for Australia to delay imposing entry visa bans for extremist settlers, as has already occurred in the USA, UK and likely the EU. Let’s get on with it.

“Tougher measures targeted at terrorist group Hamas, including wider financial sanctions, would be welcome. Consistency is important and terrorist-like activity by extremist settlers also demands determined responses.”

Hill has also called for clarification that Australia’s double taxation convention with Israel “only applies to land within the 1967 borders”, like equivalent EU and US agreements.

“Australians cannot donate money to terrorist group Hamas and there is no defensible reason why Australians should continue to be able to financially support illegal settlements or settler activities, let alone get tax deductions for doing so,” he said.

In December, Australia joined allies, including the UK, Canada and France, in warning that violent acts by Israeli settlers were “terrorising Palestinian communities” in the occupied West Bank.

Hill’s comments follow an intervention last week calling for more action against illegal Israeli settlements.

Wong has condemned settler violence but declined to speculate on policy responses.

“Attacking Palestinians where they have a right to be is the wrong thing to do and certainly not conducive to ensuring there isn’t escalation,” the foreign minister said in response to Hill’s earlier intervention.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive, Alex Ryvchin, rejected Hill’s previous statements about settlements. He said: “Instead of expressing solidarity with the hostages and with brave soldiers fighting and dying so that others may live, Hill is more concerned about apartments built on the wrong side of a defunct armistice line. I question his values and his agenda.”

Netanyahu’s declaration follows comments by the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, strongly rejecting the idea of a Palestinian state.

“The answer is absolutely no and I’ll tell you why,” Hotovely said in an interview last month. “Israel knows today and the world should know now the reason the Oslo accords failed is because the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel. They wanted to have a state from the river to the sea.”

Albanese is yet to be asked directly about Netanyahu’s comments. On Friday, he told ABC Radio: “Our position is very clear that we want a long-term political solution here with Israelis and Palestinians able to live side by side in peace and security.”

The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, has accused Labor of “inconsistencies” in its approach to Israel since Hamas’ 7 October attacks.

“We’ve been concerned that the support for Israel’s inherent right to self-defence and to remove Hamas as a terrorist threat has been undermined by things such as the way Australia has voted at the United Nations in relation to ceasefire resolutions,” he said.