“The issue of the final status of Jerusalem must be resolved in the framework of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong explained in a press release released by her services.
Australia’s government announced today that it will no longer recognize West Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel, reversing a move made in 2018 by the previous Conservative government.
“The issue of the final status of Jerusalem must be resolved in the framework of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong explained in a press release released by her services.
“Today, the government reaffirms Australia’s previous and long-standing position” on this issue, he stressed.
In doing so, it “cancels the Morrison government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
Jerusalem remains an unresolved issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli army overran its eastern part in the Six-Day War (1967) and has annexed it, which the international community does not recognize. Israel calls the city holy to believers of three religions its “eternal and indivisible” capital. The Palestinians, on the other hand, see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future sovereign and independent state.
In 2018, the right-wing government of Scott Morrison—he was replaced as prime minister by Labour’s Anthony Albanese earlier this year—announced its decision to recognize West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, while pledging to recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of of a future independent and sovereign state of Palestine following the achievement of a two-state solution.
“I regret Mr Morrison’s decision to play political games resulting in a change in Australia’s position and the upset this change has caused to many people (…) in Australia who care deeply about the issue,” it said. in the announcement of the head of the Australian diplomacy.
Ms. Wong also said that her country’s embassy in Israel will remain in Tel Aviv, “where it has always been.”
The Australian Foreign Ministry insisted that Canberra is committed “to the two-state solution”, under which “Israel and the future state of Palestine will coexist, in peace and security, on their internationally recognized borders”, and that it will not adopt the no “approach that undermines that perspective” follows. She also assured that her country will remain an “unwavering” ally of Israel.
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