Australian government to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital World news Scott Morrison, the prime minister, to say that embassy will leave Tel Aviv when city’s status is finalised Scott Morrison, the prime minister, to say that embassy will leave Tel Aviv when city’s status is finalised The Australian government will formally recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but the embassy will not be moved from Tel Aviv until the city’s status is finalised under a peace settlement. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, will announce the foreign policy shift in a speech to the Sydney Institute on Saturday, The Australian reports. The government will also commit to recognising a future state of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem after a settlement has been reached on a two-state solution. While the embassy move is delayed, the government will establish a defence and trade office in Jerusalem and will start looking for an embassy site.
“The Australian government has decided that Australia now recognizes West Jerusalem – as the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government – is the capital of Israel,” Morrison will say in his speech, according to The Australian. “And we look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical, in support of, and after, final-status determination.” In May, when the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem, it sparked massive protests in Gaza which saw 58 Palestinians killed. Ever since Donald Trump’s declaration in December last year, Israel has been pushing hard to persuade other countries to follow.
In October, Morrison said he was “open to” to the move, describing it as a “sensible” proposal. Morrison, an evangelical Christian, immediately faced questions about whether his religious views had played a part in his decision to float the proposal, something he denied. “My faith and religion has nothing to do with this decision,” he said. Instead, he argued the status quo in Israeli-Palestinian relations had failed to make headway. “The orthodoxy that’s driven this debate which says issues like considering the question of the capital are taboo. I think we have to challenge that,” he said.
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