The Strawman of Antisemitism: Banning Protests Against Israel Down Under
Of late, a spate of incidents has taken place in Australia giving sheer delight to the simian-resembling Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton. On a visit to South Australia, he showed himself to be merrily divisive in attacking protestors who had shown solidarity for Palestinians in Gaza in the wake of their catastrophic suffering since October last year: “If you allow these lunatics to continue their protests at university campuses and you allow them to spew their hatred and affiliate with a listed terrorist organisation, and there [is] no consequence, of course we’ll see the sort of outcomes we have seen – which most recently has culminated in the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne.”
The December 6 attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, while horrid, was immediately elevated to a level of concern warranting an emergency – that, at least, was the view of Dutton and his charges. The attacks on mosques and their worshippers, a feature of Australian public life for some years now, hardly warranted a mention. (A 2021 joint study by three Australian universities surveying 75 mosques found that 58.2% had experienced violence between 2014 and 2019.)
Dutton also had inspiration from another source. “The burning of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne is an abhorrent act of antisemitism,” stated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on platform X. “I expect the state authorities to use their full weight to prevent such antisemitic acts in future.”
Ever the opportunist, Netanyahu saw a chance to see unsubstantiated links between the bombing in Melbourne, Australian foreign policy and antisemitism. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible’, and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country.” The conclusion was childishly simple: “Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism.”
This unbridled nonsense had its effect. In the aftermath of the synagogue attack, Australia’s antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, got busy. On the Australian public broadcaster SBS, shetook the rather authoritarian view that Australian cities were no place for protests against Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. “There should be places designated away from where the Jewish community might venture, where people can demonstrate.” Presumably, pro-Palestinian protestors needed to be given, like smokers, caged areas to engage in their activities, leaving the pure and docile safe to go about their everyday business.
In Segal’s view, the weekly protests held in solidarity for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank had become “something more sinister”. Not only were they “intimidatory”, they had “morphed into attacking the Jewish community.” Not exactly furnished with much by way of evidence, she pointed to the display of “flags from a terrorist organisation” and “anti-Jewish sentiments” seen and heard at rallies. Demagogy always resists context.
Amnesty International Australia, in a December 13 statement, expressed its strong opposition to Segal’s call “to ban pro-Palestinian protests from city centres. Protests advocating for a ceasefire, the protection of human rights, and an end to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza are an essential and protected outlet for Australians to freely express their views.” It was vital to distinguish instances of “hateful acts and calls for justice, freedom, and human dignity.”
These views are correct – to a point. As Australia lacks a human rights charter protecting the right to lawful assembly and free speech, parliaments at both the federal and state level can show sneering contempt for protests when they wish to do so. Wishing to jump to the aid of Segal and the unspecified fearful in the Jewish community, Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan has done just that, proposing legislation that targets pro-Palestinian protests. “Antisemitism,” she solemnly stated, “thrives in extreme and radical environments, and we are giving police more powers to control protest and making it harder for agents of violence and hate to hide.”
Allan gives the impression that the proposed laws are universal in nature. “Doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, Jewish Muslim, Sikh, Hindu – you all deserve the right to simply be who we are.” However, things become very clear with the explicit mention “that Jewish people increasingly feel the promise of a modern and multicultural Victoria is being denied them.”
The ludicrously named Anti-Vilification and Social Cohesion Bill 2024 will not only, as the premier noted in a public announcement, ban the flags and symbols of designated terrorist organisations (Hamas and Hezbollah included), undefined “white nationalists” (presumably those of other colours slip under the radar), “and more”: the statute will also focus on the decorative and dramatic nature of protest. Masks, “used by agitators to shield identities and hide from personal accountability,” are to be banned, along with glue, rope, chains, locks and other devices “used to cause maximum disruption and endanger Victorians.” This shows that protestors of all stripes, including those concerned with climate change and environment, will also be targeted.
Showing a conventional loathing for Victoria’s own Charter of Human Rights, which has a paper tiger protection for freedom of assembly, Allan condescendingly shreds it: “the right to protest is balanced against the right of people to live safely – free of danger, discrimination and harassment.”
These moves replicate the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995, as amended by the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Prohibited Hate Symbols and Other Measures) Bill 2023 passed last year. As if Australia’s citizenry needed to have more strangulating laws, these measures already criminalise the display and trade of prohibited symbols, along with the Nazi salute, which includes “a prohibited terrorist organisation symbol.” Police-minded bureaucracies, whatever their level, adore duplication.
The beneficiaries in all of this are the noisy, bellicose members of the pro-Israel lobby, a divisive federal opposition keen to capitalise on hatreds it claims not to have, and the State of Israel itself. However murderous, annihilating and cruel its policies might be to the Palestinians, the belief shared by many of its defenders is that the Jewish state is faultless, beyond the moral and soiling reach of any protest. To think otherwise would instance, as Netanyahu barkingly insists, antisemitism.
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8 comments
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Katie
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Lyndal
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Baby Jewels
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Terence Mills
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Douglas Pritchard
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Max Gross
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leefe
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Max Gross
Return to home pageThe truth is that Peter Dutton doesn’t give a rat’s behind about Jewish people or ANYONE but himself! Dutton’s ongoing irrational support of that genocidal murderer, Netanyahu, who’s merciless army is persecuting and killing unarmed non-Jewish Palestinian men, women and little children (including Muslims and Christians alike) attempting to flee Netanyahu’s killing fields in Palestine, is absolutely unforgivable! Even the UN has appropriately described Netanyahu as an unconscionable and thoroughly remorseless war criminal! Dutton is a hateful, Islamophobic sociopath and history has proven that, in reality, Dutton despises EVERYONE who isn’t a right-wing xenophobic white supremacist racist like himself! Dutton will use any form of divisiveness, pretend to “defend” any self-righteous “psuedo victim” and/or constantly attempt to defend and/or take the side of hateful right-wing extremists who, like himself, continue to target the poorest, most vulnerable people in our community. In order to prop up his popularity with the most hateful people in our community, Dutton never ceases his remorseless, pathetic attempts to seek attention and/or get the support of the worst, most racist, like-minded sociopaths in the country! As such, there is NO PLACE on our political stage for such a depraved individual who will seek to rule and control our nation through hate, division, intolerance and conflict!
Australia has a world-wide reputation as one of the most tolerant, peaceful and successfully multicultural nations on the planet, however, if Dutton ever rises, like a demon out of hell, to become yet ANOTHER diabolical racist and misogynistic LNP “crime minister”, there can be no doubt that he will use his power to incite hatred, division, exclusion and xenophobia! The TRUTH is that history has proven that – like that appalling racist John Howard, the rusted-on misogynist Phony Abbot and that bible-thumping hypocrite and pathological liar, Scott Morrison, before him – Dutton ticks every box as a truly vile, confrontational, attention-seeking and dangerously undemocratic political psychopath who THRIVES on hateful inhumanity, xenophobia, racism, relentless conflict, chaos, a nauseating level of appalling bible-thumping hypocrisy and the ongoing inhumane targeting of the poorest, most vulnerable people in our community! DON’T LET IT HAPPEN!
Banning Masks…? Since COVID, these face covers have been acceptable and even desirable as being useful in limiting the spread of some diseases, while their role in helping avoid the various facial recognition situations (such as using a self serve checkout or ATM) also please some people and no doubt annoy others. Will it be mandatory to keep faces uncovered and available for scrutiny at all times now?
Well said, Katie, but I have no idea how Australia has a reputation of multicultural tolerance. I’ve been here since 1969 and I can tell you, the racism hits you in the face upon arrival. That there are worse countries, there is no doubt, but Australia has always been a racist country. It’s a sad indictment that in 2024, we have someone of the ilk of Dutton spouting his hate, almost continuously, night and day. What the hell is wrong with us, that we tolerate THIS? Even so, what goes through his and Albo’s heads, thinking they can convince Australians that wiping out an imprisoned, unarmed populace, is something we should support? We are not being represented by our so-called leaders. I don’t know if they’ve been bought, threatened or just plain stupid, but the majority of people I know are just not going along with it. A few years ago, I would never have believed we’d have a Labor government supporting genocide and flat out removing our rights to protest the fact. What do they have in mind for us in the future – since human life means nothing to these monsters. Libs last, Labor 2nd last, while we still can, or we fully deserve what’s coming to us.
Jerry seinfeld had a good take on the Nazi Heil salute which may or may not be banned in Victoria :
I like to think I live in a democracy and if the largest group, statistically, determines a code of conduct, then we go along with it.
I do resent 0.46% of the Australian population, followers of one of the sky fairies, decreeing what is acceptable or not.
Raising your right arm, critical of a universally accepted natiion conducting genocide, displaying flags they don`t like and you get to be on the wrong side of Australian law.
They have a reputation for being exceptional, and thats ok by me, but if their church gets damaged I dont see why the taxpayer is immediately picking up the tab. Not all the religious groups enjoy that level of support.
Do the church now control the State(?), and I would like to set a level higher than 0.46% before these goons get to meddle with our laws.
Segal is an infamous Zionist and genocide apologist. That Albanese chose her as his “antisemitism” envoy (and delayed appointing an Islamophobia envoy!) tells me all I need to know which side of the white bread he prefers to butter. When Netanyahu interfered in Australian politics Albanese should have told him to piss off. Instead, he folded like origami. Pathetic. Guess who I WON’T be voting for in the coming federal elections.
These twonks need to have it drummed into their heads that antiZionism is not the same as antisemitism.
Baby Jewels, you have nailed it! “Libs last, Labor 2nd last, while we still can, or we fully deserve what’s coming to us.”