At the UN this week, in a long overdue act of courage, the Australian Government has recognised the State of Palestine.

In alliance with Canada, the UK, France and 140 other countries, the government should be congratulated, but must continue to be courageous in all subsequent defence of the rights of the Palestinian people.

The recognition is a significant political act, but must be allied to the priority of saving the lives of besieged, starved and bombed citizens of Gaza and the West Bank. That objective means a ceasefire, urgent supply of humanitarian aid, return of hostages, withdrawal of Israeli troops and a very specific challenge to the Israeli/US assumption that they can get away with obliterating a people.

Yes, the UN experts have declared, the carnage in Gaza was, and is, a genocide.

The recognition of the State of Palestine also has international law consequences. What those nations, such as Australia, are saying is that the current situation is untenable because, without being recognised as a State, Palestine’s position in the international law sphere is one of inferiority.

As Amsterdam University’s Andre Nollkaemper wrote last year; “A fundamental rule of international law is that a state may not use force against another state. That rule only protects Palestine when it is a state.” And there are other consequences in widespread recognition by the international community of Palestine as a state. As NollKaemper rightly observed, Palestine as a state is placed in a stronger position when it comes to negotiating with other states such as Israel. It is, at least in theory, a negotiation between equals.

Australia’s track record in the international law sphere over the past three decades, and particularly since the election of the government of John Howard in 1996, has been patchy. But on this occasion it is, through recognition, assisting in bolstering Palestine’s status in that context.

Make no mistake, there is widespread opposition to the act of recognition. Most of the opponents, from war-like Israeli and US Governments, to arrogant Zionist organisations to the cowardly Coalition opposition in Australia, claim that recognition rewards the terrorist organisation Hamas.

Let’s dismiss that claim now and for ever. It is politically deceitful and intellectually lazy to keep repeating “Hamas” as the easy scapegoat to justify the slaughter of a people, a famine and associated cruelties. It will take only a touch of courage to challenge the ignorant and cruel operatives who behave as though Hamas are the only terrorists who have operated in Palestine.

The “ignorant and cruel” include US Republicans who have condemned the Albanese Government. In collusion with Netanyahu and the racist religious zealots in his Cabinet, these are the bullies who want to dominate international relations. They seem to think that no one will be courageous enough to challenge them.

In any walk of life you only respond to bullies by drawing a line in the sand and saying “enough”, “no more”.

Nevertheless, the pusillanimous (yes, use that five-syllable word for cowards) Liberal National Party in Australia immediately complies with the bully boys and, on the basis of their decades of ignorance, repeat the claim that recognition of Palestine rewards Hamas.

Sussan Ley and her colleagues are unable to pose, let alone answer, the question, “what do you understand by terrorism?” In lockstep with whatever genocidal Israel wants, they are unable, or unwilling to recall decades when Israeli terrorist gangs, including the IDF, committed slaughter and destruction across Palestine and were never held accountable.

Zionist groups in the UK, Canada and Australia have combined to object to recognition of Palestine. They claim that this act rewards Hamas and hinders the prospects of peace. What do they know about peace? Since when have they been interested in peace with justice unless it has meant promotion of their own privileged interests? The chances of a peace with justice, which will give security to Israelis as well as Palestinians, requires courage.

The world, not just the Albanese Government, must challenge a long-lasting historical deceit.

Cowards, who oppose recognition of Palestine, seem content to continue the massive deceit which has characterised accounts of the colonisation of Palestine, since the Balfour Declaration of 1917, since the Nakba of 1948, since Operation Cast Lead 2008, Operation Protective Edge 2014 and the continued settler barbarities on the West Bank.

Far more than a symbolic act, recognition of Palestine is a chance for a revision of history.

However deplorable, the first terrorist acts in Palestine did not occur in October 2023. The so called Israeli “war” in Gaza is not caused by the political group Hamas who only appeared in 2006. This war, in effect an organised slaughter, is the climax of decades of ethnic cleansing.

At least some politicians and the mainstream media must try to find the courage — try imitating Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — to reject the convenient stereotypes which have been used to conceal decades of deceitful dismissal of Palestinian lives and rights.

The Australian Government’s recognition of Palestine is a long overdue act of courage. But that courage will have to continue indefinitely if Palestinians’ lives are to be saved, their rights respected and, at last, secured.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.