BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 16.Australia’s former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told Benjamin Netanyahu to “stay out of our politics” after the Israeli leader linked the recognition of Palestine to the Bondi Beach mass shooting TurkicWorld reports via arabnews.
Fifteen people were killed when a father and son opened fire on people celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on Sunday evening.
Netanyahu said Australia’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood earlier this year had poured “oil on the fire of antisemitism” in the weeks leading up to the attack.
When asked about the comments on “Channel 4 News” in the UK, Turnbull said: “I would respectfully say to ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, please stay out of our politics.
“If you’ve got that kind of commentary to make, you are not helping … and it’s not right.”
Turnbull backed the current Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government for recognizing Palestinian statehood in August — along with many other Western nations — as international pressure grew over the war in Gaza.
In a speech after the Bondi attack, Netanyahu said: “A few months ago I wrote to the Australian prime minister that your policy is pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism.”
He added: “Antisemitism is a cancer that spreads when leaders are silent.”
Turnbull said the vast majority of countries in the world recognized Palestine as a state and supported a two-state solution to the conflict.
He said Australia was a very successful multicultural society that could not allow foreign conflicts to be imported.
“We need to ensure that wars in the Middle East or wars in any other part of the world are not fought out here,” he said. “Trying to link them, which is what Netanyahu has done, is not helpful and that’s exactly the reverse of what we want to achieve.”
Albanese also rejected Netanyahu’s comments when asked whether there was a link between his approach to Palestine and the Bondi attack.
“Overwhelmingly, most of the world recognizes a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East,” he told broadcasters. “This is a moment of national unity where we need to come together … We need to wrap our arms around members of the Jewish community who are going through an extraordinarily difficult period.”
Albanese has visited in hospital the man hailed as a hero for disarming one of the attackers.
Ahmed Al-Ahmed, a shopkeeper who moved to Australia from Syria in 2006, is recovering after tackling the gunman.
Albanese said on Tuesday that the attackers Sajid Akram and his son Naveed were driven by Daesh ideology.
