Bishop rejects embassy move
FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop has turned down a call from new Liberal senator James Paterson for Australia to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop has turned down a call from new Liberal senator James Paterson for Australia to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In his maiden speech to Parliament last week, Paterson pointed to symbolic and practical reasons for the move.
Speaking to The AJN this week about the advantages of relocating the embassy, the 28-year-old, the youngest ever Liberal senator, said, “I believe that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital city, as the Israeli government says it is, and I think it is appropriate that Australia both formally recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city and also symbolically recognise it by moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Israel is the only country in the world that I’m aware of that states that its capital city is one city but that many countries in the international community do not recognise and I think that’s disrespectful and I think it’s inappropriate,” he added.
Paterson said there were also some “practical implications” of relocating the Australian embassy. “Many significant Israeli government bodies, including the Knesset, are based in Jerusalem, not in Tel Aviv, and Australian diplomats are spending a lot of time commuting between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It would be much easier and more appropriate if they were based in Jerusalem.”
Asked how politically feasible an Australian embassy switch might be, Paterson described it as “realistically a long-term agenda item”, although he would like to see it happen as soon as possible.
“I think the main catalyst for Australia to move its embassy is when the United States moves its embassy,” he said.
He was encouraged by last year’s Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act in Congress, which reinforces a 1995 Congressional act calling for the US embassy to be relocated to Jerusalem but which former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as President Barack Obama, have sidestepped.
Paterson said Republican presidential candidates in this campaign have all committed to the switch but he is not aware whether Democratic candidates have followed suit, although the act is strongly supported by Congressional Democrats.
Australia moving its embassy to Jerusalem is “just the right thing to do, and we should do it whenever we have the opportunity to, regardless of what other countries are doing”, he said.
However, Bishop told The AJN this week, “Like all other countries with diplomatic representation in Israel, Australia maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv. The Australian Government does not have any plans to relocate our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Paterson’s speech was hailed by Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm, who told The AJN his organisation “would welcome Australia showing leadership in recognising that the city of Jerusalem, the city recognised by the State of Israel as its capital, should be accepted by the rest of the world.”
PETER KOHN
comments