Foreign affairs officials privately urged the Australian government to take “a more active” stance against Israeli settlements five months before an announcement that the Coalition claimed was driven by “factional bosses”.
Documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal lengthy deliberations within the government prior to its August announcement that it was “strengthening its opposition to settlements by affirming they are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace”.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced on the same day – 8 August – that Australia would explicitly refer to the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
Wong flagged the moves shortly before the Labor national conference, where some delegates had been expected to push for urgent recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Because of the timing, the Coalition decried the “backroom decisions” as being entirely driven by internal party politics.
The Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, had said the shift had “everything to do with managing factional differences ahead of the Labor national conference and nothing to do with advancing a lasting two-state outcome”.
“There’s nothing this week or in the last month that has prompted the government to make this change,” Birmingham told Sky News on 10 August.
But the new documents, obtained under freedom of information laws, show Wong had advice from her department as far back as February about “developments of concern” in the Middle East.
“Tensions in Israel and the Palestinian Territories are increasing, with further violence, an expansion of Israel’s settlement enterprise and more civilian deaths expected,” the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warned in a 27 February brief.
“A more active approach to responding to developments, coupled with a more forward leaning public stance on the issue of settlement activity, would be consistent with our opposition to actions that undermine a two-state solution.”
The department’s recommendation included that Wong “agree Australia refer publicly to Israeli settlement activity as illegal under international law, consistent with UN security council resolution 2334”.
Officials said a “principled and consistent approach would bring coherence to our outreach on the peace process”.
According to the same submission, settlements are “a significant impediment to a future Palestinian state”, and the EU and UK “are explicit in calling settlements illegal … and do so regularly”.
In an attachment, Dfat explained that every Israeli government since 1967 had expanded settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and there were now 279 settlements and outposts with more than 700,000 residents.
The document pointed to a 51% increase in the promotion of housing unit plans in settlements in 2021-22 compared with 2012-2020, which was “coupled with an increase in demolitions of Palestinian structures”.
“The UN reported a 42% increase in violent settler incidents,” it added.
Dfat explained that settlements undermined a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by making the future division of land harder “practically and politically”.
In June, officials helped Wong prepare for an introductory phone call with the Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen.
Dfat summarised the purpose of this call as being to “reiterate that Australia has been a longstanding friend to Israel; and convey messages on escalating violence, settlements and other unilateral actions that undermine the prospects of peace”.
The document set out some “background” information for Wong, including about the continuation of a “worrying perpetuation of violence” in Gaza.
“Tensions have been high in Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2023, following a series of terrorist attacks, fatal Israeli security operations in the West Bank, Israeli settlement activity and events at the holy sites,” it said.
The document noted that the Israeli government was “pursuing policies that have been contentious, particularly on judicial reform and settlements”.
Then on 23 June Dfat sent a new submission to Wong saying that Australia’s reluctance to use the term “occupied” about land seized by Israel after the 1967 war was “at odds” with many likeminded partners. These included the EU, UK and New Zealand.
But Dfat said this stance had “not stood in the way of us voting in favour” of UN general assembly resolutions that used the term.
Dfat recommended that Wong “agree that the Australian government come into line with key likemindeds and the UN and formally adopt the term ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’”.
It asked Wong to sign off on the move by 29 June – but handwritten notes reveal the minister did not do so until nearly a month later, on 27 July.
Guardian Australia understands the one-month delay was connected to the sensitivity of the issue, allowing consultation within government and externally about how to respond to what it described as “disturbing trends”.
Two further developments occurred in the time between the Dfat recommendation and Wong’s signoff, including the Israeli government’s approval on 26 June of more than 5,700 new settlement units in the West Bank.
The other was the passage of a key bill through the Knesset on 24 July that prevented Israel’s supreme court from overturning some decisions of the executive government that it deemed “extremely unreasonable”.
The documents cover only the period from December to August, so they do not canvass how the Australian government should respond to the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and the potentially imminent ground invasion of Gaza.
Wong has repeatedly affirmed Israel’s right to self-defence, while calling for the protection of civilian lives and humanitarian access to Gaza.
She said the Hamas attacks had pushed “any prospects for peace further from reach, undermining the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people themselves”.
