Swan song

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council and The Executive Council of Australian Jewry have hit back at the former Labour treasurer Wayne Swan, who accused Israel of murdering 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza in a post on social media.

The ECAJ has called for his resignation as president of the ALP.

In a statement, the ECAJ wrote: “At a time of intense trauma for the Jewish community in Australia, a small section of the crowd at Sunday’s vigil booed the Prime Minister over the government’s manifestly inadequate responses to the orchestrated surge in antisemitism over the previous two years. The criticisms of the government are legitimate; the booing was not the right way to express them, and should not have happened.

Yet in the midst of our community’s grief and anguish, we are appalled that a national figure like Wayne Swan chose to re-tweet another person’s post which seized on the booing episode to try to diminish and delegitimise the outpouring of sympathy our community has received from the Australian public.

The tweet, and the implied endorsement of it, was a subtle form of dehumanisation which exemplifies the sewer of antisemitic hatred that has blighted Australian society for the last two years and which helped spawn the murder of 15 innocent people at Bondi Beach.

Swan’s subsequent justification for the re-tweet and his claim that it was in support of national healing and unity is risible.”

Swan published his statement on “X”  following some of those attending the Day of Reflection at Bondi Beach booing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,

Dr ColinRubenstein, executive director of The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, said: “Mr Swan’s denigration of the mourners at Bondi, claiming those who booed the Prime Minister politicised the Bondi massacre, was very disappointing, and demonstrably untrue. The response from the crowd towards the Prime Minister was not partisan, illustrated by the cheers received by his ALP colleague, Premier Minns. While the appropriateness of booing any dignitary who has come to be with the community can be questioned, Mr Swan should understand it was an emotional reaction from some in a shattered community at the Government’s inaction and indifference for the last two years in the face of pleas from the Jewish community to act.”

Dr Rubenstein continued, “Mr Swan’s sharing of a post on X that accused Israel of murdering 70,000 people in Gaza was reprehensible. Israel didn’t murder people. It fought a war in incredibly difficult urban conditions, made harder by the Hamas human sacrifice tactics. Military experts have praised Israel’s efforts to minimise civilian casualties. Even Hamas admits many of those killed were its fighters.

That is exactly the type of inflammatory misinformation that has fed the antisemitism epidemic over the last two years, and it’s worse coming from someone of Mr Swan’s status. He should know far better.”