The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry and the Zion­ist Fed­er­a­tion of Aus­tralia are deeply con­cerned by the Government’s state­ment and change in lan­guage about the Israeli-Pales­tin­ian con­flict.

The ECAJ and ZFA are rep­re­sen­ta­tive peak bod­ies of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. ECAJ Pres­i­dent Jil­lian Segal and ZFA Pres­i­dent Jere­my Leibler joint­ly stat­ed:

“The change in lan­guage is inac­cu­rate, ahis­tor­i­cal and coun­ter­pro­duc­tive.”

“Describ­ing East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza as ‘occu­pied Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries’ effec­tive­ly denies any Jew­ish claim to the West Bank and Jerusalem. The most impor­tant Jew­ish holy sites of the Tem­ple Mount and the West­ern Wall are in East Jerusalem, and there has been an unbro­ken Jew­ish pres­ence in the West Bank for thou­sands of years. Israelis and Pales­tini­ans have agreed to nego­ti­ate the divi­sion of the West Bank between them. Describ­ing the ter­ri­to­ries as ‘Pales­tin­ian’ not only pre-empts the out­come of nego­ti­a­tions but is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive.”

“Pales­tini­ans and Israelis agreed in 1993 that the set­tle­ments and the divi­sion of the West Bank and Gaza would be sub­ject to final sta­tus nego­ti­a­tions. The For­eign Min­is­ter has pre­vi­ous­ly stat­ed that Aus­tralia should not pre-empt the out­come of final sta­tus issues. It is regret­table that the gov­ern­ment has now done that.”

“Pales­tin­ian ter­ror­ism against Israeli tar­gets has risen dra­mat­i­cal­ly, and Pales­tin­ian lead­er­ship has refused to enter into nego­ti­a­tions with Israel in the last two years. Instead of attempt­ing to pre-empt the out­come of nego­ti­a­tions in favour of a par­ty that refus­es to nego­ti­ate, the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment should be urg­ing the Pales­tini­ans to return to the nego­ti­at­ing table.”

“It is con­cern­ing that just as Arab states are mov­ing clos­er to Israel and nor­mal­is­ing rela­tions, this announce­ment moves Aus­tralia in the oppo­site direc­tion. The announce­ment will be used by Israeli and Pales­tin­ian hard­lin­ers to bol­ster sup­port with­in their respec­tive con­stituen­cies and put a peace agree­ment fur­ther out of reach.”

“The Labor lead­er­ship ought to push back against fac­tions with­in Labor, and instead work to re-estab­lish a sen­si­ble, cen­trist and sus­tain­able bipar­ti­san posi­tion on the Israeli–Palestinian con­flict. The Israeli–Palestinian con­flict must not become a polit­i­cal foot­ball”.

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim AM | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax: 02 9361 5888
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au