Showing posts with label Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Show all posts

Friday, June 6, 2014

Australia: Eastern Jerusalem is Not 'Occupied' - ISRAEL TODAY

Australia: Eastern Jerusalem is Not 'Occupied' - ISRAEL TODAY

Thursday, June 05, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff  
The Australian government on Thursday very publicly rejected labeling the eastern half of Jerusalem as “occupied,” even though the Palestinians claim the area as their future capital and Israel refuses to relinquish it.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has for years made it clear that she does not support the popular, anti-Israel terminology that defines the Middle East peace process.
Earlier this year, Bishop insisted it was wrong to call Jewish settlements “illegal,” and late last year she demanded the United Nations take a more balanced approach to the conflict and stop bashing Israel as every perceived opportunity.
In remarks cited by The Sydney Morning Herald, Attorney General George Brandis, speaking on behalf of Bishop, said that the “description of East Jerusalem as ‘Occupied East Jerusalem’ is a term freighted with pejorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful.”
Bishop’s opponents in the Australian parliament were outraged, noting that even Israel’s greatest ally, the United States, views eastern Jerusalem as occupied territory.
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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Australian FM: What Law do Israeli Settlements Break? - ISRAEL TODAY

Australian FM: What Law do Israeli Settlements Break?

Friday, January 17, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff  
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop this week continued to demonstrate what is, on the international diplomatic stage, rare support not only for Israel, but for its historic right to this land.
In a must-read interview with The Times of Israel, Bishop said it was wrong for most in the international community to speak of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria as "illegal."
"I would like to see which international law has declared them illegal," said Bishop.
Most, including Israel's allies, interpret the Fourth Geneva Convention to mean that Israeli Jews cannot legitimately dwell in the so-called "West Bank."
The relevant article of the convention states that an occupying power is not permitted to settle any of its citizens in occupied territory.
However, numerous legal experts have in the past noted that it is dubious to apply the article to Israel, for several reasons. First, the West Bank was not the recognized sovereign territory of any other nation at the time Israel seized control of it. Second, there is overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence that the area is part, and even the central part of the Jews' ancestral homeland.
But even barring those arguments, Bishop pointed out that the original intent of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was to not prejudge a negotiated outcome, even in regards to the settlements.
For the world to already condemn the Jewish settlements as "illegal" is a gross violation of that principle.
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