Julie Bishop sets Islamic leaders straight on dispute: the territories are occupied

JULIE Bishop has written to Islamic governments affirming land seized by Israel in 1967 as “occupied”.

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop has written to Islam­ic governments affirming land seized by ­­ ­Is­rael 47 years ago as “occupied” and describing East Jerusalem as part of “the Palestinian Territories”. The open letter was designed to soothe a diplomatic row with the Islamic world over the government’s announcement this month that phrases such as “occupied East Jerusalem” were “freighted with pejorative implications” that were “neither appropriate nor useful”.

Tony Abbott said last week that “the truth is they are disputed territories” and his Parliamentary Secretary, Josh Frydenberg, said the Coalition did not “want to prejudge the outcomes by saying if one side is occupying the other”. The letter was released yesterday as a meeting of 57 foreign ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation considered a resolution last night condemning Canberra’s position and calling on Islamic countries to “take necessary measures in response to these illegal positions”.

The letter emphasised the government’s new policy related to “nomenclature” and said “there has been no change in the Australian government’s position on the legal status of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem”.

The letter said that Australia’s position was consistent with UN Security Council resolutions that called for “a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, which should include the … withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupie­d in” the Six-Day War of June 1967.

Palestinian diplomat Izzat Abdulhadi, one of 20 Islamic envoys who met Ms Bishop yesterday, was encouraged that the government had “softened” its position.