Updated ,first published
The head of the nation’s peak Jewish body has condemned Labor for removing a call for listed terror group Hamas to disarm from its draft policy platform as tensions erupted between former close allies over the issue ahead of the party’s national conference.
Labor planned to present a unified front on the contentious issue by having two MPs from Melbourne – Josh Burns, who is Jewish, and Bassem Abdo, the son of Palestinian refugees – jointly present the section of the platform on Israel/Palestine in Adelaide on Saturday, the last day of the gathering.
But infighting over wording of the platform, which was recently amended to be tougher on Israel and less demanding of the Palestinian side, threatens to derail hopes for an uplifting moment.
The dispute has sparked an incendiary attack on Burns by former Labor MP Michael Danby, who accused his successor and former chief of staff of acting as a “human shield” for Foreign Minister Penny Wong and demanded he withdraw his support for the platform unless it is rewritten.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim, a longtime confidant of Albanese, said the draft platform lacked balance and failed to reflect the government’s stated policy positions.
“Instead of providing an honest assessment of the leadership on both sides of the conflict, the draft platform regurgitates the same old one-eyed obsession with blaming Israel,” Wertheim said in the Jewish peak body’s first comments on the draft platform.
“It is a reasonable question to ask why the ALP national conference is not backing in the Albanese government in expressly recognising the government’s position on excluding Hamas and requiring the Palestinian Authority to honour the commitments for governance reform upon which the government’s recognition of a Palestinian state was explicitly based.”
Wertheim said Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong had repeatedly argued there must be no role for Hamas in Gaza, raising questions about why wording reflecting this stance had been expunged from the draft platform.
“Even Hamas itself has acknowledged it, by announcing a hand-over of its government functions to a US-backed technocratic committee,” Wertheim told this masthead.
“But apparently the ALP National Conference cannot quite bring itself to acknowledge it. The best it can do is refer to Hamas, in passing, as a terrorist group.”
Wertheim said the platform also failed to reflect the government’s insistence that recognition of Palestinian statehood relied on commitments from the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, to reform its governance, terminate payments to the families of Palestinian prisoners, institute schooling reform, and hold general elections.
Wertheim and Albanese formed a bond two decades ago when Albanese opposed the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. Albanese regularly consults Wertheim on matters related to the Jewish community.
Albanese told the United Nations General Assembly last September that “the terrorist organisation Hamas can have no role in Palestine’s future”, adding Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state was predicated on commitments from the Palestinian Authority, including that “Hamas would hand over its weapons to Palestinian security forces – and never control Gaza again”.
On the prospect of Burns co-sponsoring the motion on Israel and Palestine, Danby told this masthead: “I’ve never publicly criticised my successor, but I’m aghast that he is acting as a human shield for Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
“He ought to withdraw his name if the original positions on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, promised by Prime Minister Albanese, are not included in the final platform resolution.”
Danby, a staunch supporter of Israel, held the seat of Melbourne Ports – now called Macnamara – from 1998 to 2019, before he retired and was replaced by Burns. His use of the phrase “human shield” is inflammatory given it is often used by Hamas’ critics to describe the way the group embeds itself within Gaza’s civilian population.
Burns worked in Danby’s office, including as his chief of staff, and praised his predecessor for his courage in his first speech to parliament. He declined to comment.
The latest version of the draft platform condemns the use of violence, including by Hamas, but earlier versions included an explicit reference that “Hamas must disarm and can have no role in the State of Palestine”.
An earlier draft also said that Labor “will continue to work with the international community to hold the Palestinian Authority to its commitments and to encourage normalised relations between Israel and its neighbours”.
When announcing $25 million in new aid funding for Palestine on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: “Hamas can play no role in the State of Palestine.”
Wong, who is in the Philippines for a meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), used a speech on Wednesday to again condemn China’s test-firing of a missile in the Pacific earlier this month, saying it came “with too little information and notification”.
“It comes in the context of China’s rapid military build-up, including of its nuclear arsenal, without the transparency or reassurance the region expects, which is why Australia has described the test as provocative and destabilising,” she said.
Several Labor sources said former cabinet minister Ed Husic, a fierce critic of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, had been pushing internally for the platform to go further in its criticisms of Israel.
Husic did not respond to requests for comment.
The draft version calls out Israel for settler violence in the West Bank, condemns a controversial new death penalty law and backs two international courts considering genocide and war crimes charges against Israel.
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
Paul Sakkal is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X or email.
