tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/tel-aviv-52685/articlesTel Aviv – The Conversation2023-06-01T12:29:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059152023-06-01T12:29:34Z2023-06-01T12:29:34ZIsraeli protesters fear for the future of their country’s precarious LGBTQ rights revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528676/original/file-20230527-15-3k7zwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C1017%2C676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators lift Israeli flags and LGBTQ pride flags during a protest against the proposed judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv in May 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-lift-flags-and-banners-during-a-protest-news-photo/1256499783?adppopup=true">Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Demonstrations against the Israeli government’s efforts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-judicial-reform-efforts-could-complicate-its-relationship-with-us-but-the-countries-have-faced-other-bumps-along-the-road-203104">radically overhaul the country’s judicial system</a> have become a weekly occurrence. Often rainbow pride banners pop with color amid the sea of blue and white national flags.</p>
<p>LGBTQ allies are hardly the only groups protesting the new government: Secular Jews, liberals and people concerned that the plan will erode democracy have come out to the streets in droves since early 2023. But among other concerns, many Israelis fear that hard-line conservative ministers will <a href="https://www.jta.org/2023/01/17/politics/israel-has-been-an-lgbtq-haven-in-the-middle-east-its-new-government-could-change-that">roll back LGBTQ rights</a>. And LGBTQ issues are a potent symbol of a chasm fueling debate over the judicial overhaul: <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-07-26/ty-article-opinion/.premium/the-secret-of-the-lgbt-protests-success/0000017f-dc5c-d856-a37f-fddc43a30000">secular and religious Israeli Jews’</a> very different visions of the Jewish state.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition is the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/netanyahus-government-takes-a-turn-toward-theocracy">most religious</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2023/1/20/23561464/israel-new-right-wing-government-extreme-protests-netanyahu-biden-ben-gvir">nationalist</a> in the country’s history. His supporters claim that Israel’s Supreme Court, whose rulings guaranteed many of the rights LGBTQ people have today, is interventionist and <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-732567">needs to be reined in</a>. Opponents, however, fear that Israel’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-its-75th-birthday-israel-still-cant-agree-on-what-it-means-to-be-a-jewish-state-and-a-democracy-204770">balance of being a democratic state and a Jewish one</a> is tipping away from democracy.</p>
<p>But how did Israel become relatively accepting of LGBTQ people in the first place – especially given the ways religion and state are <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/activity/pages/basiclaws.aspx">entangled in its laws</a>? The answer does not rest solely with the Supreme Court. The legislature, popular culture and activist organizations were key – <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479810031/queer-judaism/">including Orthodox groups known as the Proud Religious Community</a>, a focus of <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/info/20855/faculty/4979/orit_avishai">my ethnographic research</a>. I believe the lack of separation between law and religion has at times actually helped advance LGBTQ Jews’ rights. Activists’ carefully picked agenda and its convergence with national interests have also aided the movement.</p>
<h2>The ‘gay decade’</h2>
<p>Chronicles of Israel’s LGBTQ rights often focus on changes that occurred during the so-called “gay decade” that began in 1988, when the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/03/23/Parliament-legalizes-homosexuality-in-Israel/1523575096400/">repealed sodomy laws</a>. The groundwork for that, however, began decades earlier.</p>
<p>Israel’s first LGBTQ organization, <a href="https://www.lgbt.org.il/english-new">The Aguda</a>, was founded in 1975 as a grassroots, volunteer-based human rights nonprofit. In its early years, many members were closeted, but by the early 1980s some LGBTQ activists were willing to put a public face on the movement by sharing their stories in interviews, public hearings and lobbying efforts. A groundbreaking 1983 Aguda pamphlet appealed to scientific evidence and international legal precedents to make the case for <a href="https://www.mako.co.il/pride-news/local/Article-16dfa68babbbf71027.htm">ending prejudice and discrimination</a>. </p>
<p>A dizzying array of rights were achieved during the gay decade and beyond. Sexual orientation was declared a protected employment category in 1992, and openly gay women and men were <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127131403">allowed to serve in the military</a> in 1993. Same-sex partners were recognized for welfare in 1994, national insurance benefits in 1999 and pension benefits in 2000. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in sunglasses and a tan military uniform smiles and holds a rainbow-striped flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1098&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1098&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529132/original/file-20230530-21-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1098&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israeli soldier during the 2007 Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, with heavy police presence to prevent clashes with protesters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-israeli-female-soldier-holds-the-multi-colored-gay-pride-news-photo/74847632?adppopup=true">Gali Tibbon/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Because religious authorities have monopoly over marriage and divorce in Israel, <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/11/israel-wont-legalize-gay-marriage-heres-why.html">same-sex marriage is not legalized</a>. Nevertheless, over the past 20 years, same-sex couples and their families have won many other legal protections, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/committee-okays-inheritance-between-same-sex-partners/">including inheritance</a>, stepchild adoption, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israeli-court-grants-gay-divorce-even-though-same-sex-marriage-flna1c7425785">divorce</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/israel-lifts-restrictions-sex-surrogacy-rcna10859">surrogacy rights</a>.</p>
<h2>Uneven gains</h2>
<p>Beyond the law, LGBTQ Israelis have also benefited from increasing cultural visibility and public acceptance. Municipal and state investments have made the Tel Aviv Pride Parade a <a href="https://www.afar.com/magazine/the-worlds-biggest-lgbtq-pride-celebrations">top destination</a> for Pride month travelers around the world. Israeli <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/10/viva-la-diva-how-eurovisions-dana-international-made-trans-identity-mainstream">transgender singer Dana International</a> won the Eurovision contest in 1998, and gay characters began to appear in <a href="https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/soldiers-rebels-and-drifters">mainstream movies</a> and popular TV by the turn of the millennium. The late 1990s and the aughts also saw a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1295">significant expansion</a> of organizations to support LGBTQ people and their families.</p>
<p>Still, access to protections has always been uneven. The early gay “revolution” was predominantly secular, and remains so. It is mostly an urban, Jewish, Ashkenazi affair – referring to <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/who-are-ashkenazi-jews/">Jews whose families were from Europe</a>. Transgender people won <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-lgbt-victory-court-bans-transgender-workplace-prejudice/">employment protections</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/israel-s-first-openly-transgender-soldier-paves-way-others-n742876">the right to serve in the military</a> more than a decade after gays and lesbians won the same rights.</p>
<p>Attitudes toward LGBTQ Israelis have been slower to change in conservative religious communities, and same-sex relationships remain taboo in ultra-Orthodox circles. Since the turn of the 21st century, however, Orthodox activists have begun to organize, as I document in my recent book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479810031/queer-judaism/">Queer Judaism</a>.”</p>
<h2>Path to acceptance</h2>
<p>Although a minority, religious conservatives have been power brokers and members of government coalitions for most of the state of Israel’s history. Yet certain aspects of the country’s political landscape help explain the LGBTQ movement’s successes – as do activists’ strategic choices.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men embrace as they stomp drinking glasses on the ground. One wears a black suit and one wears a white suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529135/original/file-20230530-21-j68l6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yohay Verman and Yotam Ha'Cohen smash glasses during their marriage during the 2016 Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-gay-couple-yohay-verman-and-yotam-hacohen-smash-news-photo/578336518?adppopup=true">Gali Tibbon/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>First, the lack of separation of state and religion means that Israel does not offer a civil marriage option, even for opposite-sex couples. The legal system developed alternatives for heterosexual Jewish couples who did not want to or could not marry through the Jewish rabbinate, such as extending many of marriage’s civil benefits to cohabitating couples. These alternatives were relatively <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3065040#">easy to extend</a> to same-sex couples.</p>
<p>Second, the goals that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_101-1">the Israeli LGBTQ movement</a> has prioritized – equal rights to parenthood, family and military service – aligned well with Jewish Israeli common values and national priorities. They often <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3065040#">avoided alliances</a> with other causes that were considered controversial, especially Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Third, Tel Aviv’s fun façade as a thriving gay scene served national interests. Politicians from across the political spectrum have used Israel’s liberal record on LGBTQ rights to bolster its democratic credentials while ignoring criticism over systemic human rights violations toward Arab citizens of the state and Palestinians in the occupied territories – <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/israelsolpalestine-and-the-queer-international">a phenomenon sometimes called “pinkwashing</a>.”</p>
<h2>Pivotal moment?</h2>
<p>The same forces that facilitated Israel’s LGBTQ rights revolution, however, may now undo hard-won gains.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Angry-looking men holding signs in Hebrew shout during a protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529134/original/file-20230530-19-fnmyth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israelis take part in a protest against the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem on July 21, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-right-wing-religious-jews-take-part-in-a-protest-news-photo/578328184?adppopup=true">Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Jewish religious conservatives have long viewed acceptance of LGBTQ people’s rights <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-israel-middle-east-jerusalem-religion-260e59484c89b5f19cee67a5ca0ceb50">as an affront to the state’s Jewish character</a>. In the past, ruling coalitions with both political moderates and Orthodox parties guaranteed some modicum of compromise, including on LGBTQ rights. But the current ruling coalition rests on the support of religious ultranationalists, including ministers who have <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-my-voters-dont-care-im-a-homophobic-fascist-but-my-word-is-my-word/">openly opposed LGBTQ rights</a>. </p>
<p>Another factor is the current right-wing government’s unambiguous territorial ambitions. <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/judicial-reform-boosting-jewish-identity-the-new-coalitions-policy-guidelines/">Its guiding document</a> declares that “The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel,” and one senior minister has even <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-appears-to-post-support-for-expulsion-of-arab-israelis/">hinted at his support for Arab expulsion</a>. With such <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-05-20/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/israel-is-hurtling-toward-a-new-kind-of-illiberal-regime/00000188-35a8-d7fd-adec-ffebca370000">nationalistic aims</a> out in the open, the state may no longer feel as much of a need to use LGBTQ rights to defend its human rights record.</p>
<p>During research for my book about Orthodox LGBTQ activism in Israel, I noticed how efforts to change conservative communities’ ideas about equality and acceptance were grounded in claims of a shared Jewish experience. However, LGBTQ activists I talked to did not challenge other aspects of far-right politics.</p>
<p>Critics of LGBTQ activists’ approach warn that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1295">prioritizing narrower interests</a>, rather than a broader social justice platform, fails to rein in <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/middle-east-briefs/pdfs/101-200/meb150.pdf">Israel’s broader shift</a> away from liberal democratic norms – which could jeopardize their own hard-won gains as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Orit Avishai receives funding from the Association for the Sociology of Religion, The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, The Global Religion Research Initiative (Notre Dame and Templeton Trust), Fordham University</span></em></p>LGBTQ rights are not the main issue bringing Israeli protesters to the streets, but they do symbolize the country’s stark divide.Orit Avishai, Professor of Sociology, Fordham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927722022-10-18T23:50:38Z2022-10-18T23:50:38ZAustralia’s reversal on recognising Jerusalem as Israeli capital is simply a return to status quo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490489/original/file-20221018-18-w4jk1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Albanese Labor government’s <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/reversal-recognition-west-jerusalem">decision</a> to reverse its predecessor’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has elicited a predictable reaction from Israel and its supporters in Australia.</p>
<p>Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid-assails-australia-for-dropping-recognition-of-jerusalem-ambassador-summoned/">condemned</a> what he described as a “hasty response” to indications in the Australian media Canberra was about to shift ground on recognition of West Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Guardian Australia had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/17/australia-quietly-drops-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-as-capital-of-israel">noted</a> a change on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.</p>
<p>In Australia, Colin Rubenstein, spokesman for the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), <a href="https://www.jwire.com.au/a-pointless-own-goal/">called</a> the reversal a “pointless own goal”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This decision by the government is not only deeply disappointing, [it] risks denting Australia’s credibility with some of our closest allies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1582165631910060032"}"></div></p>
<p>The short answer is that it is unlikely Australia’s “credibility” will be harmed by a decision that reinstates what has been, until recently, a status quo policy under successive Labor and Coalition governments.</p>
<p>Rather, the decision announced by Foreign Minister Penny Wong will likely reinforce Canberra’s reputation as a middle power seeking to navigate its way in the shifting sands of Middle East politics.</p>
<p>Importantly, Australia’s neighbours in the region, including principally <a href="https://www.medcom.id/english/world/eN4q4o7b-indonesia-welcomes-australia-s-decision-to-drop-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-as-israel-capital">Indonesia</a>, have welcomed the decision.</p>
<p>The simple fact is Australia has now realigned itself with all its friends and allies, with the exception of the United States, on this issue.</p>
<p>Under US President Donald Trump, Washington had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/middleeast/trump-jerusalem-israel-capital.html">diverted</a> from the policy of his predecessors and recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017. The following year, the US embassy was moved there.</p>
<p>The Morrison government then <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/14/australian-government-to-recognise-jerusalem-as-israels-capital">followed the US lead</a>, without moving the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This was a half, or three-quarter, step towards all-out recognition.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/morrisons-decision-to-recognise-west-jerusalem-the-latest-bad-move-in-a-mess-of-his-own-making-108892">Morrison's decision to recognise West Jerusalem the latest bad move in a mess of his own making</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>Circumstances surrounding Canberra’s precipitate decision in 2018 to recognise west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital are relevant.</p>
<p>That decision coincided with the lead-up to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/oct/20/wentworth-by-election-live-results-liberal-dave-sharma-kerryn-phelps-exit-poll-latest-news-updates">knife-edge by-election</a> in the Sydney seat of Wentworth, where there is a significant Jewish population. The byelection was called to fill a casual vacancy caused by the resignation from parliament of former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull.</p>
<p>As it turned out, the Morrison government’s decision to overturn what had been settled Australian policy did not yield the desired result. The independent Kerryn Phelps won the seat.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490498/original/file-20221018-4769-2bc3lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The decision to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital came in the lead-up to the hotly contested 2018 Wentworth byelection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In all of this, history is important.</p>
<p>In the years since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, successive Australian governments, Coalition and Labor, had adhered to a policy of not recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. This decision was made pending final status negotiations on the future of the city.</p>
<p>Until the 1967 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Day-War">six-day war</a>, following Israel’s <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war">war of independence</a> in 1948, Jerusalem was a divided city between its west, which is the seat of the Israeli government, and east, then under the control of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.</p>
<p>That ended with Israel’s smashing victory over the Arabs in 1967. Israel occupied east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Syria’s Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip until then under Egyptian mandate, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.</p>
<p>In six days, Israel had turned the map of the Middle East upside down.</p>
<p>This was followed by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Yom-Kippur-War">1973 Yom Kippur war</a>, in which Egypt sought to wrest back the Sinai from its Israeli occupiers. After making initial inroads along the Suez Canal, Egypt was on the verge of a heavy defeat when America brokered a ceasefire and laid the ground for what became the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/camp-david">Camp David Accords of 1978</a>.</p>
<p>This ushered in a cold peace between Israel and Egypt, with Israel withdrawing from virtually all of the Sinai.</p>
<p>In the years since Camp David, repeated attempted by successive American administrations to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/two-state-solution">broker peace</a> between Israel and the Palestinians under a two-state formula have failed, even as Israel has continued to settle territory seized in 1967.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-the-australian-embassy-to-jerusalem-makes-sense-heres-why-105037">Moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem makes sense: here's why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>This is the background to Wong’s <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/reversal-recognition-west-jerusalem">announcement</a> that Australia had “reaffirmed’’ its </p>
<blockquote>
<p>longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved in any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There was a sting in the tail to Wong’s announcement.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I regret that Mr Morrison’s decision to play politics resulted in Australia’s shifting position, and the distress these shifts have caused to many people in the Australian community who care deeply about this issue.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Labor’s own political interests are not absent from this statement. The government holds a swag of seats in western Sydney and north and west of Melbourne where the issue of Palestine is among voter concerns.</p>
<p>Much has been made of the messy way in which the Wong announcement was made. Due to diligent reporting by Guardian Australia, Labor’s pending shift was revealed.</p>
<p>Wong was then put in a position of first denying there had been a change without a cabinet decision, and then making her announcement. This clumsiness should not have happened on such an important policy shift, given the domestic political sensitivities involved.</p>
<p>All of this brings into focus Labor’s <a href="https://www.markdreyfus.com/media/opinion-pieces/labor-s-policy-on-israel-and-the-palestinian-territories-mark-dreyfus-qc-mp/">guiding policy</a> on the Israel-Palestine dispute.</p>
<p>At its 2018 National Conference and reaffirmed at its 2021 conference, its policy states that a Labor government:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders</p>
<p>calls on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state</p>
<p>expects that this issue will be an important priority for the next Labor government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This does not mean Labor will be in any rush to recognise Palestine as a state separate from a full-blown peace process in which a two-state solution becomes a reality. Since there is little chance of that happening in the foreseeable future, Labor’s national conference policy will remain "on the books” as a potential irritant to Israel’s supporters in Australia, but no more than that for the time being.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally said the government’s decision again recognises Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital. This is incorrect - it simply no longer recognises West Jerusalem as the capital.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Walker is a member of The Conversation's board.</span></em></p>Rather than harming Australia’s credibility, the decision will likely reinforce Canberra’s reputation as a middle power seeking to navigate its way in the shifting sands of Middle East politics.Tony Walker, Vice-chancellor's fellow, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1609622021-05-18T14:54:09Z2021-05-18T14:54:09ZBoth Israel and Hamas are aiming to look strong, instead of finding a way out of their endless war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401083/original/file-20210517-21-14gfict.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C719%2C466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On the left, fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City as Israeli warplanes target the Palestinian enclave on May 17, 2021; on the right, rockets launched from Gaza flying toward Israel on May 10, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fire-and-smoke-rise-above-buildings-in-gaza-city-as-israeli-news-photo/1232938201 and https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rockets-launched-from-gaza-flying-towards-israel-in-gaza-news-photo/1232815517">Mahmud Hams / AFP/Getty Images and Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Israel and Hamas are locked in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/15/world/israel-gaza-updates">ever-escalating rounds of violence</a>. </p>
<p>This is not new. Every few years, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/11/what-has-caused-jerusalem-worst-violence-in-years-israel-palestine">large-scale violence erupts</a> for a few days or weeks and ends with a temporary ceasefire that essentially returns the situation to the same depressing status quo: <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/gaza-destruction-has-become-part-landscape-photos">The Gaza Strip besieged and devastated</a> and the adjacent Israeli population in a constant fear of the next attack as well. </p>
<p>Though this is far from a symmetric conflict – <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57092245">Israel has vastly more military resources than Hamas</a> – it is traumatic on both sides. </p>
<p>And <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-israel-middle-east-israel-palestinian-conflict-government-and-politics-da11b644792f0222360b277ec8a46b4b">neither side has a vision</a> of either actual military resolution or a diplomatic solution to the impasse. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/1621176960-netanyahu-gaza-operation-will-take-time-but-us-has-israel-s-back">Israeli leaders know</a> that pressing the offensive in Gaza will prolong the missile barrage on its towns and cities, including even Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/world/middleeast/israel-tel-aviv.html">which in the past has not endured such ferocious rocket attacks</a>. Hamas leaders know that the price the people of Gaza pay for their continued rocket launches is disproportionately high and rising.</p>
<p>So why keep escalating? Because the prize for each side is to be seen as tougher than the other. And there is no end to that contest.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three people looking at rubble from a building destroyed by a rocket attack." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401329/original/file-20210518-23-12k2ycc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israelis look at the site of a rocket strike from the Gaza Strip on May 17, 2021 in Ashdod, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israelis-look-at-the-site-of-a-rocket-strike-from-the-gaza-news-photo/1232955623?adppopup=true">Amir Levy/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making the other side suffer</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Gaza-Strip">The Gaza Strip</a> is a tiny and densely populated strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. Since 2007, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13331522">Hamas, which Israel defines as a terrorist organization</a> but most Palestinians regard as a legitimate political party, has been the de facto ruler of the area.</p>
<p>Also since that year, <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/theme/gaza-blockade">Israel has been blockading the Gaza Strip</a> in retaliation for Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza, aimed across the border at Israel. The result has been an increasingly <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/11/1078532">severe economic crisis, hunger and desperation in Gaza</a>. <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2021/05/why-has-gaza-frequently-become-a-battlefield-between-hamas-and-israel/">Repeated rounds of violence</a> did not fundamentally change this situation, and the current one is looking no different. </p>
<p>Israel’s main goal is to be seen as tough against its enemies, including Hamas. This isn’t done to achieve better lives for its Israeli citizens or even to advance national interests, but as a goal in and of itself, as demonstrated in <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/triadic-coercion/9780231171847">a book</a> Wendy Pearlman and I authored on the subject.</p>
<p>Despite the asymmetry of their forces, the mode of thinking is quite similar in the leadership of Hamas. That’s evident from the repeated rounds of violence that it initiates that result in no strategic achievement, but which enhance the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/ending-gazas-perpetual-crisis-a-new-u-s-approach/">prestige of Hamas</a> as standing up to Israeli oppression. </p>
<p>And for both sides, reputation is not defined as showing resolve, resilience or perseverance. That could be accomplished by defensive means. </p>
<p>This boils down to a deadly calculus: The more the other side suffers, the better your reputation, no matter how much your side suffers as well. </p>
<p><iframe id="Mmc8a" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Mmc8a/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Here’s how that works: An Israeli child is <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/middle-east-north-africa/553163-6-year-old-killed-in-rocket-strike-on-apartment">killed in a Hamas rocket attack on Sderot</a>, just east of the Gaza Strip. Israeli rockets then pulverize a building in Beit Lahia a few miles away, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/14/palestinians-in-gaza-recount-ruthless-horrors-of-israeli-raids">killing four children</a> from one family in the process. </p>
<p>Israel flattens a residential tower in the Gaza Strip. Hamas then increases the range and quantity of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gazas-hamas-militants-fire-130-rockets-towards-tel-aviv-hamas-statement-2021-05-11/">missiles launched</a> toward central Israel. </p>
<p>And so it continues in a fatal tit-for-tat, with Israeli violence responding many times more intensely to each instance of Hamas violence.</p>
<h2>Not rational</h2>
<p>Scholars generally see a country’s attempts to establish a reputation for resolve as part of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491573">a rational action to deter</a> attacks by its enemy.</p>
<p>So, if either Israel’s leaders or those of Hamas think that their action would prevent future attacks by the enemy, this ferocity might make sense – regardless of its morality. But, as is obvious, neither sides’ actions do. </p>
<p>When actual victory is impossible and when the two sides are reluctant to engage in meaningful negotiation, the escalation is meant, instead, to create <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-neither-israel-nor-hamas-will-back-down-1.9795776">“a picture of victory,”</a> as Zvi Bar'el, a news analyst for Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz described it on May 12, 2021. </p>
<p>On May 11, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh declared that the organization “achieved victory in the battle of Jerusalem,” referring to the conflict over <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-jerusalem-tensions-sparked-heaviest-israel-gaza-fighting-years-2021-05-12/">eviction of Palestinians from their homes</a> that started this round of conflagration. He said the organization has “set a new balance of <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/05/12/hamas-leader-declares-victory-in-battle-for-jerusalem-as-rocket-salvos-hammer-israel/">power</a>” against Israel.</p>
<p>Yet clearly, as Gaza is crumbling under the ferocity of Israel’s bombardments and Jerusalem remains firmly controlled by Israel, Hamas made no such achievements. </p>
<p>Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that the Israeli leadership’s goals were “to bring long-term peace, strengthen the moderate forces in the region and deprive Hamas of strategic <a href="https://hamodia.com/2021/05/16/defense-minister-gantz-addresses-nation/">capabilities</a>.” </p>
<p>Yet Israel’s actions, like previous rounds of violence, only strengthen the political and military power of Hamas, as evidenced by its ability to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-in-israel-almost-everyone-is-on-the-front-line-1.9807695">target more of Israel’s territory</a> than ever before, and over a longer time period than before. Israel’s citizens, in cities from Beer-Sheva in the south to Tel Aviv, farther north, continue to face a barrage of missiles from Gaza. And as the carnage in Gaza increases, the diplomatic damage to Israel is increasing as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Palestinian civil defense members rescue a man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401057/original/file-20210517-19-8ci5ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian civil defense members rescue a man who was trapped under the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on May 16, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-palestinian-civil-defense-rescue-a-man-who-was-news-photo/1232945991">Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Playing to their audience</h2>
<p>What could be the purpose of the Israeli and Hamas leaders’ actions? </p>
<p>Their picture of victory is targeted solely at <a href="https://www.vox.com/22430488/israel-gaza-war-2021-hamas-sheikh-jarrah">domestic audiences</a>. Both Israel and Hamas frequently use the term “deterrence” when justifying their action against each other. </p>
<p>But their practice is not actually a rational attempt to sway the opponent’s action. It is not a rational attempt to make their own public more secure. It does not, therefore, serve to enhance deterrence. Convincing your own public that you have been victorious does not affect the degree to which your enemy is deterred.</p>
<p>For Israel, such distortion of the understanding of <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/triadic-coercion/9780231171847">dynamics of deterrence is not new</a>. Israel’s retaliation policy started in the 1950s as a fairly rational attempt at deterring enemies from threatening Israeli interests. </p>
<p>But then it became a “strategic culture,” or a habitual reaction to any attack on Israeli soil, whether that retaliation is likely to yield positive results or not.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-war-cost/factbox-costs-of-war-and-recovery-in-lebanon-and-israel-idUSL0822571220070709">Israeli bombing of Lebanese infrastructure</a> during the 2006 war serves as a good example. As in that war, Israel attempts today in Gaza to achieve a picture of victory rather than concrete aims. And Hamas wants to achieve the same goal. </p>
<p>So long as the two sides are each aiming to convince their own public of their superiority, military ingenuity and resolve, and as long as the leaders on both sides do not care about the consequences of their actions, their citizens and the rest of the world – watching in horror – should expect no progress. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Boaz Atzili does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In most wars, each side’s aggression is meant to get the other side to back down. But that’s not the case with how Israeli and Palestinian leaders have conducted their long-running war.Boaz Atzili, Associate Professor of International Relations, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1609582021-05-15T21:50:38Z2021-05-15T21:50:38ZAs the Palestinian minority takes to the streets, Israel is having its own Black Lives Matter moment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400851/original/file-20210515-23-99t1ht.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C20%2C6629%2C4426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinians gesture and wave Palestinian flags at Israelis in a Jewish community building, during renewed riots in the city of Lod on May 11. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/may-2021-israel-lod-israeli-arabs-gesture-and-wave-news-photo/1232825386?adppopup=true">Oren Ziv/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/middleeast/gallery/israeli-palestinian-tensions-2021/index.html">images and reports coming from Israel, Jerusalem and Gaza</a> in recent days are shocking. They are also surprising to those who thought the 2020 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/us/politics/trump-israel-united-arab-emirates-uae.html">Abraham Accords</a> and subsequent agreements to normalize relations between Israel and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/ilm.2021.18">United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan</a> would place the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians permanently on the backburner. </p>
<p>As someone who has been <a href="https://history.ucla.edu/faculty/james-gelvin">writing and teaching about the Middle East</a> for more than 30 years, I had no such illusions. The reason for this is that at its heart, the so-called “Arab-Israeli conflict” has always been about Israelis and Palestinians. And no matter how many treaties Israel signs with Arab states, it will remain so.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/12/readout-of-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-call-with-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-of-israel-2/">In a phone call on May 12</a>, President Joe Biden assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his “unwavering support for Israel’s security and for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself and its people.” Biden was referencing the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinian-rocket-fire-israeli-air-strikes-gaza-2021-05-11/">rocket attacks on Israel launched by Hamas</a>, the Islamist group that governs Gaza. By <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-expects-spiralling-israel-gaza-conflict-end-soon-2021-05-12/">targeting civilians</a>, Hamas is committing a war crime. In all probability, so is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-bombing-gaza-apartment-buildings-potential-war-crime-rights-groups-2021-5">Israel, by bombing and shelling Gaza</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bright trails of rockets fired towards Israel from the Gaza strip, lighting up the orange night sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400835/original/file-20210514-17-plxf84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rockets light up the night sky as they are fired towards Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rockets-light-up-the-night-sky-as-they-are-fired-towards-news-photo/1232873731?adppopup=true">Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the carnage the Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli retaliation inflicts on Israelis and Gazans, the Biden administration is focusing on a sideshow, not the main event. </p>
<p>That main event is an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/13/world/israel-gaza-news">unprecedented conflict taking place on the streets</a> of Jerusalem, Haifa, Lod and elsewhere. It’s what scholars call an “intercommunal conflict,” pitting elements of Israel’s Jewish population against elements of Israel’s Palestinian population <a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-by-palestinian-citizens-in-israel-signal-growing-sense-of-a-common-struggle-160753">who have had enough and have taken to the streets</a>. </p>
<p>Hamas could not maintain its credibility as a movement if it sat by while Palestinians in Israel battled Jewish Israelis there. The reality is that Israel is having its Black Lives Matter moment. </p>
<p>As in the United States, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/world/middleeast/israel-apartheid-palestinians-hrw.html">brutalized minority group, facing systemic racism and discriminatory acts</a>, has taken to the streets. And, as in the United States, the only way out starts with serious soul-searching on the part of the majority. </p>
<p>But after the spate of Palestinian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/09/israel">suicide bombings in the early 2000s that horrified Israelis and hardened their attitudes</a> toward Palestinians, this is unlikely to occur. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in grief on his knees next to the bodies of three of his family members laid out on stretchers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C7630%2C4971&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400850/original/file-20210515-13-1htmt6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Relatives of the Abu Hatab family mourn over the bodies of their family members after an Israeli air strike struck their house without warning during the night, in Gaza City early on May 15, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/graphic-content-topshot-relatives-of-the-abu-hatab-family-news-photo/1232892703?adppopup=true">Mahmoud Hams/AFP/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Many reasons, one source</h2>
<p>Palestinian anger can be attributed to multiple issues. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jerusalem-middle-east-lifestyle-government-and-politics-43d4cab031c28da0abf98d694dd169ac">In April, Israel attempted to impede access</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-al-aqsa-mosque-has-often-been-a-site-of-conflict-160671">to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem</a> for Palestinians living in the West Bank. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/al-aqsa-clashes-palestinians-israeli-police/">Israeli police then raided the Muslim holy site</a>, reportedly after Palestinians threw stones at them, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/over-330-palestinians-wounded-in-clashes-with-israeli-police-at-al-aqsa-mosque-1.9790737">injuring 330</a>. At the beginning of May, Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/world/middleeast/palestinian-vote-delayed.html">cancelled the first Palestinian legislative elections</a> in 15 years. Finally, when the current conflict spilled over into the West Bank, the Israeli occupation and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2201473X.2014.947671">continued colonization of Palestinian territory</a> were thrown into the mix.</p>
<p>These significant issues explain Palestinian anger. However, the intercommunal nature of the ongoing conflagration is due to two other issues.</p>
<p>First, Jewish settlers attempted to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah-becomes-emblem-palestinian-struggle-2021-05-10/">evict eight Palestinian families</a> from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-joins-other-un-entities-raising-alarm-over-eight-sheikh-jarrah">had settled the families in the neighborhood during the 1950s</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/world/middleeast/israeli-court-palestinian-families-east-jerusalem.html">Jewish settlers filed suit</a> in 1972 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/1/what-is-happening-in-occupied-east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah">claiming their right to the homes</a> where those families lived. They argued that Jews had owned the Palestinians’ homes before the division of the city in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. By right, they argue, the homes belong to their community.</p>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-religion-6437efa7d19c63006bc2b6d3abbf8169">Jewish neighborhoods housing more than 215,000</a> encircle the predominantly Palestinian eastern part of Jerusalem, where Sheikh Jarrah is located. For Palestinians, the attempt to evict the families is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah-becomes-emblem-palestinian-struggle-2021-05-10/">representative of Israel’s overall policy of pushing them out of the city</a>. It is not only a reminder that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-what-it-s-like-to-be-a-palestinian-citizen-in-israel-1.6878243">in a Jewish state Palestinians are second-class citizens</a>, but a reenactment of the central tragedy in the Palestinian national memory: <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080030/israel-palestine-nakba">the Nakba of 1948</a>, when 720,000 Palestinians fled their homes in what would become the state of Israel, becoming refugees.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three members of the Israeli security forces. One is firing tear gas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400829/original/file-20210514-21-d2eqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A member of the Israeli security forces fires tear gas at Palestinian protesters, during confrontations with them in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on May 14, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-israeli-security-forces-fires-tear-gas-at-news-photo/1232882492">HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Growing anti-Arab racism</h2>
<p>The second reason for the intercommunal nature of the current conflict is the <a href="https://mepc.org/commentary/netanyahu-brings-far-right">emboldening of Israel’s extreme right-wing politicians</a> and their followers. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-elections-benjamin-netanyahu-exit-polls-6fc44df2043b04b1b823a45d6d508859">Among them are latter-day Kahanists</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-election-netanyahu-ben-gvir/2021/03/19/c3992b7c-85c4-11eb-be4a-24b89f616f2c_story.html">followers of the late Meir Kahane</a>. Kahane was an American rabbi who moved to Israel. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-05-14/radical-rabbis-followers-rise-in-israel-amid-new-violence">Kahane’s anti-Arab racism</a> was so extreme that the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/kach-kahane-chai-israel-extremists">United States listed the party he founded as a terrorist group</a>. Kahane proposed <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-why-racist-rabbi-meir-kahane-is-roiling-israeli-politics-30-years-after-his-death-1.6958031">paying Israel’s Palestinian population $40,000 each to leave Israel</a>. If they refused, Israel should expel them, he argued.</p>
<p>Kahanism and like-minded movements are on the rise in Israel. A <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-elections-benjamin-netanyahu-exit-polls-6fc44df2043b04b1b823a45d6d508859">Kahanist was recently elected to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament</a>, and Netanyahu courted his support when the prime minister was attempting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-otzma-yehudit-jewish-power.html">to form a government in February, 2019</a>. Kahanists and other ultranationalist thugs — the “Proud Boys” of Israel — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/radical-rabbis-followers-rise-in-israel-amid-new-violence/2021/05/14/733b5130-b474-11eb-bc96-fdf55de43bef_story.html">march through Palestinian-Israeli neighborhoods chanting “Death to Arabs”</a> and assault them.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/how-evictions-jerusalem-led-israeli-palestinian-violence">The current crisis began on May 6, 2021</a>. Pro-Palestinian protesters in Sheikh Jarrah had been breaking the Ramadan fast together each night of the holiday, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-eid-al-fitr-and-how-do-muslims-celebrate-it-6-questions-answered-118146">a custom called iftar.</a> On this particular night, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jerusalem-middle-east-israel-lifestyle-religion-f4c2594aab82ca8117c39b577a42ff01">Israeli settlers set up a table opposite them</a>. In the settlers’ group was Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Kahanist deputy. Rocks and other objects began to fly. Then the violence spread.</p>
<p>In the coastal city of <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-clashes-resume-in-central-israeli-city-of-lod-ahead-of-police-imposed-curfew-1.9800313">Bat Yam, a Jewish mob marched down the street busting up Palestinian businesses</a>, while another mob attempted to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-clashes-resume-in-central-israeli-city-of-lod-ahead-of-police-imposed-curfew-1.9800313">lynch a Palestinian driver</a>. The same scene was replayed in Acre, only this time it was a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/world/asia/israel-lod-arab-jewish.html">Palestinian mob that assaulted a Jewish man</a>. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/fear-stalks-streets-israeli-city-where-jews-arabs-mixed-freely-2021-05-13/">Another Palestinian mob burned a police station</a> to the ground in the same city. And in a Tel Aviv suburb, a man presumed to be a Palestinian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/13/live-tv-shows-israeli-mob-lynch-motorist-in-tel-aviv-suburb">was pulled from his car and beaten</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Lod is a city south of Tel Aviv with a mixed Palestinian and Jewish population. Not only was it the site of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/12/father-and-daughter-killed-in-rocket-attack-on-israeli-city-of-lod">Hamas missile strike that killed two Palestinians</a>, it was where <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/world/middleeast/arab-jewish-violence-lod.html">heavy fighting took place between Palestinian and Jewish mobs</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57085023">The fighting began</a> after a funeral of a Palestinian man who was killed by an assailant presumed to be Jewish. It was so heavy at times that the Israeli government brought in border guards from the West Bank to quell the unrest. The mayor characterized what was happening in his town as a “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-civil-war-frontline-lod-b1847798.html">civil war</a>.”</p>
<p>The mayor also reminded the residents of Lod, “The day after, we still have to live here together.” </p>
<p>He did not explain how this was to happen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James L. Gelvin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The fighting between Israelis and Palestinians grew quickly and ferociously after being ignited by a conflict in an Arab part of Jerusalem. Why did things go so bad so quickly?James L. Gelvin, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1088922018-12-17T00:20:59Z2018-12-17T00:20:59ZMorrison’s decision to recognise West Jerusalem the latest bad move in a mess of his own making<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250825/original/file-20181216-185246-mx5xqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C58%2C5426%2C2567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scott Morrison's announcement that Australia would recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has cause a negative reaction not only from the Muslim world, but from Israel itself.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison will have learned a valuable foreign policy lesson in the past day or so as it relates to the Holy Land.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As ye sow, so shall ye reap (Galatians 6:7).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When Morrison allowed a thought bubble to become a political ploy in the Liberal party’s desperation to cling on to a safe seat in the Wentworth byelection, he miscalculated the damage it would cause to his own credibility and the country’s foreign policy settings.</p>
<p>An inexperienced prime minister blundered into the thicket of Middle East politics by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/16/australia-may-move-embassy-in-israel-to-jerusalem">announcing Australia would both consider moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem</a>, and would also review its support for the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook45p/IranAgreement">Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).</a></p>
<p>This latter is the 159-page document negotiated by the permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany. In it, Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear program.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shifting-the-australian-embassy-in-israel-to-jerusalem-would-be-a-big-cynical-mistake-105121">Shifting the Australian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be a big, cynical mistake</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>In any event, Morrison indicated Canberra would continue to adhere to JCPOA, thus putting itself at odds with Washington. The United States announced it would <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/world/middleeast/trump-iran-nuclear-deal.html">abandon</a> the JCPOA, pending the negotiation of better terms.</p>
<p>In his efforts to purloin the Jewish vote in Wentworth, Morrison’s shallow marketing impulses got the better of policy prudence.</p>
<p>He proceeded with haste in the first instance, and now he can repent at leisure after having sought – unsuccessfully it seems – to thread the needle in his <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-15/government-recognises-west-jerusalem-but-keeps-tel-aviv-embassy/10614226">policy pronouncements</a> at the weekend.</p>
<p>If we stretch the biblical allusions further, we might say that when it comes to the Middle East, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a political ingénue to shift the status quo in Australia’s position on the vexed Arab-Israel issue.</p>
<p>What has now happened – as it inevitably would – after Morrison announced that Australia would recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and establish a branch office there, is a negative reaction not only from the Muslim world, but from <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-disappointed-by-australias-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-only/">Israel itself</a>.</p>
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<p>So an Australian prime minister goes out on a limb for the Jewish state, only to have it sawn off by critics in Israel who did not like the distinction he made between Jerusalem’s Jewish west and Arab east.</p>
<p>Under Israel’s <a href="https://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/basic10_eng.htm">Basic Law</a>, the constitution, an undivided Jerusalem is deemed to be the country’s capital in perpetuity. This position was bolstered in a Knesset vote as recently as this year.</p>
<p>Israel’s official reaction to the Morrison announcement was to describe it as a “<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/australia-officially-recognizes-west-jerusalem-as-israel-s-capital-1.6745671">step in the right direction</a>”. However, as its implications sunk in, Israeli public figures began to take strong exception to Australia’s “acknowledgement” of Palestinian claims to Jerusalem in a final status peace settlement.</p>
<p>Typical of the reaction was this, via Twitter, from Tzachi Hanegbi, a prominent Knesset member of the nationalist Likud party and confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1073987561025097729"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/knesset-speaker-australias-jerusalem-recognition-encourages-palestinian-violence/">Yuli Edelstein</a>, the speaker of the Knesset, went further.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We expected more from a friendly country like Australia […] I am hoping that our cool response will make it clear to the Australians that this is not what we were wishing for.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pointedly, Netanyahu had not commented publicly at time of writing.</p>
<p>In his announcement on Saturday at a Sydney Institute event, Morrison set out his stall on the Jerusalem issue. In the process, apart from infuriating the Israeli nationalist right, he exposed himself to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/critics-take-aim-at-rookie-call-after-pm-confirms-israel-policy-tilt-20181215-p50mi0.html">withering criticism at home</a> and in the region.</p>
<p>This was the nub of Morrison’s statement:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia now recognises West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel […] Furthermore, recognising our commitment to a two-state solution, the Australian Government has also resolved to acknowledge the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a future state with its capital in East Jerusalem.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Morrison’s use of the word “acknowledge” falls a long way short of “recognising” Palestinian aspirations, his “acknowledgement”, in the context of final status peace negotiations, trespasses on an Israeli article of faith.</p>
<p>Israel’s insistence on an undivided Jerusalem in perpetuity under its control contradicts an international consensus that East Jerusalem remains occupied territory since the 1967 Six-Day War.</p>
<p>Australia has supported numerous United Nations resolutions to this effect, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/18/archives/texts-of-resolutions-242-and-338-resolution-242-nov-22-1967.html">Security Council resolutions 242 of 1967 and 338 of 1973</a> that called on Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in war.</p>
<p>In his efforts to find favour with Israel’s supporters, Morrison crossed that divide, thereby infuriating an Israeli government and discomforting Israel’s backers in Australia, notwithstanding their <a href="https://aijac.org.au/media-release/aijac-welcomes-governments-acknowledgement-of-the-reality-that-jerusalem-is-israels-capital-and-positive-steps-on-iran-and-towards-the-un/">professed delight</a> at the latest turn of events.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-the-australian-embassy-to-jerusalem-makes-sense-heres-why-105037">Moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem makes sense: here's why</a>
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<hr>
<p>Australia’s position, it might be noted, contrasts with that of the <a href="https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/02/278825.htm">United States</a>. Washington recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital earlier this year without making a distinction between “west” and “east”.</p>
<p>In his Sydney Institute speech, Morrison indicated he and his public service advisers had conferred widely in their efforts to come up with a form of words that would be consistent with his pledge to review Australia’s position on Jerusalem.</p>
<p>This review included consultations with:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…some eminent Australian policymakers: former heads of various agencies and departments whether in Defence, Foreign Affairs or Prime Minister and Cabinet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Advice to Morrison from what was known as a “reference group” of “eminent Australian policymakers” was overwhelmingly, if not unanimously, resistant to changing the status quo.</p>
<p>In other words, Australia should adhere to settled policy.</p>
<p>Morrison chose to ignore this advice after having committed himself to a review. In the process, and unnecessarily, he has risked negative reactions from Australia’s important neighbours, Indonesia and Malaysia, and from the Arab world. At home, he has exposed himself to criticism he has jeopardised Australia’s international standing for no conspicuous benefit.</p>
<p>This has been a mess, and one entirely of Morrison’s own making, driven by short-term political calculations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In his efforts to find favour with Israel’s supporters at the Wentworth byelection, Morrison crossed that divide, and has now infuriated many - including the Israeli government.Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1050372018-10-17T04:04:02Z2018-10-17T04:04:02ZMoving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem makes sense: here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240960/original/file-20181017-17664-5nslrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Moving the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is controversial because it would be a strong political statement of support for Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Apparently looking to garner the support of Jewish constituents behind the Liberal candidate, David Sharma, in the upcoming critical <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/shock-internal-polling-shows-government-losing-wentworth-byelection/news-story/a76bb601b42a8f1b358809ff8c189ffc">Wentworth by-election</a> on October 20, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/joint-media-statement#main-content">said</a> he will consider moving the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The statement created shockwaves within Australia and internationally. Israel, pro-Israeli and Jewish organisations in Australia <a href="http://www.jwire.com.au/scott-morrison-community-reaction/">praised</a> the possible policy shift. <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/scott-morrison-faces-backlash-over-jerusalem-move-20181016-h16pb3">Palestinians</a> and their supporters were critical and angry.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shifting-the-australian-embassy-in-israel-to-jerusalem-would-be-a-big-cynical-mistake-105121">Shifting the Australian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be a big, cynical mistake</a>
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<p>Similarly, Australian politicians from all parties responded with often highly emotional expressions of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/16/australia-may-move-embassy-in-israel-to-jerusalem">disapproval</a> or <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-16/liberal-members-vote-to-privatise-abc-move-embassy-to-jerusalem/9877524">support</a>. </p>
<h2>The controversy</h2>
<p>Moving the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is controversial because it would be a strong political statement of support for Israel.</p>
<p>For Israelis and Palestinians, Jerusalem has a special and disputed symbolic value. Yerushalayim (the city’s name in Hebrew) is the capital of the Jewish state, and was also the Jewish capital in biblical times, where the temple, the holiest place for Jews, once stood. On the same location as the temple, Muslim rulers later built the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest place (after Mecca and Medina). </p>
<p>For Palestinians, affiliation with Al-Quds (the city’s Arabic name) is a central element in their national identity. The same applies for Israelis. </p>
<p>Compromises discussed in previous (failed) attempts to forge a peace in the region suggested, for example, declaring the Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital alongside the Israeli one in the predominantly Jewish west of the city.</p>
<p>Until a compromise is reached, most countries operate their official embassies to Israel from Tel Aviv, claiming that the status of the city should be determined through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. </p>
<p>However, in December 2017, US President Donald Trump declared that his government was officially recognising Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. In May, the US <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-usa-embassy-explainer/the-u-s-is-opening-an-embassy-in-jerusalem-why-is-there-a-furor-idUSKCN1IF0VQ">opened</a> its embassy in the heart of the Jerusalem. The move provoked <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-least-16-palestinian-protesters-killed-as-u-s-opens-embassy-in-jerusalem-1526298531">violent demonstrations</a> by Palestinians.</p>
<h2>The Australian foreign policy context</h2>
<p>The framework of Australia’s foreign policy, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajph.12467">argues</a> academic Caitlin Byrne, is built on three basic principles: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the alliance with the United States, engagement with the Asian region, and commitment to multilateralism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Examining Morrison’s recent Middle East policy announcement through the perspective of Byrne’s definition leads to the conclusion that it is not a major policy shift. Instead, it is in line with the traditional fundamentals of Australian foreign policy and international political trends, and is compatible with Australia’s national interests. </p>
<p>First, Morrison’s policy steps go hand in hand with current policies <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/trump-administration-welcomes-australia-moving-embassy-from-tel-aviv-to-jerusalem/news-story/6ce0b52c2a4f8147fc10f307bf8a340c?login=1">coming out of the White House</a>. </p>
<p>President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital fulfilled an election campaign promise, while acknowledging a reality that has actually existed since the creation of Israel in 1948. This decision, as well as other elements of US policy, is part of a paradigm shift Trump is attempting to lead with regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The idea is that by taking Jerusalem off the table and accepting Israel’s request to recognise a situation that has been in existence for decades, the onus now moves towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reciprocate with measures that would be considered positively by Palestinians. </p>
<p>At this stage, however, no deal seems imminent. The Palestinians have rejected the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-jared-kushners-deal-of-the-century-would-mean-for-palestinian-refugees-101150">“deal of the century”</a>, Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East, even before it was made public, while violent clashes in Gaza between Israel and Hamas continue.</p>
<p>Australia should of course not blindly follow America’s lead on this – Australia’s foreign policy is crafted in Canberra, not Washington. Yet, at the same time, the reality is that over the last few decades Australia has been, at the very least, overwhelmingly and actively supportive of American policy moves, such as when Australian military forces fought alongside US soldiers in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. </p>
<h2>Middle powers as peace brokers</h2>
<p>There is another foreign policy aspect that is relevant here – Australia’s self-perception as a “middle power”. Former foreign minister Kevin Rudd <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2011/kr_sp_110222.aspx?ministerid=2">applied</a> this conceptual label to Australia in his 2011 review of Australia’s foreign policy interests in the Middle East. </p>
<p>In Rudd’s view, middle powers are what could be considered “peace brokers”. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Their strength comes from the good offices they bring to bear on regional and global problems and the persuasiveness of their arguments and the coalitions they are capable of building, not the assertion of direct power.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Practically speaking, moving Australia’s embassy to Jerusalem would be neither a game-changer, nor ground-breaking, as the US has already paved the way. There is no reason to believe that recognising west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – a role it has served since 1950 and is not seriously disputed even by the Palestinians – would in any way pre-empt a future Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netanyahus-visit-prompts-australia-to-rethink-its-relationship-with-israel-73195">Netanyahu's visit prompts Australia to rethink its relationship with Israel</a>
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<p>With regards to Israel, Australia would assert itself as a more influential “real friend”, whose advice should be taken seriously. The embassy move would be yet another sign of increasingly close relations between the two states. These ties are built around, among other things, the history of the ANZAC battle over Beersheba in the first world war and, more importantly, shared values and interests.</p>
<p>The Palestinians have already <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-17/australian-embassy-move-could-sabotage-middle-east-peace-process/10385252">expressed</a> their fury at the idea of moving the embassy. But Australia’s outreach into the Palestinian sphere is limited. The problem is the paralysing, deep and bloody divide between the <a href="https://www.aman-palestine.org/data/itemfiles/902b911598cf1e87515378f025379b30.pdf">corrupt</a> Palestinian authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. The former is a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537121.2016.1274512">failed entity</a> mismanaged by <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-so-much-winning-why-mahmoud-abbas-thinks-he-s-beating-trump-and-israel-1.6553232">Mahmoud Abbas</a> (Abu Mazen), and the latter is a terrorist organisation (Hamas’s military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam is <a href="https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/Listedterroristorganisations/Pages/HamassIzzal-Dinal-QassamBrigades.aspx">listed</a> as a terror group by the Australian government). </p>
<h2>Changing realities</h2>
<p>Morrison <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/morrison-open-to-moving-israel-embassy-to-jerusalem/news-story/3ae681558ad2b72d36c4175542cdf883">emphasised</a> that relocating the embassy is “consistent with pursuing a two-state solution”. This perception of the end-game for the conflict being two states living side by side was, and still is, Australia’s traditional bipartisan stance. </p>
<p>Yet, realities on the ground have changed significantly over the past few years due to both Israeli, Palestinian and international developments. The <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/WhitePaper/">2016 defence white paper</a> sombrely acknowledges that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Given major differences between the parties, resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict will remain very difficult. Australia will continue to advocate a two-state solution as the only viable path to peace.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Australia could choose to remain on the sidelines and not have a significant voice or an influence in this dispute, preserving the status quo. Or, it can make a move – such as the embassy move to Jerusalem – that does not really break away from traditional Australian foreign policy, but may increase its leverage over Israel and help broker lasting peace in the Middle East.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ran Porat lectures on Middle East studies at Monash University and is a researcher at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. He is a consultant for The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).</span></em></p>Moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem may cause controversy but is in line with Australia’s foreign policy interests.Ran Porat, Lecturer in Israel Studies and Middle Eastern History, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/981292018-06-24T09:40:02Z2018-06-24T09:40:02ZSaudi Arabia and the Israel-Palestine conflict: between a rock and a hard place<p>In an interview to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/mohammed-bin-salman-iran-israel/557036/"><em>The Atlantic</em> magazine</a> in April 2018, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed Ben Salman (MBS) declared that Israel has the “right” to its own land alongside the Palestinians and that “there are a lot of interests we share with Israel and if there is peace, there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries”. This declaration has been considered as a major shift in Saudi Arabia’s diplomacy and the evidence of an assumed rapprochement with Israel. </p>
<p>However, at the same time, the King pledged $200 000 000 aid to the Palestinians and the supervisor general of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center stated that <a href="http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/535741/World/Mena/Saudi-Arabia-provided-$6bn-in-aid-to-Palestinians-since-2000">the Kingdom has provided the Palestinians with aid worth $6 billion since 2000</a>.</p>
<p>Under fire for its military operations in Yemen and its lack of support to the Palestinian cause, Saudi Arabia has tried to portray itself as one of the world’s leading supporters of global humanitarian aid and development, especially to the Palestinians. But despite this generous assistance, the Saudi leadership is conducting an ambivalent strategy towards the Israel-Palestine conflict, reflecting the dichotomy at the head of the Saudi State. While the King is seeking to preserve the traditional pro-Palestinian stance of the Kingdom, the Crown Prince is promoting a more pragmatic and reformist vision. Between the legitimist stance of the father and the hazardous ambitions of the son, Saudi Arabia is playing a risky and ambiguous game with the Palestinians.</p>
<h2>MBS’s signs of entente with Israel in the face of a mutual enemy</h2>
<p>Unlike Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which host Israeli entrepreneurs, and Manama, which has relations with Tel Aviv through its Jewish community and its associations promoting interreligious dialogue, Saudi Arabia has for a long time remained reluctant to show any sign of detente with Israel. It seems that the situation is gradually changing under the <a href="https://www.ifri.org/fr/publications/etudes-de-lifri/israel-pays-golfe-enjeux-dun-rapprochement-strategique">impetus of MBS</a>, who wishes to project the image of economic, political and cultural openness of his country and consolidate his relationship with Washington.</p>
<p>Since his elevation to the position of Crown Prince in June 2017 MBS has cultivated a reformist image, including in its foreign policy by accepting the mediatization of a strategic entente between Tel Aviv, Riyadh and Washington against Tehran. Tel Aviv and Riyadh regard Tehran as a direct threat, given its nuclear program, its ballistic capabilities, and its regional policy of supporting Hezbollah, the Assad regime, Shiite militias in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. This fear of Iranian regional hegemony was reinforced in 2013 with the provisional agreement of Geneva, then in 2015 with the agreement of Vienna on the Iranian nuclear program. They were fully satisfied on May 8 when US President Donald Trump officially announced the withdrawal of his country from the JCPOA and the vote of new sanctions against Iran.</p>
<p>Israel-Saudi Arabia convergence of interests has been staged during public conferences organized by American think tanks with former Israeli and Saudi officials. In June 2015, for instance, at <a href="https://www.cfr.org/event/regional-challenges-and-opportunities-view-saudi-arabia-and-israel-0">a conference organized by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington</a>, Dore Gold (former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry) and Anwar Eshki (former Saudi general, director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah) have publicly acknowledged that they have been engaged in dialogue for over a year. </p>
<p>The following year, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-saudi-ex-general-visits-israel-meets-with-foreign-ministry-chief-1.5414512">Anwar Eshki went to Israel and met, under the eyes of the cameras, Dore Gold in her offices in Jerusalem</a>. More recently, at the end of October 2017, at the invitation of Israel’s Jewish Policy Forum, Turki ben Faysal (former director of Saudi intelligence services and former Ambassador to the United States) and Efraim Halevy (former director of Mossad) discussed Iran nuclear deal. These public meetings confirm, on the one hand, the banalization of meetings between former Israeli and Saudi leaders and, on the other hand, the willingness of both parties to bring their views to the heart of the parallel diplomacy channels in Washington.</p>
<p>Furthermore, between ISIS and Iran, Saudi Arabia seeks to be respectable and to attract new investors by breaking with its reputation of obscurantist state funding international terrorism. This rebranding strategy, conducted by MBS, involves signs of moderation, including towards Israel. <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Air-India-to-inaugurate-flights-to-Israel-via-Saudi-Arabia-546770">In April 2018, Riyadh authorized for the first time a foreign airline, Air India, to fly over its territory to make a journey to Israel</a>. </p>
<p>It is no coincidence that this new orientation also includes an ideological reframing, like signs of religious openness, particularly to Judaism. Indeed, the Secretary-General of the World Islamic League was received at the Victory Synagogue in Paris in November 2017. This diplomacy of openness seems to work well with the US and Israeli partners. For Benyamin Netanyahu, the continuum of <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/netanyahu-israel-working-to-reach-peace-with-moderate-arab-nations-1.5463754">“moderate Arab States”</a> would go from Cairo to Riyadh via Amman and Abu Dhabi. A club that includes the only two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, and the only two Arab states with which Israel today wishes to normalize its relations.</p>
<h2>The official stance on the Palestinian issue has not changed since 2002</h2>
<p>Few days after his son recognized the right of Israel to a homeland, King Salman called Donald Trump to reaffirm his “<a href="https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1747472">positions on the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as its capital</a>”. He hosted and named the 29th session of the Arab League meeting the “Summit of Al Quds” and announced <a href="https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1752457">a donation of $200 000 000 to the Palestinians</a>. $50 million of this amount will be dedicated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has severely suffered from the US freeze of its funding, and $150 million to support the Palestinian Islamic Waqf Program in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>If there is a change in several Arab states’ attitudes toward Israel, the fundamental position of the Kingdom and the Arab league on the Palestinian issue has remained firm for the past 16 years. As the Arab League summit does every year, the 29th summit stressed the importance of a comprehensive, sustainable peace in the Middle East as encapsulated in the Saudi-led <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/28/israel7">Arab Peace Initiative</a> adopted at the Beirut summit in 2002 and which enjoys the support of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. According to the Arab league’s <a href="http://bna.bh/portal/en/news/836572">final communique</a> : “We reaffirm that the Palestine Cause is the entire Arab nation’s main priority, stressing the Arab identity of occupied East al-Quds as the capital of the State of Palestine”. The leaders of the 17 Arab states also underscored that the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was illegal. They all opposed the American President’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and called on the international community to take steps against “Israeli violations and the arbitrary measures that affect Al-Aqsa Mosque and its worshipers”.</p>
<p>Even in his bold interview to the Atlantic on 2 April, MBS was cautious to express support for the “two-state solution” still defended by the Arab and international consensus: “I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land. But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations”. This sentence was very clear, meaning that even if he would like to develop relations with Israel, nothing substantial might happen before a significant progress on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Therefore, <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/04/israel-saudi-arabia-king-salman-benjamin-netanyahu.html">Benyamin Netanyahu is deluding himself if he thinks that he can normalize his relations with Arab countries</a>, including Saudi Arabia, while refusing to negotiate and enforcing a violent policy against the Palestinians. As the custodian of the two holy mosques and leader of the Sunni world, Saudi leadership cannot take the risk of breaking with its traditional stance on the Palestinian issue, if nothing is given in exchange by Tel Aviv.</p>
<h2>If no longer central, Palestine remains a strategic issue in the Middle East</h2>
<p>Following the move of the US embassy and the violence in Gaza, none of the Arab leaders have taken concrete actions against Israel and the American administration, for instance by recalling their ambassadors or stating the end of US mediation in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Most of them refrained from criticizing too directly and vehemently Israel and preferred to support collectively <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-league-wants-icc-to-probe-idf-shootings-of-gaza-protesters/">the Arab League’s call on the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to launch investigations into Israeli attack on Gaza protestors</a>.</p>
<p>Following the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the death of nearly 100 Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza shocked Arab public opinions and <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/04/saudi-arabia-ignore-gaza-protests-hamas-zarif-trump.html">shed light on Arab leaders’ silence</a>. They are all the more silent as Turkey and Iran are vocal in assuming the role of defenders of the Palestinians. Amid the Israeli military response to the “Great March of Return”, Turkey recalled its official envoy in Israel. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Israel as a “terror state” and talked of “massacre”, “genocide” before comparing Israel’ actions against Palestinians with <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/erdogan-israel-using-same-methods-as-nazis-on-palestinians-in-gaza-1.6097911">“the methods employed by the Nazis in Europe”</a> during the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). </p>
<p>Locked in a Twitter war with Benyamin Netanyahu, the Turkish President eventually declared: “The fact that Turkey is the country targeted most by Israel, I am the leader targeted most, shows how true and effective this stance is”. During the OIC meeting, Iran’s President Hasan Rohani called on Islamic nations to revise their ties with the US and to cut all ties to Israel as defined as a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-leader-urges-muslims-to-revise-economic-ties-with-us-over-embassy-move/">“racist” and “apartheid state”</a>. The OIC meeting was the second time in six months that Erdogan has tried to rally Muslim leaders for the Palestinian cause. Despite any concrete action, it gave at least the opportunity to non-Arab leaders to set the stage and mock their neighbors for their weak reaction.</p>
<p>Pro-Iran or Iran’s state owned media stand unanimously with the Palestinians as they are taking their anti-Israel rhetoric to the extreme. Not only are they circulating Iranian leaders’ denunciations of Israel’s action<a href="http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/03/31/556977/Iran-Israel-Palestine-Gaza">, like recently in Gaza</a>, but they are also disseminating <a href="http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961009000263">disputable news and theories about Israel-Saudi Arabia rapprochement</a>, as exemplified by the alleged letter of Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Adel Jubeir to MBS in favor of a <a href="http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/286434">rapprochement with Israel</a>. Amid the increasing tensions on the nuclear issue, this narrative allows Tehran to portray itself as the leader of the “resistance axis”. That encounters a certain success in Arab opposition movements and public opinions who chide their leaders for their authoritarian policies and subordination to the United States. Hezbollah is also trying to capitalize on the Palestinian issue. In December 2017, Hassan Nasrallah called on the Palestinians to announce the emergence of an intifada and to <a href="https://english.almanar.com.lb/404908">“kick out any delegation that comes with an intention of normalizing relations with Israel”</a>. In the meantime, the Lebanese Shi’a leader has nurtured the idea that Saudi Arabia and Israel have colluded to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXWwxUIbYj0">attack his movement</a> in Lebanon.</p>
<p>The Palestinian issue remains a strategic and unifying theme in the Middle East, including for Islamists, jihadists, opposition movements, or any marginalized community and minority who feel wronged by the western powers and Israel. Though the Israel-Palestine conflict is not the driver of all conflict in the region, its invocation as a continuing grievance might nurture increasing anger with Arab leadership, including with Saudi Arabia, which is tremendously losing its credibility on that issue. From that perspective, the outrageous pro-Israel diplomacy of Washington and the competition for the leadership of the pro-Palestinian cause in the Middle East are likely to constrain Saudi Arabia’s capacity to get closer to Israel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elisabeth Marteu ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Saudi Arabia portrays itself as a leading supporter of humanitarian aid, especially to the Palestinians, but the country’s leadership has an ambivalent strategy towards the Israel-Palestine conflict.Elisabeth Marteu, Chercheuse sur le Moyen-Orient, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) et Enseignante Sciences Po Paris, Sciences Po Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/953112018-04-22T09:54:34Z2018-04-22T09:54:34ZWhy South Africa’s DJ Black Coffee left a bitter taste by performing in Israel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215618/original/file-20180419-163991-1cuwtx0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">DJ Black Coffee</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instagram</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was a coincidence that South African house DJ <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/black-coffee-mn0002006338/biography">Black Coffee’s</a> <a href="https://www.news24.com/Video/SouthAfrica/News/outcry-over-black-coffees-performance-in-israel-20180404">recent performance</a> in Tel Aviv took place on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/30/palestinians-march-to-gaza-border-for-start-of-six-week-protest-israel">same weekend</a> that saw more than a dozen Palestinian protesters shot dead, and more than a thousand wounded, by Israeli forces. But he was nevertheless <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/tshisa-live/tshisa-live/2018-04-03-dj-black-coffee-responds-to-israel-backlash--adds-fuel-to-the-fire/">criticised sharply</a> for the visit which came in the wake of <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/civil-society-organizations-around-world-urge-hp-companies-end-all-involvement-violations">calls</a> by political movements and civil society organisations to respect the boycott campaign against Israel.</p>
<p>Criticism was levelled against him from a number of fronts. This included South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) which <a href="https://www.channel24.co.za/The-Juice/News/anc-deeply-concerned-by-black-coffees-performance-in-israel-20180404">issued</a> a call on artists to remember the role played by the international <a href="http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?id=65-259-13">anti-apartheid solidarity movement</a> in the isolation of apartheid South Africa:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The people of Palestine are in a just cause for self determination and we urge our artists not to form part of the normalisation of Israeli’s suppression of the Palestinian people in their quest for self determination and statehood that mirrors our very own struggle. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In response, the artist asserted his right to work as an entertainer and feed his family.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"980743272577544192"}"></div></p>
<p>Born Nkosinathi Innocent Maphumulo, the hugely popular, multiaward winning Black Coffee is seen as the flag-bearer of South African Afro-house music. In 2015 he won the “Breakthrough DJ Of The Year” <a href="https://djawards.com/past-editions/dj-awards-2015/">award</a> in Ibiza and the next year he became the first South African to <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/7423180/black-coffee-first-south-african-bet-awards-dance">win a BET award</a> in the “best international act Africa” category. </p>
<p>Accolades like these, and many others, paved the way to international stardom with major DJ gigs and even more album sales. Because of this rising global profile, his decision to play in Israel caused a major stir.</p>
<h2>The case for the boycott</h2>
<p>Cases like Black Coffee’s aren’t rare. Many internationally renowned artists have faced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/25/lorde-cancels-israel-concert-after-pro-palestinian-campaign">campaigns</a> to convince them not to perform in Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. The logic used has echoes of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/86-non-racial-sport">sports boycott campaigns</a> during the anti-apartheid struggle when the mantra was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>no normal sport in an abnormal society. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This approach should be particularly effective with South African artists. Theirs was a society that imposed the same kind of restrictions and segregationist policies currently pursued by Israel towards Palestinians. </p>
<p>But some artists have responded by arguing that they don’t get involved in politics. Or, they claim that their politics require that they treat all audiences equally. Some argue that music and art are forces that bring people together and therefore play a positive role regardless of politics. </p>
<p>These claims do not address the core issue: performing in a society experiencing intense conflict, against the wishes of a central constituency, which is largely prevented from attending, is itself a political statement. </p>
<p>Whether they intend it or not, artists who defy the boycott call are aligning themselves with the oppressive Israeli regime.</p>
<p>A common objection to this argument is that there are many oppressive regimes of various kinds, and that there’s therefore no reason to single out Israel for special treatment. </p>
<p>While the first part of this argument is true, the second doesn’t follow. The call to boycott Israel as a destination for artists, academics, sports people and cultural activists, does not stem from its oppressive policies as such. It stems from the fact that Israel runs a regime that amounts to <a href="http://jwtc.org.za/resources/docs/salon-volume-3/RanGreenstein_Israel.pdf">what I’ve described as</a> an apartheid of a special type. </p>
<p>Although not identical to the South African version, it meets the <a href="https://watermark.silverchair.com/cht045.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAbMwggGvBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggGgMIIBnAIBADCCAZUGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMUKYRXVKys30SZbJYAgEQgIIBZl7v-IakvmCDjecXyc8ir6wueY1azdb7dKTkXRPZMrUE41QAB20cgWpMPcntQ4wrxUFyo6i-ap0BmotAeOnbmm5du9qKMgUXJfCah057wB3DbW4hM9qKuW55oLpW-q8Al0qI-4EFHLLuvjuNxjEI1nVW0fxpkhFWDxVGb0IyyqbukGoKJ6RXUWCc36GkvHsPqULbR8_E1zx6bfHowBLgvch5Yc-rRHW035uNICuV6_JEPb3Vga_X7UsmC2cO3duZ8uRHDNgIXyBaOERV5FbyWKLZh66ueKvGofXm9VXERUeFWCij9N4mMmM7Ht1Rpem5x5RC56Yah18aajTQwKKC5LDrhEFRIDBfuHdHBKFVRwQtef_Bp6_ukl5ZC2I6szcIEdzf8lDRy7Ic0w5jZRu6LpQKgoO4GCtexqWWKVYQ1ZikSjiyb_wRFr-2G__fioJh3QyF20vQ4qmlqBaTh8ldsFsh4FhJMwU">definition</a> of apartheid in international law: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In specific terms, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/12/19/separate-and-unequal/israels-discriminatory-treatment-palestinians-occupied">forcibly dominated</a> by Israel <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29123668">since 1967</a>, cannot vote in elections to Israeli representative institutions. They have no say in the way they are <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/">ruled by Israel</a>, cannot move, trade and engage in normal economic activity freely. Their land, water and natural resources are <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/gaef3485.doc.htm">controlled by Israel</a>, which uses them to benefit its own (Jewish) citizens at their expense. </p>
<p>Needless to say, Palestinians couldn’t attend DJ Black Coffee’s performance in Tel Aviv. Only <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20161228-explained-palestinian-citizens-of-israel/">15%</a> of the overall Palestinian population have Israeli citizenship and access to basic political rights. They too are subject to a range of formal and informal discriminatory mechanisms. </p>
<h2>The role of boycotts</h2>
<p>What role can culture play in global solidarity campaign against Israel? </p>
<p>Boycotting academic, cultural and sports activities in Israel is an essential part. But total avoidance may not be the most useful political strategy. It should be combined with activities that take place as part of political dissent and resistance efforts from within the country.</p>
<p>For example, a number of possible contributions can be made to Palestinian cultural freedom struggle. These can take a number of forms such as invitations to perform and exhibit, alternative funding to allow independence from state support, and activities that would help cultural workers to organise locally and spread their messages globally.</p>
<p>This can be done by: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Forging links with Palestinians and Israeli artists, performers and academics, who follow progressive programmes of action, and </p></li>
<li><p>Renouncing any links with the Israeli state and its funding mechanisms. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>This would allow for an effective counter to official policies of segregation and the isolation of critical voices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ran Greenstein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Boycotting academic, cultural and sports activities in Israel is an essential part, but total avoidance may not be the most useful political strategy.Ran Greenstein, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/948982018-04-19T20:05:02Z2018-04-19T20:05:02ZHow does a city get to be ‘smart’? This is how Tel Aviv did it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215513/original/file-20180419-164001-1ceu0v0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tel Aviv has a reputation as a "non-stop city" but is also known for its local government's use of smart technology to listen to and respond to residents' needs and concerns.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tel-aviv-night-skyscraper-construction-sites-1049052368?src=J45ktIEk6Mnj8lORkgnZcw-7-98">Alexandra Lande/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Smart cities, digital cities, virtual cities, connected cities. Are these just trendy buzzwords? Perhaps. But these types of cities are supported by infrastructure that is more than bricks and mortar.</p>
<p>These cities are smart (thoughtful, people-centric), digital (driven by data acquisition, measured, analysed and sometimes exchanged) and virtual (experiential). And, as a result, they are connected, creating more potential interactions between people and their place.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sensors-in-public-spaces-can-help-create-cities-that-are-both-smart-and-sociable-93473">Sensors in public spaces can help create cities that are both smart and sociable</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Tel Aviv is one of these cities. Undoubtedly the 2009 book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start-up_Nation">Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle</a> contributed to its reputation as a “non-stop city” with innovation clusters teeming with companies at the cutting edge of technology.</p>
<p>However, Tel Aviv’s standing is not only built on commercial success — it has an internationally recognised local government. <a href="http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExperience/Lifestyle/Pages/Tel-Aviv-wins-World-Smart-Cities-Award-20-Nov-2014.aspx">Winning first place</a> in the 2014 World Smart City Awards not only boosted its profile on the international stage, but Tel Avivians, well, they actually have positive things to say about their local government.</p>
<h2>A city that decided to change</h2>
<p>This was not always the case. Municipal leaders had to do something to change how the community perceived them. </p>
<p>In 2011, the municipality organised focus groups with residents, heard their complaints and listened to what they said they needed. The municipality realised it needed to change the way it engaged with citizens. A cultural shift was needed, an internal one, to deliver an intelligent and active municipality. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IrBLc07Thzk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The municipality’s chief knowledge officer, Zohar Sharon, explains why and how Tel Aviv transformed itself as a smart city.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tel Aviv, like Detroit, is an urban laboratory; a test-bed for city projects that combine public and private efforts, startups and university centres. As Israel’s leading business centre, its main priorities are supporting high-tech companies and startups. Located in a geopolitically contentious region, challenges faced by Tel Aviv residents over the years have also driven a new wave of urban administration — emphasising transparency, trust and local government led by residents. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215502/original/file-20180419-164001-11u9bme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A DigiTel Resident Card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/en/Live/ResidentsCard/Pages/default.aspx">Tel Aviv Municipality</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A key smart city initiative is the <a href="https://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/en/Live/ResidentsCard/Pages/default.aspx">DigiTel Residents Club</a>. DigiTel card holders have access to a personalised web and mobile platform that provides residents with individually tailored, location-specific services delivered via email, text messages and personal resident accounts.</p>
<p>It’s the brainchild of Zohar Sharon, chief knowledge officer of Tel Aviv Municipality. In a recent interview, he told me: “As a result of what we learned from the focus groups and unique knowledge-management processes in the municipality, we now have over 200 municipality staff from different departments, called knowledge champions, who feed data into the DigiTel platform.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215500/original/file-20180419-163991-g6nkmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A beach kiosk where DigiTel users can hire umbrellas, chairs and lounges at discounted rates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Steinmetz</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Daily updates inform residents about: road closures in their area, registering for school, local events, development or heritage conservation proposals requiring feedback, community greening initiatives, recycling, and invitations to public surveys. The card also gives residents access to discounted rentals of beach equipment, theatre and movie tickets, car-share rentals, and a variety of other services. </p>
<p>DigiTel isn’t just one-way communication. Users tell the municipality what is happening in their area. They can feed back information about, for example, broken city signage or playground fixtures needing attention. </p>
<p>The municipality sees the community members as having “wisdom”: they are the most informed about what is happening in their local area.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/surprise-digital-space-isnt-replacing-public-space-and-might-even-help-make-it-better-87173">Surprise! Digital space isn't replacing public space, and might even help make it better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Since starting as a pilot in 2013 the DigiTel Residents Club has spread citywide. It has almost 200,000 registered users (who must be aged 13 or older) – over 60% of the eligible population.</p>
<p>Sharon says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We must understand that when we are talking about ‘smart cities’ we must think first about the city’s residents and how we can use smart tools to improve their quality of life. The local municipality must adopt a citizens-centric approach and deliver by push-tailored information and services to citizens, implementing a holistic approach, breaking silos and thinking about citizens’ actual needs. </p>
<p>Today, because of our practice, we can see a tremendous change in the participation of residents in various community activities, greater involvement in city life and greater satisfaction from Tel Aviv municipal services. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The platform has expanded to include <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Tech/Tel-Aviv-launches-Digi-Dog-service-for-its-25000-canines-480816">Digi-Dog</a> for dog owners and <a href="http://zoharsharon.blogspot.com.au/">Digi-Tuf</a> (<em>tuf</em> meaning young children in Hebrew) for parents of children up to the age of three. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQAj8nq65PA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tel Aviv has launched Digi-Dog for pet owners.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/en/WorkAndStudy/Documents/The%20India-Tel%20Aviv%20Smart%20Partnership.pdf">India</a>, Thane – one of the cities included in the Smart City Mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 – has launched <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thane/in-a-first-in-country-civic-body-launches-digithane-app-in-city/articleshow/62624575.cms">DigiThane</a>, with help from Sharon. </p>
<h2>What can other cities learn from this?</h2>
<p>To be a smart city is to know your people, know what they want, and know what they need. And you know what they need because they told you. </p>
<p>Many councils throughout Australia are under pressure to have a smart city strategy. Perhaps the way to become smart is to start small. This may not require reinventing the wheel, but really just sitting down and listening to what people need and figuring out how to deliver in the most economical and sustainable way.</p>
<p>As Sharon says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We didn’t create the technology — it was already being used by the commercial sector — we just adapted the technology to make it work for the public sector.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-adelaide-in-how-a-smart-city-can-work-to-benefit-everyone-81824">Lessons from Adelaide in how a smart city can work to benefit everyone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Steinmetz is part of the Smart Social Spaces research project funded by The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Smart Cities and Suburbs Program. She is affiliated with the Tel Aviv Foundation. </span></em></p>To be a smart city is to know what your people want and need. And smart city leaders make sure residents can tell them by using technology to maintain a constant two-way flow of information.Christine Steinmetz-Weiss, Senior Lecturer in Built Environment, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.