CNN
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The Australian authorities has reversed a choice by its predecessor to acknowledge West Jerusalem because the capital of Israel, prompting a rebuke from the Israeli authorities.
Australian International Minister Penny Wong reaffirmed Canberra’s “earlier and long-standing place” on Israel in a briefing on Tuesday, emphasizing the brand new Labor authorities’s unwavering help each for Israel and the Palestinian individuals.
“Australia is dedicated to a two-state resolution by which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and safety, inside internationally acknowledged borders,” Wong mentioned. “We won’t help an strategy that undermines this prospect.”
The earlier authorities, led by former Coalition Prime Minister Scott Morrison, acknowledged West Jerusalem because the Israeli capital in 2018, following an announcement made by former US President Donald Trump.
in 2017, Trump upended seven a long time of US international coverage by declaring america thought of Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. The next 12 months, the US relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid mentioned Australia’s resolution to revert to its earlier place on Tuesday was a “hasty response to an incorrect report within the media.”
“In gentle of the way in which by which this resolution was made in Australia, as a hasty response to an incorrect report within the media, we will solely hope that the Australian authorities manages different issues extra severely and professionally,” Lapid mentioned in a press release, with out elaborating on the “incorrect report.”
Israel’s Ministry of International Affairs additionally summoned Australia’s ambassador to Israel.
Earlier than Trump’s announcement, successive US leaders had resisted making any proclamation on the problem earlier than the Israeli-Palestinian battle was resolved. Trump’s resolution drew condemnation from world leaders and despatched shock waves by way of the Muslim world. Each Israelis and Palestinians declare the holy metropolis as their capital.
Morrison’s resolution to comply with Trump’s lead additionally prompted outrage, and on Tuesday Wong apologized for any misery induced.
“I remorse that Mr. Morrison’s resolution to play politics resulted in Australia’s shifting place, and the misery these shifts have induced to many individuals within the Australian group who care deeply about this challenge,” Wong mentioned.
The division of Jerusalem into East and West dates from the 1949 armistice settlement that introduced preventing between Israel and Arab powers to an finish, and left the town divided.
West Jerusalem was within the palms of Israel and East Jerusalem managed by Jordan. A 1947 United Nations plan to divide Palestine in two, making a Jewish state and an Arab state, had envisaged Jerusalem as an internationally run “corpus separatum,” other than the 2 states.
In 1967 Israel captured East Jerusalem within the Six Day Battle. It expanded the municipal boundaries of the town and declared all of it to be the unified capital of Israel.
Till Trump’s announcement, the worldwide group was largely united in not formally recognizing Israel’s place, stating as an alternative that solely a negotiated settlement between the 2 sides might decide the town’s last standing.
The town is dwelling to deeply holy websites for Jews, Muslims and Christians. The difficulty has been so thorny that negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians had left the query of Jerusalem to the ultimate levels of any peace deal.