Divisions over Labor’s position on Israel and Palestine have deepened after a state parliamentarian appeared to attack Bill Shorten following the Opposition Leader’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, linking to a tweet from Mr Shorten’s account praising Mr Netanyahu as “a good friend of Australia”, said the Israeli Prime Minister should be tried for international human rights violations.
“As an Australian I detest the idea that Netanyahu is my friend,” Mr Moselmane, a supporter of Palestine, wrote on Facebook yesterday.
“He should be tried on Gaza & for breaches of int law on the rights of the child,” he wrote in the post since removed.
A spokesman for Mr Shorten, who visited Israel with former prime minister Tony Abbott for the Australia Israel UK leadership dialogue said the comments were a matter for Mr Moselmane. “It is to the credit of the mainstream of Australian politics that both our major parties support the right of people of Israel to live in peace within secure boundaries,” Mr Shorten said in Jerusalem this week.
Read the full article by Kylar Loussikian at The Australian.