Labor national conference has been a textbook exercise in managed democracy.

This reached its pinnacle when the powers-that-be – ministers and factional heavyweights – worked behind closed doors to squash an attempted revolt over the party’s draft platform on Israel and Gaza.

Labor’s rank and filers are strongly pro-Palestine. Former minister Ed Husic (who is Muslim), the rebel of the conference’s corridors, wanted to make the draft much tougher on Israel, including, among other points, a reference to a United Nations inquiry that spoke about genocide.

Intense negotiations and arm-twisting ensured this came to nothing. Husic’s mooted seconder evaporated. No one else proposed a change in the draft platform (that, however, is still too robust for the Israeli government, which earlier this week issued a public attack via its embassy).

The hard-won consensus was carefully orchestrated with a two-speaker plan that started being hatched weeks ago. It saw addresses from two Victorian federal MPs: Josh Burns, the Jewish member for Macnamara (who could face a backlash in his seat), and Basem Abdo, member for Calwell, son of Palestinian refugees.

Burns told delegates:

Today, this conference has a choice. We can continue to focus on the divisions that pull us further apart, or we can do something far more important. We can stand together. We can choose empathy over outrage, dialogue over division. We can uphold Evatt’s vision for two states, for two peoples living side by side with equal rights, dignity, and security for every single person. Because that is the only pathway to peace that the world longs for.

Today, this conference has a choice. We can continue to focus on the........

© The Conversation