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.

The Palestinian Authority has summoned Thomas Wilson, Australia’s ambassador to the P.A., for a dressing down over Canberra’s decision to remove the word “occupied” from eastern Jerusalem.

According to Rotter, the Palestinian “foreign ministry” told the ambassador that the international community recognises the “fact” that the Palestinian capital is occupied.

PM Netanyahu slammed members of the international community who have rushed to support the Palestinian Unity Government with Hamas, at his Sunday cabinet meeting. Netanyahu said that anyone who thinks that Hamas will be moderated is mistaken, clearly hinting at US Secretary of State John Kerry, who reportedly, secretly offered Hamas financial aid in exchange for moderating their public positions against Israel.

Netanyahu reiterated that PUG president Mahmoud Abbas’s first obligation is demilitarizing the areas under his control. No one in the international community is even bothering to demand that Hamas’s independent terrorist army be disarmed.

Netanyahu also singled out Australia with exceptional praise for clearly stating the truth about Jerusalem not being occupied territory.

The text of Netanyahu’s speech follows:

“Over the weekend, the leaders of Hamas reiterated their intention to destroy the State of Israel. Whoever hoped that the Palestinian unity between Fatah and Hamas would moderate Hamas is mistaken. Instead of the Palestinian authority taking over Gaza, the signs are being more and more seen that the complete opposite is taking place, i.e. that Hamas is increasing its control in the Palestinian Authority areas in Judea and Samaria. Therefore, international pressure must be applied on Abu Mazen to dissolve the partnership with Hamas. This touches on the roots of the conflict and the roots of a solution in which peace is achieved between us and the Palestinians.

In any case, Abu Mazen promised to uphold all of his previous commitments, and the first of these is honoring the commitment to demilitarize the areas under the control of the Palestinian government, including – of course – the Gaza Strip.

Over the weekend we also heard an interesting declaration from the Australian government of a kind that we do not always hear. It simply said that eastern Jerusalem is not occupied territory; the minimum is that is an area in dispute.

To say this sharply and with such clarity and, I would say, courage, is refreshing given the chorus of hypocrisy and ignorance, ignorance not only of ancient history, but of recent and current history. What has really happened here? Who invaded who? Who occupied what? What is subject to negotiation? What is the area in dispute? These are new things. I certainly appreciate this stand by the Australian government and I am certain that all those who want to see an agreement here based on peace, justice and truth – and it is impossible to build peace based on historic lies – would agree. There is truth and it must be embraced. It requires many, many conclusions and steps, but it certainly does not require the sanctification of lies.”

The Jordanian government announced it rejects Australia’s dropping of the word “occupied” in connection to eastern Jerusalem.

Jordan’s position is rather hypocritical, as Jordan illegally occupied eastern Jerusalem from 1948 until 1967, after capturing half the city in its 1948 attack on Israel.

Since the year 1805, if not earlier, Jews have made up the majority of the residents of united Jerusalem.

Whereas, 80% of Jordan’s citizens define themselves as Palestinian, making Jordan a de facto Palestinian State.

The Palestinian Unity Government (PUG) has called for the Arab and Muslim countries to reevaluate their relationship with Australia and consider legal and diplomatic reprisals against the Land Down Under.

When Australia’s Attorney-General George Brandis said that Australia would no longer use the word “Occupied” in reference to eastern Jerusalem it threw PUG into a tizzy.

That statement followed other balanced statements by Australia’s Foreign Minister, when she visited Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is set to visit Australia in June.

A year ago, Australia joined the handful of countries that voted against, or abstained from voting for a series of one-sided anti-Israel resolutions that were put forward in the UN. Since then, Australia, under Tony Abbot’s government, has repeatedly made it clear that it’s actually going to be taking a balanced position when it comes to Israel.

On Wednesday evening, the Australian government’s Attorney-General George Brandis unequivocally stated it would not use the word “occupied” in reference to eastern Jerusalem.

In May, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, visiting in Jerusalem, questioned exactly which international law has declared Israeli settlements illegal. (Answer: None).

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning a week long trip to friendly Australia in June, which would make him the first Israeli prime minister to visit the land down under.

The global Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement scored a major victory Monday when an Australian court threw out a lawsuit claiming a Sydney University professor had violated Australian anti-discrimination laws by refusing to host an Israeli professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

The lawsuit was filed by an Australian member of Shurat HaDin, an Israeli legal aid group dedicated to “combating the terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them through lawsuits litigated in courtrooms around the world, fighting for the rights of hundreds of terror victims, bankrupt(ing) the terror groups and grind(ing) their criminal activities to a halt – one lawsuit at a time.” 

At issue was an application by Dr Dan Avnon for a fellowship at Sydney University. Avnon had asked Prof. Jake Lynch, chairman of the University Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and an avowed supporter of the academic boycott against Israel to support the application, but the latter snubbed the request, saying he supports the BDS movement and would not collaborate with scholars from an Israeli institution.

Lawyers for Avnon said the blanket boycott against Israeli academics is a violation of Australia’s ban against discrimination. 

“By refusing employment to an Israeli professor simply because he is Israeli, Lynch plainly violated Australia’s anti-racism law, which was legislated to protect against discrimination based on national origin and religion,” said Robert Tolchin, a US-based lawyer for Shurat Hadin.

“There are only two questions to be answered. Did Lynch discriminate against an Israeli professor based on his national origin and, secondly, is such conduct a violation of Australia’s anti-­racism laws?”

However, Federal Court Justice Alan Robertson rejected the allegations, which included charges  that Lynch is a leader of the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign in Australia. Earlier this year, the Australian Jewish News reported that Robertson said Shurat HaDin’s case “often lacked clear facts linking Lynch’s support of BDS with specific acts of racial discrimination. 

“You’ll have to do a lot of work to persuade me of the correctness of that position,” Robertson said.

Robertson also threw out Shurat HaDin’s allegation that “a purpose of BDS movement campaigns is to inflict harm on Israeli persons or organisations’. 

The case will likely have implications for legal understanding of academic freedom in Australia and abroad. Prof. Lynch says Shurat Hadin is trying to breach his freedom by forcing him to work with scholars he rejects, whereas Prof. Avnon says that Lynch is trying to breach his rights by preventing him from teaching in Sydney. 

Still fighting

Shurat HaDin has been ordered to put up a $100,000 bond to cover Professor Lynch’s court costs. But the group said in a statement that the case would proceed under the guidelines set forth by Justice Robertson. 

“The new statement of claims will be sharply streamlined to ­include only the uncontested allegation that Lynch refused ­employment to Professor Avnon solely based on his citizenship,” Shurat HaDin said.