Australia recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital News
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Australia recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Saturday that the Australian government officially recognizes West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In the prime minister’s announcement, he singled out the UN for hypocritical stances in condemning and passing resolutions against Israel while not taking any action towards Myanmar, Syria or Russia. In addition, the prime minister reaffirmed his support for the two-state solution and expressed criticism of Israel’s development policy.

The Government has resolved that Australia’s position is now as follows: Australia now recognises West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel. West Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. And we look forward to moving our Embassy to West Jerusalem when practical, in support of, and after final status determination. We have decided to start the work though now to identify a suitable site for an Australian embassy in West Jerusalem.

Australia will join the US, which recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December, and Guatemala, which followed suit last spring.

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