Minister Tony Burke says Gaza, Holocaust comparison ‘re-engineered’, ‘defamatory’

Minister Tony Burke has denied making a comparison between Israel’s military operation in Gaza and the Holocaust, saying his words had been ‘re-engineered’ .

Tony Burke said his comments had been “re-engineered”. Picture: Martin Ollman

Labor Minister Tony Burke has denied making a comparison between Israel’s military operation in Gaza and the Holocaust, claiming his words had been “re-engineered” and the claims were “inaccurate and defamatory”.

It comes after the arts and employment minister said that he condemned hate-fuelled sermons by clerics in his Watson electorate, and that anti-Semitism should feel the brunt of the law.

The minister’s rebuke of the alleged Holocaust comparison comes after a video circulated across the weekend of a Q&A at the Woodford Folk Festival with The Saturday Paper’s Karen Middleton.

The footage captured Mr Burke refusing to label Israel’s operations in Gaza a “genocide”, when asked by Middleton, in front of a pro-Palestine demonstration and audible crowd.

“There’s always a test of words: ‘will you use the word genocide, will you condemn Hamas’,” he said.

“Anything that falls short of that particular test is a complete fail... what happens is we end up with a debate about the word and not what’s happening on the ground.”

Mr Burke said he would “not say anything other than the cabinet position”, but referenced parts of the Israeli operation in Gaza.

“The Israeli Defence Minister said there would be no food, no water, no fuel – that this (would be) a complete siege (of Gaza),” he said, also citing the loss of life and infrastructure.

“And then (the defence minister) described the community in Gaza as ‘human animals’.

“In providing those examples, there will be words occurring in people’s minds... I would rather keep the debate to what is happening on the ground.

“... If I had used that term that’s being asked of me people would have gone away comparing and thinking ‘isn’t it identical to the Holocaust’.

“But the discussion I believe that makes a difference is in people hearing the facts of what is happening on the ground, and they will very quickly choose words to describe it.”

After the footage was aired by Sky News, Mr Burke claimed his comments had been “re-engineered” and his lines were instead a refusal to compare the two.

“(Sky News presenter Caroline Marcus) has tried to re-engineer my words, making the exact opposite point to what I was saying,” he claimed.

A screenshot of footage from the Woodford Folk Festival, showing Tony Burke (back centre, on the stage) in a Q&A. Pro-Palestine protesters stand in front of the stage. Picture: YouTube

“I rejected using the term genocide because its use invites comparisons to the Holocaust. I have never and will never use people’s grief as a weapon against them.

“I have dedicated much of my public advocacy to opposing all forms of hate speech and have consistently called out anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”

In other comments during the Q&A, Mr Burke said that “the history of the region did not begin before October 7”.

The minister also revealed how the government unsuccessfully sought amendments that “referenced the horrors and killings of October 7” to the ceasefire motion that it eventually backed at the UN General Assembly.

However, Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said Mr Burke should have refuted outright that Israel was engaged in genocide, and that the comments revealed “deep divisions” within the government.

“Minister Burke’s comments contained factual inaccuracies and tacitly endorse accusations Israel is pursuing genocide rather than appropriately refuting them,” he said.

“It also exposes the deep divisions within the government and the moral confusion that saw it say one thing in a statement on the conflict, yet vote for another at the UN later the same day.”

On Friday, Mr Burke said he wanted “legal protections” used against any individual peddling anti-Semitism and provisions under commonwealth law against hate speech directed against people for their faith.

“There are legal protections against racist hate speech and I hope they are used,” said Mr Burke, whose electorate encompasses As-Sunnah mosque, where sheik Ahmed Zoud gave a sermon calling Jews “monsters”.

It comes as The Australian revealed how Jewish leaders were set to take legal action themselves against a slew of anti-Semitic sermons by southwest Sydney clerics, including referring to Jews as “monsters”, and “descendants of pigs and monkeys”.