‘Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up’: Australian minister to Israel
Tony Burke, Australia’s home affairs minister, has hit back at Israel amid an escalating war of words between the two governments.
In response to Israeli criticism of his government, Burke told public broadcaster ABC’s Radio National: “Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry.”
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”.
Albanese brushed off the comments on Wednesday, telling reporters at a briefing: “I don’t take these things personally, I engage with people diplomatically.”
The diplomatic spat erupted after the Australian government, which plans to recognise Palestinian statehood, cancelled the visa of Israeli politician Simcha Rothman, whose ultranationalist party is in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, on Monday.
Hours later, Israel revoked the visas of Australia’s representatives to the Palestinian Authority and said any future Australian visa applications would face scrutiny.
Israeli-Australian diplomatic spat nothing more than ‘theatre’
Antony Loewenstein, the author of The Palestine Laboratory, a book about Israel’s arms and surveillance industry, has told Al Jazeera from Australia’s Sydney that “a lot of” the latest diplomatic spat between Israel and Australia was “theatre”.
“Clearly, there is not a lot of love lost between Albanese, our prime minister, and Israel,” he said.
“But what important to know … throughout this entire process since October 7 [2023] and since then, Australia has continued to trade with Israel, it sends and sells hundreds of millions of dollars of things, including coal and weapons parts as part of the global supply chain for the F-35 fighter jets that Israel uses over Gaza,” Loewenstein added.
He said a lot of the people in Australia are angry that the government rhetoric grows, but there is little action against Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
