A US-based pro-Israel group has launched a campaign against the Albanese government’s decision to revoke recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital – and now plans to expand its operations in Australia.
But the campaign has sparked accusations that the Los Angeles-based organisation was “trying to trick the Australian government into thinking that the only way to be pro-Israel was to follow the Trump playbook”.
StandWithUs placed a half-page advertisement in the Weekend Australian on Saturday saying: “Jerusalem was already the capital of the Jewish people when Rome did not exist, the Mayan city of Chichen Itza did not exist [and] Australia’s only inhabitants were the Indigenous people on the land.”
It directed readers to a web form where they could submit an email to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, urging them to reconsider their “unjustified and poorly executed decision to reverse the Australian government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital”.
“Please restore the government’s commitment to truth by recognising that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” the form letter said.
StandWithUs has not disclosed how many people have used the form to submit letters so far.
But the organisation said it had placed the advertisement “as an educational strategy to remind people of the deep connection that Jews have with Jerusalem and of course, Israel”.
Read the article by Daniel Hurst in The Guardian.