Palestinian and Jewish Australian respond to Australia’s recognition of Palestinian statehood

The Prime Minister's promise to recognise a Palestinian state has received a mixed response from Palestinian Australians.

Transcript

00:00Palestine is more than a word for Samir Akramawi.

00:07Up until 1975, I had on my passport that I was born in Jerusalem, Palestine.

00:13After that, they denied me the right to claim that I was born in Palestine.

00:18The Australian Army veteran was born in Jerusalem in 1945, before Israel existed.

00:24He's taken the Australian government to federal court

00:27to petition his right to identify his place of birth as Palestine.

00:32Our background is Palestinians, not unknown, not Israeli, not Lebanese.

00:36Watching the Prime Minister promise to recognize Palestine was a relief.

00:40This is a pretty good move from Australia, and I thank them for it.

00:44Lubna Haddad's parents fled Palestine after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

00:50She sees the recognition of Palestine hollow and tokenistic.

00:54Palestine's always existed, we've always existed, will always exist.

00:58Recognition for us is platitudes.

01:01It does practically nothing to feed Gazans who are starving.

01:05Like many in the Palestinian camp, Lubna believes this recognition is too little too late,

01:11with not much left to recognize as Palestine.

01:14They want sanctions on Israel, an expulsion of the ambassador and a global arms embargo.

01:19But for many in the Jewish community, the recognition of a Palestinian state alone is outrageous.

01:25How our government or how our prime minister and our foreign minister think this is going to work,

01:32to have a territory governed by a terrorist group, dismays me.

01:37Others in the Jewish community think the recognition doesn't go far enough.

01:42We need actual concrete action on the ground of what we're going to do to prevent Israel from committing genocide.

01:49The idea that because my family suffered means that I need to defend or represent Israel in any way is bonkers.

01:55Mixed reactions from Australians, all desperate for an end to the bloodshed.

02:00For what weeks, the team had been killed by a terrorist group,