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Federal Oppos­i­tion Leader Anthony Albanese has denounced the use of the apartheid analogy to demonise Israel.

“The use of terms like apartheid not only is not appro­pri­ate to describe the Israeli political system and structure, it also cheapens the struggle against apartheid that occurred in South Africa led by Mandela and others. It’s a dangerous thing when people look for simplist­ic terms that are ahis­tor­ic­al. They are not only offensive to the people and struc­tures to which they are directed but they are also offensive to where the term ori­gin­ated.”

Albanese was address­ing Aus­trali­an Jewish leaders from around the country in a zoom meeting organised by the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, and chaired by ECAJ president Jillian Segal.

With ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim mod­er­at­ing the event, Albanese also condemned the Boycott, Divest­ment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and recalled his active oppos­i­tion to Mar­rick­ville Council’s 2011 res­ol­u­tion endorsing BDS – which he described at the time as “coun­ter­pro­duct­ive self-indul­gence.”

In relation to recent attempts to gain accept­ance for BDS, Mr Albanese said: “I pledge my ongoing oppos­i­tion to BDS” and to recognise the rise of antisemitism both from the extreme right and extreme left.

He further endorsed Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s rejection of the recent Queens­land Labor con­fer­ence res­ol­u­tion which accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid”.

Anthony Albanese added that if something along the lines of the Queens­land res­ol­u­tion or a res­ol­u­tion sup­port­ing BDS were to be moved at a future State or Federal con­fer­ence he would be opposed to it, as would his senior col­leagues.

Re-affirming his and Labor’s support for a two-State res­ol­u­tion of the Israel-Palestini­an conflict, Anthony Albanese said “I have always been very concerned about those who argue, including some on the Left as well, that we can have a one-State solution. A single, secular, demo­crat­ic State is in my view just a recipe for ongoing conflict.”  Referring to the UN’s historic endorse­ment of the two-State principle, he said “It has to be recog­nised why the Jewish State of Israel arose.”

He added that he looks forward to engaging with the new Israeli gov­ern­ment, espe­cially over “issues we have in common” such as “scarcity of water”, and “new tech­no­logy”.

He readily acknow­ledged that he would be critical of the actions of both Israel and the Palestini­an lead­er­ship where and when he felt it appro­pri­ate. However, “where it goes into antisemitism – attacks on students, targeting Jewish schools and syn­agogues – there is a respons­ib­il­ity by political leaders to be aware of it and to speak about it.”

Repeatedly express­ing concern at the rise of antisemitism Anthony Albanese, when asked whether a future Labor gov­ern­ment would follow the UK and other countries in endorsing the IHRA working defin­i­tion of antisemitism, replied “Yes, is the very clear answer. The Labor party has done that [in state­ments in 2016 and 2019], and that is our view. It is critical that there is lead­er­ship on those issues, lead­er­ship against any form of racism”.

He also said that, although this is under review, he was “abso­lutely” in favour of aligning specific elements of the Aus­trali­an cur­riculum with broader gov­ern­ment policies to combat specific forms of racism and other forms of prejudice in order to promote social cohesion.  He expressed support for educating students not only about positive values but also to recognise and challenge specific forms of prejudice, including antisemitism.

Noting that he hopes “to lead a Labor gov­ern­ment in the next 12 months”, he emphas­ised that “we wouldn’t take any action (to recognise a Palestini­an State) without con­sult­ing relevant organ­isa­tions and nations, including the Jewish community, Israel and the Palestini­an community.”