Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has defended a parliamentary motion congratulating Israel on 60 years of statehood, despite opposition within Labor and from the union movement.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will move the bipartisan motion at midday on Wednesday, with Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson to second it.

Several protesters holding placards are rallying outside parliament criticising Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory.

Government backbencher Julia Irwin is reportedly considering boycotting the motion after unsuccessfully attempting to table an Amnesty International report detailing Israeli abuse of Palestinians.

And two powerful unions have joined a large group of individuals and organisations in taking out an advertisement in a national newspaper urging parliament to abandon the motion.

"Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people and its leaders the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession of the Palestinian people," the Not In Our Name ad says.

But Mr Smith said support for Israel had been the Australian position since the nation state was founded in 1948.

"Obviously in general terms people are very concerned about what occurs in the Middle East," Mr Smith told reporters.

"(That's) why the Australian government very strongly supports efforts to ensure that the Annapolis peace process continues and why we always express our concern when there are innocent victims who suffer injury or who are fatalities in incidents and conflict in the Middle East."

Australia played a prominent role in the United Nations to bring about the state of Israel, he said.

"That's a longstanding Australian-government, Australian-nation, Australian-people position and view that we respect the right of Israel to exist as a nation state," he said.

"We also believe that the solution to the Middle East is a two-nation state solution, a nation state for the Palestinians and a nation state for Israel."

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