I am surprised that the Crisafulli LNP government would draft legislation that will increase community debate on conflict in the Middle East.
It is something most people in Gympie would not want, and yet the government is going to pass laws that make illegal certain words.
That is futile, antidemocratic and dangerous.
The law is said to make two expressions illegal and punishable by prison.
It hasn’t been passed yet, so we can still say that the expressions are “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea”.
The intifada was an uprising by Palestinians against the illegal occupation of their land by Israel.
So it is saying that this resistance should be widened internationally.
Many supporters of Israel object as the intifada started peacefully, was brutally repressed and continued as terrorism.
Many more Palestinians died than Israelis.
The slogan is also used at many Palestinian protests, so Zionists don’t like it.
The chant that “ Palestine should be free from the river to the sea” is also used at Palestinian protests and could be interpreted as a call for the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel.
It could also be a call for everyone to get a vote.
By definition, Zionists support a Jewish state, and they can’t allow a vote for everyone in the occupied territories as the Jewish majority would be challenged.
Both slogans have been used at massacres and other terrorist actions.
Evidently, if bad people say things, we shouldn’t allow others to say them. That is the end of free speech.
Do we ban “God is great”?
There is no doubt that people who oppose this legislation will be labelled anti-Semitic.
All we need is someone to say that the Labor Party opposes it, and bad people say “Vote Labor”.
This is an extreme example, but there is nothing in the legislation that stops the Attorney General from including whatever phase he likes to the banned list without referral to the parliament.
One would hope that the legislation itself is struck down when challenged by the Supreme Court or the High Court.
But that just demonstrates the futility of the legislation.
We can say, “increase the resistance to occupation” but not “globalize the intifada”.
We can say “Make Palestine free” but not “from the river to the sea”.
Why would the LNP government do this?
It will not decrease anti-Semitism.
It is more likely to do the opposite as the government restricts free speech because the Israeli lobby want it.
I never thought that Crisafulli would be into “Virtue Signaling”
The law is futile, antidemocratic and dangerous – because it can be extended later.
Reg Lawler,
Dagun.
