Australia says it’ll no longer honor West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing a decision taken by the government of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2018.moment the Government has reaffirmed Australia’s former and longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace accommodations between Israel and the Palestinian people, ” Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.
This reverses the Morrison Government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Wong reiterated that Australia’s delegacy would remain in Tel Aviv and that Canberra was committed to a two- state result “ in which Israel and a unborn Palestinian state attend, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders ”.
She added “ We’ll not support an approach that undermines this prospect. ”The status of Jerusalem is one of the biggest sticking points in attempts to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel regards the entire megacity, including the eastern sector it adjoined after the 1967 Middle East war, as its capital while Palestinian officers, with broad transnational backing, want enthralled East Jerusalem as the capital of a unborn state they hope to establish in the enthralled West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Morrison blazoned his conservative government would honor West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital after the United States went back on decades of policy by recognising the megacity and moving the US delegacy there from Tel Aviv.
The Australian decision was extensively criticised bypro-Palestinian groups as well as by the Labor party, which was also in opposition and promised to reverse the move if it was tagged.I lament that Mr Morrison’s decision to play politics redounded in Australia’s stirring position, ” Wong said.
She added that the government of Anthony Albanese would recommit Australia to transnational sweats towards “ a just and enduring two- state result ”.Australia would “ always be a loyal friend of Israel ”, the statement said, and that its representatives are “ inversely unvarying sympathizers of the Palestinian people ”.
The implicit change was first reported by the London- grounded Guardian review on Monday after it noted that rulings representing West Jerusalem and plans for the eventual relocation of the Australian delegacy had been removed from the foreign ministry’s website.
