Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement that the government will explore the possibility of Australia recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and consider relocating Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv is a courageous, measured and principled decision that serves Australia’s most basic national interests.
Moreover, it is a logical step in the Australia-Israel relationship which reaffirms Australia’s commitment to an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on two states for two peoples and explicitly leaves the door open for the Palestinians to establish their own capital in eastern Jerusalem, if future negotiations produce such an outcome.
Besides cynical jibes regarding the timing of the announcement close to the Wentworth byelection, criticism of the announcement has centred around two principal assumptions. First, it has been argued that recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and/or moving Australia’s embassy would harm Australia’s relationships with Arab and Muslim countries, particularly in matters of trade. Second, detractors claim that such a move would damage hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peace and violate some sort of international consensus that recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital should be withheld until the two-state vision is realised.
In reality, both assumptions are absolutely wrong.
Read the article by Colin Rubinstein (AIJAC) at The Sydney Morning Herald.