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The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry (the ECAJ), the peak rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, deplores and con­demns 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”. 

“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”. 

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 588
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au