ECAJ slams Burnside’s Twitter post
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has condemned the recent Twitter statement made by Julian Burnside QC, a Greens candidate at the last Federal election, which likened Israel’s measures to defend its citizens from Hamas’s rocket and arson attacks to “Germany’s treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust”.
Julian Burnside
“Burnside’s appalling and utterly false comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany not only reflects an astonishing ignorance of history but also represents a new low in public debate in Australia, a debasement of public discourse”, said ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim. Referring to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism, he added: “Such comparisons are internationally recognised as an example of antisemitism”.
“Statements of this kind do nothing to enlighten or inform. The only purpose they serve is to orchestrate public hatred, an ugly and unworthy tactic regardless of the alleged target”, Wertheim said.
“This particular comment has also caused needless distress to the unusually high percentage of Australian Jews who are survivors of the Holocaust. They know from first-hand experience the mass transports of innocent men, women and children to purpose-built death camps, the gas chambers, the crematoria, the butchery of millions and the countless other horrors of the Nazi genocide. To trivialise this history with false comparisons to any contemporary conflict is beneath contempt.”
“We call upon the Greens without prevarication to disavow Burnside’s comment and to disqualify him as a Greens candidate at any future election”.
Absolutely endorse everything Peter Wertheim has said so cogently here. What is wrong with people like Burnside, that they can’t see for themselves the horror of what they are saying?!
Such a glib and ready statement to make, rolling off the tongue with such ease, and yet so obscenely inappropriate.
Shame on you Julian Burnside. It’s not as if you’re a teenager with no knowledge of the Holocaust. Or are you perhaps an older man with no knowledge of the Holocaust? Or are you the sort of man to whom words are meaningless, without power or acuity? Whatever the situation, you should never be contesting an election as a representative of any party. The Greens are bad enough in their own twisted ideas in regard to Israel and Jews, however it behoves them to act on Burnside’s statement, denounce it, and forget him as a future candidate.
Being a member of the notorious Savage Club…….he’s in good company with
George Brandis with his “occupied” East Jerusalem issues.