Key Points
- Israel's embassy has taken the rare step of rebuking Labor's draft platform.
- The rebuke comes days before Labor's national conference in Adelaide, where the party will debate and settle its policy platform.
Israel's embassy has rebuked the Labor party's draft national platform, warning its wording on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict places sole "responsibility" on the Jewish state while overlooking the role of Hamas and Palestinian leadership.
The four-page statement is a highly unusual intervention by a foreign government ahead of the party's national conference in Adelaide.
Labor's 2026 platform, which outlines the party's priorities and beliefs, contains an expanded statement on "Israel and Palestine" following the government's move to recognise Palestinian statehood, a longstanding part of the party platform.
The document reiterates support for a two-state solution, and also says the party "unreservedly condemns terrorism and violent extremism, including as perpetrated by Hamas and other extremists," stating Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live their lives free from terror and violence.
The platform says Israel "must comply with obligations as an occupying power" in supplying food and medical supplies for Palestinian civilians under international humanitarian law, and also condemns recent Knesset laws around the death penalty as "discriminatory."
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The 'Death Penalty for Terrorists' law passed in March — and a subsequent 2026 military tribunal law — mandate capital punishment for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks. The United Nations Human Rights Office warned the laws breach international humanitarian law and could amount to war crimes.
The unsigned Israeli embassy statement, released on Monday, reads: "The Embassy respectfully submits that several elements of the draft National Platform risk placing responsibility for the conflict on one party while giving insufficient attention to the decisions, conduct and continuing obligations of the Palestinian leadership and terrorist organisations such as Hamas."
"Israel has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to make difficult compromises when genuine peace is possible."
While continuing to oppose Palestinian recognition, which the Australian government declared sovereign and independent in September 2025, Israel's embassy also disputed language in the draft platform condemning "extremist settler violence," which the government in June warned was at "horrific levels".
The embassy said settler violence "receives disproportionate attention," labelling it a "reprehensible but marginal phenomenon".
UN monitors have documented over 1,000 Israeli settler attacks causing casualties or property damage this year, averaging six incidents per day and resulting in the displacement of more than 2,200 Palestinians.
Labor's platform also explicitly supports the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant. Both are accused of using starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally directing attacks against civilians in Gaza.
Israel rejects the body's authority and argues the body has a bias against the Jewish State.
"The Israeli embassy can put what they want to say, but the conference is about the Labor Party coming together and settling on our platform and having those robust discussions," Minister for International Development and Multicultural Affairs Anne Aly said.
Any debate over Gaza is likely to happen on the final day of the Adelaide conference, with foreign policy issues including AUKUS at the bottom of the agenda.
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