Jordan has summoned the Australian charge d’affaires to express “concern” over Canberra’s decision to drop the word ‘occupied’ from its references to Jerusalem.
“The ministry summoned [Australian charge d’affaires John Feakes] and informed him that the kingdom is concerned about the Australian government’s decision to stop referring to east Jerusalem as ‘occupied,’” Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sabah Rafei said in a statement.
“The Australian government’s decision violates international law and resolutions that consider east Jerusalem to be an integral part of all Palestinian territories occupied in 1967,” the statement continued.
Australia’s government decided last week to drop the word ‘occupied’ in references to areas of Jerusalem restored to Israel’s capital by IDF soldiers during the 1967 Six Day War. Israel annexed the area shortly after, despite international refusal to recognize the move.
The territories referred to by Amman were actually occupied by Jordan in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence – a fact conveniently omitted in all references to the issue by Arab statements on the matter.