Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of lashing out over Australia’s decision to deny a visa to a sitting member of the Knesset, as the Israeli prime minister sent a letter to several world leaders accusing them of appeasing Hamas.
Burke’s department cancelled a visa this week for far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman on the basis of his views and comments, including that he had branded Gazan children “enemies” of Israel, plunging relations between Australia and Israel to a new low.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Credit: Getty
After Netanyahu called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “weak” in response and moved to cancel visas for Australia’s representatives in the Occupied West Bank, Burke hit back on ABC Radio National. “It’s a lashing out,” Burke said.
“Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry,” Burke said.
Instead, he said Albanese had shown strength by calling Netanyahu before Australia moved to recognise Palestine, and hearing him out before making the decision and standing by it.
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Sky News reported that Netanyahu had sent a letter to world leaders, including Albanese, who had moved to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September as part of a push to restart momentum for a two-state solution.
“Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire,” the letter reads. “It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas’s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, who re-energised the push to recognise Palestine this year, reportedly received an almost identical letter. Burke said he had not seen the letter.