Recently many Western governments, including Australia, announced their intention to recognise a “Palestinian state”.

While some may view this as a positive step in the struggle for Palestinian liberation we believe this move is, at best, a distraction. At worst, it is an obstacle to true liberation and self-determination for the Palestinian people.

Recognition without justice does not equal freedom. There is no peace on stolen land.

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For decades, every version of a “Palestinian State” has emerged from a deeply flawed “peace process” — one brokered between Israel and its Western backers — devoid of meaningful consultation with the Palestinian people.

Each proposal has placed endless conditions on Palestinians, demanding that they compromise everything, while Israel, the occupier, compromises nothing.

What is being proposed now is no different.

So-called statehood is only ever on Israeli and Western terms: A demilitarised territory with no genuine autonomy, no control of borders, water or airspace and with an antidemocratic imposition of leadership despite the will of the Palestinian people.

A “state” made up only of the West Bank and Gaza would be fragmented and deliberately non-viable. Gaza remains an open-air prison under siege, while the West Bank is carved into dozens of isolated cantons by checkpoints, military zones and ever-expanding settlements.

Palestinians cannot travel freely between Gaza and the West Bank; even........

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