Australia’s Parliament on Thursday voted down by 80-5 a proposal to recognize a “State of Palestine.” The motion was tabled by the Greens Party.
The motion, tabled by the Greens Party, is “contrary to the traditions of Australian foreign policy,” said Liberal MP Julian Lesser.
Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts said “simplistic wedge motions in the house do nothing to advance the cause of peace.”
MP Monique Ryan criticized the Greens, saying, “These debates and motions do not help them any more than they help the people of Gaza or of Israel.”
Denmark, too, recently voted against recognizing “Palestine.”
“We cannot recognize an independent Palestinian state, for the sole reason that the preconditions are not really there,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in April when the bill was first introduced.
Earlier in May, a coalition of nine states led by the United States voted against a resolution in the United Nations seeking to give the Palestinian Authority, which currently has observer status, full membership in the international body.
Joining the United States were Israel, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Argentina, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Palau and Nauru.
More than 140 countries have recognized “Palestine,” including Spain, Norway and Ireland this week.
