Paul Keating declines to sign former Prime Ministers’ joint statement supporting Israel and condemning Hamas

Paul Keating has declined to be part of a joint statement supporting Israel and condemning Hamas.

The Herald Sun reported on Sunday that Australia’s seven living former prime ministers were set to sign a joint letter stating their support for Israel and laying the blame for the current conflict at the feet of the Gaza-based terrorist group.

The letter, organised by the Zionist Federation of Australia, comes just three weeks after Hamas launched a large-scale attack on October 7 killing more than 1,400 Israelis – mostly civilians – and taking hundreds more hostage.

But in a statement on Sunday, former prime minister Keating said he would not be signing the joint letter, calling the report “untrue” and “without foundation”.

“Today’s Melbourne Herald Sun carries a story that, along with other former Australian Prime Ministers, I will be a signature to a statement drafted by The Zionist Federation of Australia, condemning the attack by Hamas on Israel,” Mr Keating said.

The former Labor leader and Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996 said former Zionist Federation president Mark Leibler had contacted him about the letter but he had declined to be involved.

“Mark Leibler contacted me earlier last week proposing the prospective joint statement for my agreement and signature,” Mr Keating said.

“I told Leibler in a written message that I would not be agreeing to join other former Prime Ministers in authorising the statement. That remains my position.”

Mr Keating’s position puts him at odds with former Labor Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, as well as the former Liberal holders of the office, John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

The decision further highlights division among the Labor Party over the Israel-Palestine conflict, with senior Labor minister Tony Burke recently failing to refute suggestions of “genocide” and “apartheid” levelled against Israel. 

Joining ABC RN on Friday, the Employment and Workplace Relations Minister said he did not want to “get into a debate about labels” and that “listeners will find their own words” to describe situation occurring in Israel and Palestine.

Minister Burke also backed the Canterbury-Bankstown Local Council’s decision to fly the Palestinian flag until a cease fire is declared – a decision Jewish groups compared to flying the German flag after Kristallnacht or the Taliban flag after September 11.

Speaking to Sky News Australia’s Sunday Agenda, opposition leader Peter Dutton said Mr Burke was, “to his great shame”, playing to a constituency within his electorate rather than acting in the national interest.

“He’s a leader of the House of Representatives and he should have… had a response which was more consistent with where I think the majority of Australian people are,” Mr Dutton said.

“The Prime Minister should have picked the phone up immediately to Tony Burke and really given him a dressing down because to not condemn Hamas and to use, you know, that sort of form of words sends a terrible message.”

The Zionist Federation of Australia’s letter is far from the first time Mr Keating has been out of step with a matter of broad bi-partisan political consensus in Australia.

During a National Press Club address in March, the former Labor leader launched a vitriolic attack on the Albanese government’s decision to acquire nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS agreement.

Following the address, The Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan said Mr Keating had effectively declared war on the Albanese government, speaking about the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, and Foreign Minister in “ contemptuous and contemptible terms”.

According to Greg Sheridan, it was the performance of a “very sad figure” who was destroying the small amount of influence he still had.  

“He’s sad, bitter, isolated, irrelevant and unhappy,” Sheridan told Sky News Australia. 

“I think today he was so crazy and so unreasonable that the little bit of residual influence he has, he will have just about wiped it out by today.”