April 6, 2016
Media Coverage:
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, Australia’s leading organisation combatting anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms, has decried as offensive and insensitive the comparison Made by David Murray, former chief of the Commonwealth Bank, between the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and Hitler’s Third Reich.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, issued the following statement:
“I do hope that there will come a time when public figures will realise that using inappropriate and painful analogies to Hitler in order to score a political point and generate headlines are misguided and insensitive. Invoking the Holocaust to criticise a corporate stance adds nothing to the debate, is historically inaccurate, and fuels the dangerous trivialization of the Holocaust. It is also immensely hurtful to Holocaust survivors, their families, as well as to those who fought bravely against the Nazis in World War II. The debate about Australia’s corporate watchdog is a legitimate one. However, to suggest that ASIC’s culture is in any way similar to the circumstances of the Third Reich, where millions were brutally murdered cheapens the suffering experienced by Hitler’s victims. In no way can the measures taken by ASIC be compared to the Third Reich’s deliberate and systematic extermination policy. Hitler and his genocidal actions should never form part of the discussion about ASIC and I am increasingly concerned about the coarsening of public discussion, and by the ignorance demonstrated by public figures. We call on Mr Murray to refrain from employing Holocaust analogies in the future and to retract his hurtful remarks.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677
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