AhlulBayt News Agency: The Jewish Council of Australia has called on the country's upcoming recognition of the State of Palestine to be accompanied by “principled action” aimed at halting Israel’s “escalating genocide” in the besieged Palestinian territory.
In a statement released on Monday, the council emphasized that the recognition scheduled for next month must not remain “merely symbolic”. It insisted that it should be paired with concrete measures, including sanctions and a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel.
The statement also demanded the immediate suspension of all military contracts with Israel and a complete halt to the supply of components for F-35 fighter jets, which are actively used in attacks on the besieged Palestinian strip.
Holding Israel accountable for nearly two years of relentless bombardments, forced displacement, and deliberate starvation in Gaza, the council further highlighted that Israel had "admitted to deliberately assassinating” journalists and correspondents.
Sarah Schwartz, the council’s Executive Officer, sharply criticized Western governments for their role as primary suppliers of lethal weaponry to Israel, underscoring their complicity in the ongoing violence.
“You cannot endorse Palestinian statehood with one hand while supplying parts of the weapons that destroy it with the other,” Schwartz said.
She added that Palestinians “have the right to live in safety and dignity – free from occupation, siege and fear.”
The statement comes as nearly three-quarters of UN member states have already recognized or plan to soon recognize Palestinian statehood, with Australia becoming the latest to pledge it will do so at the UN General Assembly this September.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that “Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own.”
Canada, Israel's another close ally, also plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said, marking a dramatic policy shift.
Malta, Finland and Portugal could also potentially recognize Palestinian statehood.
Last month France said that it intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September, while Britain said it would do the same unless Israel takes “substantive steps,” including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.
At least 145 of the 193 UN members now recognize or plan to recognize Palestinian statehood.
The Jewish Council’s Advisory Committee member Antony Loewenstein called the most recent killings of journalists “a war crime” and urged the international community to protect Palestinian journalists from “Israel’s belligerence”.
Palestinian resistance movements have strongly condemned Israel’s latest massacre in Gaza, which left several journalists and photographers dead. The regime’s airstrike hit media workers' tent near Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital.
Hamas said the "fascist Israeli army's assassination of journalists is a savage crime that exceeds all boundaries of fascism and criminality."
It added that the slain journalists documented Israel’s starvation crimes, and showed to the world scenes of the famine being imposed by the regime on the people in Gaza.
The resistance movement warned that assassination of journalists is aimed at silencing the media as a prelude to a major crime that Israel plans to commit in Gaza.
It called on the international community, the UN Security Council, and journalists worldwide to condemn the regime’s crimes and take immediate action to stop them.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also slammed the killing of journalists, describing it as a "heinous war crime" committed by the "most brutal and criminal army in the world." It held Arab and Western governments responsible for failing to stop Israel's atrocities.
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