The Australian authorities has insisted it nonetheless regards the Golan Heights as occupied territory after Penny Wong described the location of a weekend assault as a “northern Israeli town”.
The international minister’s assertion was met with a flood of feedback on-line asking why she had successfully recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights – which Israel seized from Syria within the six-day struggle in 1967 – and never described it as occupied.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Community described the phrasing as “alarming”, noting that Israeli sovereignty was recognised solely by Israel and by the US below the Trump administration.
The Division of International Affairs and Commerce has sought to clear up the confusion, insisting Wong’s language concerning the city of Majdal Shams was not meant to sign a coverage shift.
“There is no change in our position that the Golan Heights are occupied by Israel, as determined by the UN security council,” a spokesperson for the division instructed Guardian Australia.
“Our longstanding position is that the Golan Heights are a matter for Israel and Syria to determine through negotiations in the context of a comprehensive peace settlement.”
The imprecise language comes after Wong beforehand criticised the then prime minister, Scott Morrison, for what she described as a scarcity of give attention to element in worldwide relations.
In 2021, when Morrison by chance endorsed Xi Jinping’s formulation for Taiwan reunification, Wong mentioned “words matter” in diplomacy.
A authorities supply mentioned the purpose of Wong’s assertion, posted on-line on Sunday, “was to highlight the real risks of escalation and to condemn the strikes that led to the civilian deaths in the town of Majdal Shams”.
The supply claimed the publish “acknowledged the fact that the town is administered and occupied by Israel”.
However Wong’s assertion, which was posted to each X and Instagram, started with the sentence: “Australia unequivocally condemns the strike on the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams.”
There was no reference within the assertion to the world as occupied territory.
On Monday (native time) the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited Majdal Shams, a majority Druze village, and promised a “harsh” response to the rocket strike on the occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 kids as they performed soccer.
“The state of Israel will not and cannot let this pass,” Netanyahu mentioned. Video footage confirmed a crowd of Druze residents gathering in objection to Netanyahu’s go to, some shouting in dissent.
Israeli and US officers have blamed Hezbollah for the assault, however the claims have been denied by the Lebanese militant group.
The Australian Greens’ international affairs spokesperson, Jordon Steele-John, wrote to Wong on Wednesday asking her to make clear the federal government’s stance.
“The community deserves to know why the minister’s position is seemingly contradictory with her own department,” Steele-John mentioned.
“Questions should be asked how the Trump position somehow became official Australian policy for a day before the department clarified it.”
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In November 1967, the UN safety council emphasised “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and known as on Israel to withdraw “from territories occupied in the recent conflict”.
That decision was adopted shortly after the six-day struggle, when Israel additionally seized the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
In 1981, UN safety council members unanimously agreed that “the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect”.
However in 2019, Donald Trump introduced in a tweet: “After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!”
Israel – which handed a legislation in 1981 to increase Israeli “laws, jurisdiction and administration” to the Golan Heights – argues the world ought to recognise “the reality on the ground” and observe the US lead.
In a UN debate about Trump’s resolution, the Israeli consultant mentioned that from the second of Israel’s founding, the Syrian regime had “maintained a policy of aggression” towards Israel.
“Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is forever,” the Israeli envoy, Danny Danon, mentioned in 2019.
Trump was accused by commentators of breaking the postwar norm of refusing to recognise the forcible annexation of territory – a stance that underpinned western opposition to the Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory, together with Crimea.
In October 2022, the Australian authorities denounced Russia’s “sham referenda in occupied areas of Ukraine”.
Wong and the legal professional common, Mark Dreyfus, mentioned on the time it was “baseless and false” to say Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia had been now a part of Russia.
The Australian authorities introduced in final August it will formally describe the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and Gaza because the Occupied Palestinian Territories, saying this was consistent with allies together with the UK and in line with worldwide legislation.
