![\"\u2018Rule](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0bd2c076fc4e5fcb311655344007acf6.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nHome Affairs Minister Tony Burke has suggested Australia could still officially recognise Palestine as a state even if Hamas still controlled areas of Gaza.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is considering a potential shift in foreign policy, following in the footsteps of the UK, France, and Canada, with September\u2019s UN General Assembly a possible timeframe for Australia to formally recognise a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Penny Wong signed a joint statement on Saturday advocating for the Palestinian Authority to play a \u201ccentral role\u201d in the governance of a future Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told Sky News Australia\u2019s Political Editor Andrew Clennell that Australia could still recognise Palestine as a state even if Hamas still controlled and administered territory in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have frequently been countries where part of that nation has been occupied by a terrorist group and we haven\u2019t ceased to recognise the country,\u201d Mr Burke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Syria and Iraq had long periods where parts of those countries were being occupied and controlled by ISIS, it didn\u2019t stop us from recognising and having diplomatic relations with those countries themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a fair amount of precedent with this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite the Albanese government pushing for the Palestinian Authority to have a crucial role in the governance of a future Palestinian state, the organisation is suffering deep internal divisions in the West Bank and has not had a presence in Gaza for almost 20 years.<\/p>\n
The PA also still refuses to recognise Israel as a state.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When pressed about the Israeli security cabinet approving a plan to seize control of Gaza city, Mr Burke labelled the move a \u201cbreach of international law\u201d and said the takeover \u201cmust not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a breach of international law and if they start doing what they\u2019ve been doing with the West Bank and have settlers move in that\u2019s a further illegal action under international law. What we are watching is horrific,\u201d Mr Burke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are watching a humanitarian catastrophe.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this concept of somehow you are weak against Hamas if you are not willing to be cruel to the Palestinian people is a ridiculous proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also refused to answer whether the Australian government would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu given the warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n
Mr Burke said the government didn\u2019t deal with \u201chypotheticals\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPenny Wong has previously been asked on this, we are not dealing with hypotheticals, we have a respect for international institutions, but we don\u2019t get into the hypotheticals. I\u2019m not going to go into it,\u201d Mr Burke said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon came together and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in addition to urging Hamas to immediately release all remaining Israeli hostages.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese also held a phone call with PA President Mahmoud Abbas last week, while he still attempts to reach Mr Netanyahu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has suggested Australia could still officially recognise Palestine as a state even if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,8931,63,36974,46783,2322,13043,46784,6897,44,6899,15387],"class_list":["post-56692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-auspol","tag-australia","tag-australian-politics","tag-burke","tag-federal-politics","tag-hamas","tag-home-affairs","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-tony-burke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}