Foreign Minister Penny Wong has apologised to the Jewish community for the way the federal government revealed its decision to no longer recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying the timing of the announcement was “deeply regrettable”.
The opposition urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to call his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid to apologise for the way the decision was handled.
In an opinion article for The Australian Jewish News, Wong said she understood there were “few issues more central for many Jewish people than the status of Jerusalem”.
“It is more than a political issue,” she wrote. “It is definitional. It is about history, faith, identity.”
As Albanese did a day earlier, Wong defended the substance of the government’s decision but said it could have been handled better.
“I regret that the shift away from Australia’s longstanding position, and the shift back this week, have been distressing for communities that have a deep-rooted and keenly felt stake in the cessation of conflict, particularly the Australian Jewish community,” she said in the piece, published on Thursday.
“And the timing of this week’s announcement, falling as it did on Simchat Torah, was also deeply regrettable.”
The Simchat Torah holy holiday prevented Jewish groups from commenting on the government’s decision until sundown on the day it was announced.
Read the article by Matthew Knott in The Age.