Labor National Conference: Israel-Palestine stoush has not done any damage, says Jewish MP Josh Burns

Josh Burns insists no damage was done by Labor’s ugly Israel-Palestine stoush at its National Conference as the party’s peak decision-making forum doesn’t actually change its Middle East policy.

Labor has been criticised for suppressing debate on stronger anti-Israel language and cutting demands for Hamas to disarm from an earlier draft of the policy platform.

Mr Burns on Monday dismissed the triennial conference’s impact on foreign policy in multiple media appearances, instead framing it as just an update to Labor’s “high-level” direction.

The prominent Jewish MP insisted Hamas disarmament and a desire for the terrorist group to have no role in a future Palestine remained Labor policy, despite the amendment explicitly stating the demand being scratched from the final text.

He also defended the party’s platform process after complaints by Ed Husic who had agitated for stronger anti-Israel language including “genocide” in the foreign affairs portion of the party’s manifesto.

The Labor backbencher’s seconder on a resolution, however, was talked out of joining him on the floor by powerbrokers.

It included recognising an United Nations inquiry that determined Israeli authorities had “deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank”.

He also wanted to see the withdrawal of Australian trade and defence diplomats from Tel Aviv.

Instead Mr Burns and Palestinian backbencher Basem Abdo had been co-sponsors of Labor’s Middle East policy and delivered impassioned speeches to party faithful on the party’s position.

Speaking to ABC on Monday, Mr Burns said “lots of things aren’t in the Labor platform” listing Budget figures for a start.

Mr Burns had claimed the “whole thing has been misconstrued” on News24, seeking to distinguish between internal party platform debates and the government’s actual foreign policy stance.

“I think it’s really important to say that people are free to say that ‘there should be things in the conference motion that, you know, that they would have preferred to have seen’,” Mr Burns said.

“But I think, some of the way in which this whole thing has been misconstrued, is that it is important to make the point that, nothing in conference takes away from our government positions that have been reiterated publicly nor does it take away from the fact that a terror organisation remains to be prescribed under Australian law.”

On Monday, Mr Husic had stood firm on his choice to criticise his party so publicly after telling a press conference in Adelaide he didn’t “give a shit” if Labor heavyweights put him in the freezer.

The backbencher had expressed disappointment that an “extraordinary amount of energy” had been applied to halt his advocacy.

Mr Husic reiterated on ABC radio on Monday morning that he should have been allowed to share his view, especially as “Australia’s first minister of Muslim faith”.

“I come from a Bosnian-Muslim background where we have witnessed genocide and it took ten years … to be established as a genocide,” he said.

“I am going to have views about it. And I think it’s only fair that I be able to express them.”

When Mr Burns was later asked on the ABC radio if his colleague Mr Husic had been treated fairly, Mr Burns was hesitant before explaining that politics can be “brutal”.

“Canberra and politics can be brutal. He’s obviously upset with what’s happened,” he said.

“While Ed is entitled to his views, actually that’s not the story. The story is that something bigger happened.

“Where two people from, what is conceived as two different worlds, came together and tried to do something to bring people together.”

Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser accused Labor of softening its position by removing clauses requiring Hamas to disarm and insisting it signalled a “deep hostility to the state of Israel” within government.

“There remains within the Labor party a deep hostility to the state of Israel, which I think is unfortunate,” he said.

Despite reports in The Australian that Defence Minister Richard Marles had privately admitted the wording of the party’s Middle East policy was “flawed” he told a press conference on Monday that he was “very comfortable” with what was agreed to.

“I’m very comfortable with the platform as it’s been adopted by the conference,” he said.

“The platform makes clear that the only pathway forward is a two-state solution but the platform also condemns in the strongest possible terms, all forms of terrorism that includes in respect of Hamas.”

Mr Leeser also expressed his disappointment that there wasn’t a “significant period of commemoration for the Bondi terror attack” at the National Conference similar to the efforts made at the NSW State Labor conference.