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: [email protected] | www.ecaj.org.au