Australia’s Jerusalem shift prompts Israel fury

In all the intractable and complicated aspects of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the status of Jerusalem is one of the more straightforward: Israel’s claim to West Jerusalem has never been recognised, because the United Nations Partition Plan in 1947 identified Jerusalem as having a separate body status. That still holds under international law.

For that matter, Israel’s control of East Jerusalem can never be recognised under international law either, because it’s an occupying power there — in exactly the same way that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory are illegal under international law.

The rage emanating from Israel and the Israel lobby in Australia over the Albanese government’s decision to return to the international status quo and withdraw recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is thus fury that Australia has chosen to observe international law, rather than pander to an apartheid state dedicated to suppressing and immiserating Palestinians.