Australia takes stand for Israel in UN

Australia is expected to join a US led resolution today condemning the militant Palestinian organisation Hamas.

The Prime Minister revealed other world leaders had raised the issue of the embassy with him at the G20 meeting last weekend but would not reveal what views any of them had expressed. Picture: Getty Images

Australia is expected to join a US-led resolution today condemning the militant Palestinian organisation Hamas for firing rockets into Israel, in a further demonstration of the hawkish shift in Middle-East policy under Scott Morrison.

It follows the unprecedented move by Australia last week to vote for the first time against a UN resolution that explicitly denies Israel’s claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem.

With cabinet due to decide in the next two weeks whether to move Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the UN vote represents a formal change in position following a history of ­either abstaining or voting yes on what has become an annual ­denunciation of Israel by the UN.

The Prime Minister revealed other world leaders had raised the issue of the embassy with him at the G20 meeting last weekend but would not reveal what views any of them had expressed.

Australia last week was one of only 10 countries that voted with Israel against the UN resolution that makes “null and void” any claims by Israel to Jerusalem as its capital. A total of 148 countries voted “yes”, with an increase in the number of countries abstaining to 14. Australia stood with the US, Canada, Nauru, Micronesia, Palau, Guatemala, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Israel.

It is the first time since it was put to the UN in 1996 that Australia has voted “no’’ and comes ­despite veiled trade threats from Indonesia over Australia’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Mr Morrison’s embassy review announced in the week of the Wentworth by-election. In the face of hostility from Indonesia and Malaysia, Australia last week ramped up its support for Israel at the UN, which has been accused of having a strident anti-Israeli bias.

It dropped its previous positions of abstaining from several other resolutions attacking Israel, including the territorial dispute over Syria and Golan Heights, and voted “no” for the first time.

This effectively meant Australia rejected Syrian claims to the Golan Heights by not acknowledging pre-1967 lines as an international border.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council welcomed the federal government’s decision to vote “no” on six anti-Israel resolutions last Thursday at the UN General Assembly.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim praised Australia’s change in position: “Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said just because you are in the minority it doesn’t mean you are wrong.”

He said he was looking forward to Australia supporting a US-backed resolution condemning Hamas in the UN later today.

“Australia’s votes on these resolutions send a message to the UN the Australian government will not be a part of the annual ritual where the dictatorships and semi-dictatorships who comprise the majority of UN member states sit in judgment against the only liberal democracy in the Middle East,’’ Mr Wertheim said.

Executive-director of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council Colin Rubenstein said Australia had shown principled leadership: “Every November and December the United Nations General Assembly rubberstamps 20 anti-Israel resolutions.

“To its great credit, Australia has shown principled leadership by opposing biased resolutions that do not further the prospects of peace and actively entrenches the Palestinian leadership’s ongoing rejection of the painful compromises both sides need to make to achieve a two-state outcome.”