Bishop hoses down East Jerusalem row

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop last night denied the government has changed its position on the legal status of East Jerusalem.

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop last night denied the government has changed its position on the legal status of East Jerusalem, as the government faced a potential trade row over its decision to ­reverse the 47-year-old practice of describing land seized by Israel in 1967 as “occupied”.

Amid an intensifying diplomatic dispute, Ms Bishop affirmed the government’s hope Israelis and Palestinians would resume negotiations on “a just and lasting two-state solution”.

The government’s decision to abandon the term “occupied”, ­announced last week following a public stoush between Attorney-General George Brandis and Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, caught both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups off guard.

Arab ambassadors yesterday maintained trade boycotts were possible, potentially threatening the Australia’s surging live export trade to the Middle East, although experts predicted they would more likely retaliate by downgrading access for diplomats.

The Palestinian Authority’s top diplomat in Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, said a delegation of Arab and Muslim countries, ­including Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, would press their case at a meeting with Ms Bishop on Thursday.

Ms Bishop said in a statement: “We do not consider it helpful to engage in debates over legal issues nor to prejudge any final status ­issues that are the subject of these negotiations.

“There has been no change in the Australian government’s position on the legal status of the Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.

“Australia continues to be a strong supporter of a just and lasting two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state existing side by side in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders.”

Mr Abdulhadi, among about 20 Arab and Muslim envoys who took their protest to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday, said diplomatic backlash could include a motion in the UN General Assembly condemning Australia’s alleged rejection of international law.

“I wouldn’t like to see (retaliation) because actually we have a growing trade relationship ­between Australia and the Islamic world, and we would like to solve this problem quickly,” Mr Abdulhadi said.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, who has made live exports a core feature of his tenure, said the issue was not his “field of endeavour”.

“I will leave all that wondrous stuff on foreign affairs to people on a vastly better pay scale and smarter than I am,” Mr Joyce said.

“I am not going to ask anybody to do anything when their knowledge of the issue is vastly superior to mine.”

Jordanian ambassador Rima Alaadeen, whose country is Australia’s third-largest live sheep market, said grassroots activists were asking shoppers to boycott Australian goods at Ramadan, which commences on June 28.

“Ramadan and the following two months are very important in the Muslim world and the consumption of food items, especially meat and wheat, rise to nearly double,” Ms Alaadeen said.

Bill Shorten said: “Foreign affairs and diplomatic relations require cool heads and sensible comments, not just changing ­protocols or making sudden ­announcements.”