News Release:

Australian Friends of Palestine welcome Penny Wong’s Jerusalem decision but express disappointment in terrorist link.

Australian Friends of Palestine Association Chair, Edie Bransbury has welcomed the Australian Government’s decision to rescind the former Coalition government’s decision to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The decision aligns Australia with the great majority of countries in the international community.

AFOPA also notes Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s statement of support for both the Palestinian people and the state of Israel.

Current Australian Government policy is to support efforts towards peace in Palestine and Israel and the establishment of separate states of Palestine and Israel.

Ms Bransbury said the weakness in that policy is that it’s contingent on the agreement of both Palestine and Israel. “It’s well known that the political leadership of Israel has stated publicly, over a period of years, that there will never again be a state of Palestine.

“With such a closed attitude, how can there be peace negotiations?” she asked. “And what do they think the land on which they live was called until 1948, when the British and American governments conspired to steal the Palestinian homeland and create a Jewish homeland?

“But even in that act of grand theft the original agreement for the establishment of Israel stipulated that Israel should occupy only 50% of Palestine and that Palestinians should continue to occupy the other half.

“Over the last 74 years that agreement has been shredded by successive Israeli administrations through military aggression, through which they’ve stolen most of the remaining 50% of Palestine. And even then, the remnants of Palestine today are under Israeli military occupation (West Bank) or control by blockade (Gaza),” Ms Bransbury said.

“And while we’re pleased by Senator Wong’s announcement rescinding the former Morrison government’s political decision to acknowledge West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, our Association emphasises there’s still a long way to go to achieve equality and justice for the Palestinian people.”

Ms Bransbury also expressed AFOPA’s disappointment at some Australian media coverage of the Albanese government’s decision, focusing on Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s claim that “terrorist” groups are cheering the decision.

“This smacks of the old trope that all Palestinians are terrorists,” she said. “It should be noted that Hamas is the elected ruling party of Gaza, even if, because of Israel’s oppressive apartheid policies towards Palestinians, they have restricted authority over Gaza.

“For instance, Israel controls the flow of food, water, medicines and building materials into Gaza. We’d like the Australian Government to accurately represent the attitude of the Australian people regarding such injustice.”