Australia Reverses Recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli Capital

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks during a news conference on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks during a news conference on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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Australia Reverses Recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli Capital

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks during a news conference on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks during a news conference on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Australia said Tuesday it would no longer recognize West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, reversing a contentious decision by the previous conservative government.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the city's status should be decided through peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and not through unilateral decisions, reported AFP.

"We will not support an approach that undermines" a two-state solution, she said, adding: "Australia's embassy has always been, and remains, in Tel Aviv".

In 2018 a conservative government led by Scott Morrison followed former US president Donald Trump's lead in naming West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

The move caused a domestic backlash in Australia and caused friction with neighboring Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation -- temporarily derailing a free trade deal.

Jerusalem is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians, and most foreign governments avoid formally declaring it the capital of any state.

"I know this has caused conflict and distress in part of the Australian community, and today the government seeks to resolve that," Wong said.

She accused the Morrison government of being motivated by a by-election in a beach-side Sydney suburb with a sizable Jewish community.

"You know what this was? This was a cynical play, unsuccessful, to win the seat of Wentworth and a by-election."
The center-left Labor party, with Anthony Albanese as prime minister and Wong as foreign minister, came to power in May 2022.

Wong insisted that the decision did not signal any hostility to Israel.

"Australia will always be a steadfast friend of Israel. We were amongst the first countries to formally recognize Israel," she said.

"We will not waver in our support of Israel and the Jewish community in Australia. We are equally unwavering in our support of the Palestinian people, including humanitarian support."

Israel occupied Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it, declaring the entire city its "eternal and indivisible capital".

Palestinians claim the eastern part as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

- Symbolism -Canberra's decision is unlikely to come as a shock to the Israeli government.

The policy reversal was foreshadowed by the removal of language on the Israeli capital on the website of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

But it will likely cause unease, according to Ran Porat, a historian and researcher at Melbourne's Monash University.

Even though Australia is not a major player in peace talks, he said: "In the Middle East in general symbolism is very much at the center of many conflicts. Symbolism is not negligible, it's not unimportant."

The move could be seized on Israel's opposition Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu as evidence of the government's failings ahead of November 1 elections.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid will be disappointed, Porat added, but the response "has to be walking between the disagreement and not souring relations with Canberra."



Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP

In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town's main Christian communities -- Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican --- and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

"The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

"There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it," the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zabadeh's Anglican church was busy in the runup to Easter but across the West Bank Christian communities have been in sharp decline as people emigrate in search of a better life abroad.

Zabadeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

"It led to a lot of people to think: 'Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?'" said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

"Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?"

- 'Existential threat' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and in recent months far-right ministers in its coalition government have called for the annexation of swathes of the territory.

Kasabreh said this "existential threat" was compounded by constant "depression" at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel's response to Hamas's October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Work has been hard to find for Zababdeh's mainly Christian residents since Israel rescinded Palestinian work permits following the October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor's office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

"Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war," said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. "Nobody knows what will happen".

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fuelling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

"People can't stay without work and life isn't easy," said 60-year-old maths teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

"For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It's a reality, not a call for emigration," he said.

"But I´m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

"And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad -- one in Germany, the other two in the United States."

Catholic priest Father Elias Tabban insists the hard times his congregation has been going though have deepened their faith.

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation's spirituality had never been so vibrant.

"Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that's when) you see the faith is growing," Tabban said.