Bob Hawke was long known as a great friend of Israel, but in his years after retiring from Parliament, Icame to know him as person increasingly concerned about Palestinian rights and getting a fair peace deal for Palestinians and Israelis.

Then, as Palestinian ambassador and head of delegation, we developed over the last 25 years a decentfriendship; we would share a cigar on the balcony of his North Bridge house overlooking the picturesque harbour, where most of our meetings took place, discussing and working on specific issues of concern.Bob usedto express immense frustration and disappointment not only with the Israeli governmentspersistent human rights violations of Palestinians and building of Jewish colonies in the1967-occupied Palestinian territories but also with the United States blind eye and lack ofgenuine commitment to a just peace.

Building on Gough Whitlams implementation of an even-handed policy towards the Israeli Arab conflict in 1972,Bob Hawkes government reviewed Australias Middle East policy. The reviewannounced by Foreign Minister BillHayden on 30 September 1983 recognised the central importance of the Palestinian issue for any settlement, a role for thePalestine Liberation Organisation in any peace process and acknowledged the right of thePalestinian people to self-determination. It also called on Israel to freeze its settlementprogram in the 1967-occupied territories, because the settlements are_contrary tointernational law and a significant obstacle to peace efforts_.At the time this was more advanced position than many European countries.

Followingthe Palestinian uprising (Intifada) in 1987 andthe PLO peace initiative inNovember 1988, Hawkes government recognised thePLO in March 1989.

In a speech celebrating former Soviet Union refuseniks in Melbourne on 17 May 1988Bob compared the struggle of the Palestinian people with theJew in the Soviet Union andthe black in South Africa saying The Palestinian in the occupied territories, as the Jewin the Soviet Union and the black in South Africa has his aspirations to be fully free.Apoint he stressed again, decades later, in an article he wrote in the Australian FinancialReview titled_Time to recognise the state of Palestine_on 14 February 2017.

From the early days of Benjamins Netanyahus prime ministership of Israel, Bob realised Netanyahu was not part of the solution,telling me in 1996 that_This fing Netanyahu does not wantpeace_.

The Guardian reported Hawke as saying,I think that President Obama has been inadequate interms of using his influence and that of the United States in trying to bring together theIsraelis and Palestinians.

Whenall Arab governments agreed to a peace initiativeat the Beirut Summit of the ArabLeague in March 2002, Israel did not only respond by refusing the Arab peaceinitiative, but its prime minister General Ariel Sharons response to the Arabsoutstretched hand for peace was to order his army to reoccupy Palestiniancities and surround and bombard President Arafats headquarters.

Bob was furious; he expressed to me his wish to break the siege and go and meet withArafat and asked me to arrange that; and despite the wrath and objection of the Israeligovernment he met with Arafat on 24 September 2003.

From then onwards, Bob worked hard and travelled around the world to gain Australian,American, European and Asian support for an economic plan to help build the Palestinianeconomy, similar to the Marshall Plan. He spoke with JohnHoward, Alexander Downer,George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroder of Germany, and manyothers.

He also tried to build a technical school in Gaza as a gift from the Australian people to thePalestinians to help them rebuild their economy, in which the ACTU would organise volunteer technicians and teachers. The project was supported by the PalestinianAuthority which allocated land that was inspected by deputy prime minister Tim Fischerduring a visit to Palestine in March 1997; but the Howard government would not providethe five million dollars needed for the school.

Ahead of Benjamin Netanyahus 2017 visit to Australia, Bob called on the Australiangovernment to recognise the state of Palestine in hisarticle published in the AustralianFinancial review. He wrote_Australia was there at the very beginning. The least we cando now, in these most challenging of times, is to do what 137 other nations have alreadydone grant diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine._

Ali Kazak is a former Palestinianambassador. He is an expert in Australian-Arab relations and affairs, and author of Australia and the Arabs (in Arabic) and editor of the book Jerusalem, from occupation to city of peace (in English).