Federal minister Tony Burke slammed for ABC radio interview
Remarks are 'dreadful and are well outside official Australian government policy', AIJAC's Colin Rubenstein says
Federal Workplace Relations Minster Tony Burke has been slammed for failing to call out ABC Radio host Patricia Karvelas when she asked him if Israel is committing “genocide”.
In a wide-ranging interview about the current Hamas war, Burke described people in his south western Sydney electorate “seeing horrific images updated every hour on their phones” from Gaza. He also quoted Hamas casualty figures from Gaza as fact.
“I had a professional woman say to me the other day. She has never seen so many images of dead babies in her life. Often the images are seen turn out to be of people they know,” he said.
Asked by Karvelas “I’ve heard people describe it as a genocide. Do you say it that way?”, Burke replied, “I prefer to provide the facts … and I think your listeners will find their own words to be able to describe it.
“I think when we go straight to do we use this word, do we use that word, we end up in an argument about linguistics.”
Asked if he thought Israel’s policies towards Palestinians constituted apartheid, he again said “I don’t want to get into the debate about the label” but went on to say that if an Israeli or Palestinian boy committed the same crime in the West Bank, they would be dealt with differently because of their race and “people can reach their own conclusions about about what word to apply to that”.
In reality, there is a different legal system for Israeli citizens – whether Jewish or Arab – to Palestinians because to impose the Israeli court system on the latter would be tantamount to annexation.
Burke also quoted Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in regard to tightening Israel’s blockade on goods entering Gaza as referring to “human animals” without clarifying that Gallant was speaking strictly about Hamas.
He also said he “supported completely” a decision by Canterbury-Bankstown Council in Sydney’s south west to fly a Palestinian flag for the duration of the conflict.
“I’m very proud that it was my local council,” he said.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said Burke had “crossed a line”.
“Tony Burke has made vile and ridiculous statements, implying both Israel is an `apartheid State’ and an offensive moral equivalence between the slaughter of Israeli civilians by Hamas and the accidental deaths of Palestinian civilians who are unfortunately being killed because Hamas made a deliberate decision to use them as human shields,” Rubenstein said.
“His remarks are dreadful and are well outside official Australian government policy.
“Tony Burke should have unequivocally rejected the question about ‘genocide’ rather than side-stepping and deflecting it.
“Israel has no intention to destroy the Palestinians in whole or in part – unlike Hamas, which openly declares such intent against Jews in its charter and whose October 7 attacks match that intent. Moreover, Hamas’ use of Palestinian civilians as human shields is unequivocally a war crime. Tony Burke should have added that it is Hamas that is indeed a genocidal movement.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said, “Genocide isn’t a buzzword. It is the most heinous crime a nation can commit and involves the deliberate extermination of an ethnic group.
“For a respected journalist to give the claim credibility and from a cabinet minister to have even entertained the notion is deeply irresponsible. In any way likening Israel’s war with Hamas and mission to rescue its captives, to that crime degrades the understanding of actual genocide and inflames passions locally.
“Language matters and leadership matters. We expect better.”
According to News.Com.Au, a spokesperson for the ABC said the usage of the word genocide “is being widely discussed, for example in a UN statement last week. She [Karvelas] doesn’t use the word herself.”
She has done an “outstanding job covering this complex, unfolding situation” the spokesperson added.
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