Alwaght- The Australian government will reinstate the term “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” expressing its position to Israeli regime's illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“The Australian government is strengthening its opposition to settlements by affirming they are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace,” Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said at the Parliament House on Tuesday.
“In adopting the term we are clarifying that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza, were occupied by Israel following the 1967 war and that the occupation continues and reaffirms our commitment to negotiate a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist.”
Since 2014, Australian officials have avoided using the words "occupied" or "occupation" when referring to the West Bank. According to the Australian Broadcast Corporation, prior to that year, the usage of these terms was inconsistent.
“The description of East Jerusalem as ‘occupied’ East Jerusalem is a term freighted with pejorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful,” then-attorney general George Brandis told a Senate hearing in 2014.
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In 1967, Israeli regime occupied and annexed the eastern part of the city of al-Quds (Jerusalem), which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community or international law.
In 2022, the Australian foreign ministry overturned a policy from 2018 that acknowledged western al-Quds as the capital of Israeli regime.
