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”.