Australian prime ministers to sign letter supporting Israel in war against Hamas
Australia’s former prime ministers are set to unite and both condemn Hamas for its attack on Israel and assert the right of the Jewish state to defend itself.
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Exclusive: Australia’s former prime ministers are set to unite and both condemn Hamas for its attack on Israel and assert the right of the Jewish state to defend itself.
The Sunday Telegraph understands all the seven living former prime ministers have been in discussion about a joint letter supporting Israel and squarely laying the blame for the current fighting at the door of the Iranian-backed terror group that controls Gaza.
The letter, which it is understood is close to being agreed among the group, has been discussed with the Zionist Federation of Australia.
Reaching a final agreement on the final wording of the letter has been complicated by the fact they are spread across three time zones.
Kevin Rudd is living in Washington as Australia’s ambassador to America while Julia Gillard is in London.
The show of support from Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard as well as Paul Keating, John Howard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison will be welcomed by Australia’s Jewish community, which has been alarmed by remarks from some federal government ministers in recent days about the conflict.
On Friday, Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke refused to say if he thought Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide, describing it as an argument about linguistics and saying people “will find their own words to be able to describe it”.
When asked if he agreed that Israel’s policy towards Palestinians amounted to apartheid he said: “I don’t want to get into the debate about the labels”.
Mr Burke’s comments were immediately condemned by Jewish community leaders.
Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said Mr Burke had “crossed a line” with his “vile and ridiculous statements” that he said were “well outside” official Australian government policy.
He said there was 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”.
He said Mr Burke should have “unequivocally rejected the question” about genocide rather than sidestepping 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,” he said.
“Moreover, Hamas’ use of Palestinian civilians as human shields is unequivocally a war crime. Tony Burke should have added it is Hamas that is indeed a genocidal movement.”
His comments were echoed by Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler, who said they were “appalling” and “a complete inversion of both morals and the laws of armed conflict”.
Australia abstained from a Jordanian resolution in the UN General Assembly calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce after a Canadian amendment that would have recognised terror group Hamas as the perpetrator of the October 7 attack on Israel was defeated.
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Originally published as Australian prime ministers to sign letter supporting Israel in war against Hamas
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