{"id":222331,"date":"2022-10-24T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=222331"},"modified":"2022-10-20T04:03:40","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T03:03:40","slug":"australia-reverses-recognition-of-jerusalem-as-israels-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/10\/australia-reverses-recognition-of-jerusalem-as-israels-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia Reverses Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>Foreign Minister Penny Wong says government \u2018regrets\u2019 decision made by previous administration and reiterates commitment to two-state solution.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_222332\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/jerusalem-palisra.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-222332\" class=\"wp-image-222332\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/jerusalem-palisra.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/jerusalem-palisra.webp 770w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/jerusalem-palisra-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/jerusalem-palisra-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-222332\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Australia says the status of Jerusalem should be resolved in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian people. [File: Ammar Awad\/Reuters]<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>18 Oct 2022 &#8211; <\/em>Australia says it will no longer recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing a decision taken by the government of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday the Government has reaffirmed Australia\u2019s previous and longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people,\u201d Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis reverses the Morrison Government\u2019s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wong reiterated that Australia\u2019s embassy would remain in Tel Aviv and that Canberra was committed to a two-state solution \u201cin which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She added: \u201cWe will not support an approach that undermines this prospect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The status of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/interactive.aljazeera.com\/aje\/2018\/east-west-jerusalem\/index.html\" >Jerusalem<\/a> is one of the biggest sticking points in attempts to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>Israel regards the entire city, including the eastern sector it annexed after the 1967 Middle East\u00a0war, as its capital while Palestinian officials, with broad international backing, want occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state they hope to establish in the occupied\u00a0West Bank\u00a0and the\u00a0Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAustralia\u2019s embassy has always been and remains in Tel Aviv.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Australia says it will no longer recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing a decision taken by the gov&#39;t of former PM Scott Morrison \u2935\ufe0f <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/um6uaCpD1a\" >pic.twitter.com\/um6uaCpD1a<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AJEnglish\/status\/1582310738298748928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >October 18, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Palestinian Authority hails the move<\/h2>\n<p>The Palestinian Authority hailed Australia\u2019s move that will likely bring the Israeli-Palestinian issue into spotlight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe welcome\u00a0Australia\u2019s decision with regards to Jerusalem &amp; its call for a two-state solution in accordance with international legitimacy,\u201d the Palestinian Authority\u2019s civil affairs minister, Hussein al-Sheikh, said on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Sheikh hailed\u00a0Australia\u2019s \u201caffirmation that the future of sovereignty over Jerusalem depends on the permanent solution based on international legitimacy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Shahram Akbarzadeh from Deakin University said that the Australia\u2019s move will revive the international consensus on the status of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAustralia was diverging from that consensus but now it\u2019s coming back to it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will definitely bring the issue, the Palestinian-Israeli dispute and the future of a two-state solution into spotlight,\u201d he told Al Jazeera from Melbourne, adding that the international community has a big responsibility to address this long-standing problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is an international consensus that the status of Jerusalem should be handled, decided as part of a larger negotiation on the future of the two states within Israel and Palestine. They cannot be divorced from that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s Bernard Smith reporting from West Jerusalem said that while \u201clittle changes\u201d with Wong\u2019s announcement, it was nevertheless symbolic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost countries recognise that the status the final status of Jerusalem is to be determined in talks on Palestinian statehood and Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their capital,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"header\">Israel summons Australian envoy<\/h2>\n<p>Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday sharply criticised Australia\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>Lapid described the move as a \u201chasty response\u201d, adding: \u201cWe can only hope that the Australian government manages other matters more seriously and professionally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJerusalem is the eternal and united capital of Israel and nothing will ever change that,\u201d the prime minister also said in a statement released by his office.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli foreign ministry said it had summoned the Australian ambassador to lodge a formal protest.<\/p>\n<p>Former Australian Prime Minister Morrison announced his conservative government would recognise West Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital after the United States went back on decades of policy by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/indepth\/features\/2017\/05\/jerusalem-capital-israel-170524091310050.html\" >recognising<\/a> the city and moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian decision was widely criticised by pro-Palestinian groups as well as by the Labor party, which was then in opposition and promised to reverse the move if it was elected.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/10\/18\/australia-reverses-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-as-israel-capital\" >Go to Original &#8211; aljazeera.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>18 Oct 2022 &#8211; Australia says it will no longer recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing a decision taken by the previous administration in 2018. Foreign Minister Penny Wong says government reiterates commitment to two-state solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":222332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[928,532,101,100,2898,87,865,2414,2415,2416,767,771,427,85,2897,880,99,92,1025,886],"class_list":["post-222331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-bds-boycott-divestment-sanctions","tag-colonialism","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ecocide","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israeli-apartheid","tag-israeli-army","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-middle-east","tag-nakba","tag-palestine","tag-palestine-israel","tag-sociocide","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-violent-conflict","tag-west-bank","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}