Australia changed some of its traditional voting patterns at the United Nations, taking a stand against the Jewish state in two preliminary resolutions overwhelmingly approved by the General Assembly Second Committee.
Australia was among the 159 countries to vote in favor of an annual text supporting permanent Palestinian sovereignty over its natural resources on Wednesday.
It was also one of 161 nations to support a resolution in the same committee holding the IDF responsible for the Jiyeh Power Station oil spill in Lebanon and demanding compensation from Israel.
The draft texts still need to go before the UN General Assembly for a final vote. The sovereignty vote does not indicate Australian recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Last year, Canberra had abstained on the sovereignty vote and stood with Jerusalem in opposing the oil slick vote, but this year, it approved of both texts.
The votes were part of a slew of 17 anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian resolutions that the UNGA will approve by the end of this year.
With so many countries voting against it, every vote lost is seen as a defeat for Israel, and the ones gained a victory.
Argentina, in contrast, broke out from the pack, supporting both resolutions this year after having opposed them in 2023.
The United States and Canada, together with Israel, were among a small number of the countries that opposed both texts. The United Kingdom and all the European countries, including ones that often support Israel, also voted with the Palestinians on these resolutions.
Condemning Australia's decision
The Australian Jewish community lashed out at its government for abandoning Israel.
The Australian Jewish Association called it a “betrayal” and said the Albanese government was the most “hostile to Jewish life and the Jewish state in Australia’s history.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the voting reflected the “widening gulf” between the US and Australian positions on Israel and 'Palestine.'
“This shift in voting won’t change much in Israel where the nation is concerned with Hamas and Hezbollah and hostages rather than the judgments passed by our government,” he added. “But it will be noticed in Washington and certainly by Australians with a connection to the conflict, which may well be the point.”
THE ZIONIST Federation of Australia (ZFA) said it was alarmed by the shift in the country’s long-standing positions.
“This is nothing less than an abandonment of Australia’s ally, the only democracy in the Middle East, at the very time it is fighting an existential, multi-front war against Iran and its proxies.”
The Palestinian representative at the meeting said that the support “by a resounding majority is a strong reaffirmation, inter alia, of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and freedom, as well as the sovereign right over their natural resources.”
“The international community must step up its responsibilities and enforce Israel to abide by its legal obligations under international law after 57 years of belligerent settler colonial occupation,” she said.
Israel’s representative took issue with the resolutions mentioned in the International Court of Justice advisory opinion from this summer on the illegality of the Israeli occupation. “This resolution is centered on the natural resources of the Palestinians,” he said. In Gaza, Hamas has co-opted all the Palestinian natural resources for its military campaign, robbing the Palestinians of its civilian benefits, yet the resolution “ignores this entirely,” he said.
Food and water supplies meant for Palestinian civilians are stockpiled for terrorists, and fuel in hospitals is diverted for Hamas military means, the representative said.
The Israeli representative accused the United Nations of ultimately supporting Hamas with its silence and one-sided resolutions like the one approved on Wednesday.
“Ultimately, this silence and complicity contributed to the horrific massacre on October 7,” he said.