Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored pleas from Australian Jewish groups to calm his feud with Anthony Albanese, further criticising the prime minister and escalating an ugly spat between the two leaders.
Australia’s peak Jewish group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), on Wednesday labelled Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s attack on Albanese as “inflammatory and provocative”, and a “clumsy intervention” which had affected Australia’s Jewish community.
ECAJ’s president, Daniel Aghion, wrote letters to both leaders, critical of the conduct of Albanese and Netanyahu and urging a resolution “in the usual way through diplomacy rather than public posturing”. The group’s co-executive, Alex Ryvchin, had additionally called for “both governments to remember what’s at stake to ensure that calm heads prevail and to conduct their matters of state privately, diplomatically”.
But in a new interview with Sky News, Netanyahu again labelled Albanese “weak”.
“I’m sure he has a reputable record as a public servant, but I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters,” he said, in a clip broadcast by Sky.
“When the worst terrorist organisation on earth, these savages who murdered women, raped them, beheaded men, burned babies alive in front of their parents, took hundreds of hostages, when these people congratulate the prime minister of Australia, you know something is wrong.”
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The full interview will be broadcast on Thursday night.
When Albanese’s office was contacted for comment, a spokesperson referred Guardian Australia to the prime minister’s statement on Wednesday, where Albanese said he wouldn’t take Netanyahu’s comments personally.
“We had a long discussion prior to the cabinet meeting which was held last Monday morning. At that time, I gave prime minister Netanyahu a clear indication of my view and Australia’s view going forward … I gave him the opportunity to outline what political solution there was,” Albanese told reporters.
“I don’t take these things personally. I engage with people diplomatically, he [Netanyahu] has had similar things to say about other leaders.”
In a statement distributed by the Palestinian delegation to Australia, the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs called Netanyahu’s criticism of Australia and France in recent days “unjustifiable and hostile to peace”.
“The Ministry affirms that conflating recognition of the State of Palestine with antisemitism and interfering in the internal affairs of France and Australia is unjustifiable, hostile to peace, and contrary to the international consensus on the principle of the two-state solution,” it said.
Thursday’s comments from Netanyahu are the latest in an escalating row between Australia and Israel. It followed Australia’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state, joining the vast majority of countries to recognise statehood, and Australia speaking more strongly amid a chorus of international condemnation of Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza, which has seen the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Albanese claimed Netanyahu was “in denial” at the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
Australia’s refusal of a travel visa for the far-right Knesset member Simcha Rothman stoked criticism from Jerusalem, sparking a tit-for-tat which saw Israel then revoke the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority.
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Numerous members of Netanyahu’s government have made repeated criticisms of Australia in social media statements and media interviews.
The growing diplomatic argument has alarmed Jewish groups in Australia.
ECAJ warned both leaders that Australia’s Jewish community “will not be left to deal with the fallout of a spat between two leaders who are playing to their respective domestic audiences”.
Aghion, in his letter to Albanese, was critical of the prime minister accusing Netanyahu of being in denial, claiming the accusation was “gratuitously insulting” and “unseemly”.
Aghion also criticised Netanyahu for alleging Albanese had abandoned Australia’s Jews.
“These comments have played straight into the hands of opponents of Israel and antisemites, to the detriment of the Australian Jewish community,” Aghion wrote.
“Had we been consulted, we would have warned against such a clumsy intervention into Australia’s domestic politics. The charge of antisemitism, whether made directly or indirectly, is a serious one and never to be made lightly.”
Alex Ryvchin, ECAJ’s co-chief executive, also disagreed with some of Netanyahu’s comments, saying the Jewish community had concerns about the government’s handling of antisemitic incidents but “we’ve never felt abandoned”.