Faraway Australia is not a permanent member of the UN Security Council, nor of the prestigious club known as the Middle East Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia). Generally, it cuts and pastes the policy of whichever US administration happens to be in power on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Dec. 15, it declared its recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, making international headlines. The decision to fly the Australian flag over a new office for trade and defense to be opened in Jerusalem but not to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is no more than a footnote in the annals of the century-old conflict. However, the language of the decision and the varied reactions it generated faithfully reflect the grim state of what is known as the “peace process.”
Let us start with the Dec. 15 declaration by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a speech in Sydney that his government recognizes West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem, when practical, in support of and after a final status determination,” he added. But if there is recognition, why is there no relocation? Perhaps, as Morrison also said, it's due to the “strong concern over Israel’s land appropriations, demolitions and settlement activity … The settlements undermine peace and contribute to the stalemate we now see (in the peace process).”
And how does Australia express its support for a permanent Israeli-Palestinian arrangement leading, according to Morrison’s expressed hope, to recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine? On Dec. 5, 10 days before his speech, Australia’s delegation to the UN voted against a resolution unreservedly supporting the two-state solution that would have Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security based on the 1967 borderlines, adopting the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, the Quartet’s Road Map and UN Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016.
The Dec. 5 resolution was approved overwhelmingly by 156 UN member states. Only four — Australia, Liberia, the Marshall Islands and Nauru — acceded to requests by Israel and the United States to vote “nay.” Australia’s vote against a resolution promoting the two-state solution, a move that somehow did not make the headlines it merited, concerned the Palestinians far more than its somewhat vague pledge to recognize East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
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