Huge pro-Palestine Brisbane rally shouts the six-word chant Queensland government plans to ban
Updated ,first published
Chants of “river to sea” echoed through Brisbane’s CBD on Monday evening, just a day after the Queensland government vowed to outlaw the phrase in a bid to combat antisemitism.
More than 1,000 protesters flocked to King George Square outside City Hall to show their opposition to Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia, but the LNP’s laws were front and center at the Queensland rally.
“We will not stop delivering the message of justice and peace on which this movement was built,” organizer Remah Naji told the crowd gathered from 5 p.m.
Queensland government This week, it will introduce a law criminalizing the public use of phrases such as “from river to sea” and “globalizing the intifada”. it became the first Australian state or territory to take such action.
The laws would also toughen penalties for the use of symbols such as swastikas, Nazi insignia, Hamas and Islamic State flags, and Hezbollah insignia. However, the decision to ban the slogans is more controversial due to their widespread use at frequent pro-Palestinian rallies.
While Naji defended the statement’s call for “equality for all people” Monday night, speaker Malaak Seleem said the Jordan River to the Mediterranean should be “a free and just land for rightful people.”
Michael Berkman, the Greens’ only MP in Queensland, said the meaning of the hymn had been distorted.
“Whatever you do, don’t let anyone tell us what our own words mean. Don’t let them change the meaning of such basic expressions,” he told the crowd.
“Where there is freedom of expression, Pauline [Hanson] Despite all this?”
Naji announced that he was planning a possible court challenge to the law.
What did the LNP and Jewish leaders say?
Announcing the new laws on Sunday, Attorney General Deb Frecklington said they were “appalling”, “offensive” and “out there to incite hatred” from “river to sea”.
“[It means] Frecklington said it was necessary to get rid of all the Jews in the middle. “I don’t even like saying it out loud.”
Prime Minister David Crisafulli did not explain the definition or interpretation of the slogan but said, “This cannot possibly be about liberation… this is about destruction.”
Queensland Board of Jewish Representatives President Jason Steinberg, who was at the government’s press conference, said the statement called for “massacre”. [of] Jews,” he said, denying that it was used in the fight for Palestinian freedom and human rights.
“‘River to sea’ means from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, there will be no Jews. This is the battle cry of Hamas, no Jews,” Steinberg said.
“Israel is the land of the Jewish people, the ancestral homeland of the Jews.”
The meaning of Chant has been debated in NSW
Following the terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Bondi in December, a parliamentary committee in NSW also considered legislation that would ban the “river to sea” slogan.
Numerous organizations supported the crackdown, including the Jewish Union of Australia, the Australasian Jewish Students Union, and the Institute for Global Antisemitism and Policy Studies; the latter said that it “effectively calls for ethnic cleansing of Jews at the least and genocide at the maximum.”
Other groups did not accept such definitions; The NSW Muslim Legal Network suggested it was widely used in the context of peaceful protest, and the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network said it was examining the words as “it places Palestinian identity and solidarity under special surveillance”.
Gender and cultural studies academic Dr. A submission to the committee by Finola Laughren quotes a Canadian court decision stating that the phrase “is used by both Israeli and Palestinian politicians to argue that lands ‘from the river to the sea’ at the extreme ends of their political spectrum belong solely to Jews or Palestinians.”
He said there was “no evidence that the slogans were used as an expression of support or sympathy in themselves”. [for] any terrorist organization or extremist group”.
The committee ultimately acknowledged that the meaning of the phrase was disputed and did not recommend the ban.
What did the protesters say?
Protesters on Monday night were furious at the LNP proposal.
“This means that the Palestinians’ land is from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, and their land was stolen by the United Nations and given to the Israelis as a homeland,” said Shane.
“The Israelis really acted like Nazis against the Palestinian people, the indigenous people of that land.”
Dane said the statement was “a simple call for freedom” to him.
“We call for the freedom, dignity and right to self-determination of the Palestinian people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rashan Ahmed expressed concern that the government is distorting the meaning of these words.
“They’re trying to frame it as if it were some kind of anti-Semitic statement … but it’s not,” he said. “This literally tells them that they can’t just kill innocent children or families and invade.”
what’s next
Crisafulli’s government said it had consulted the Jewish community, the Queensland Police Service, the Crime and Corruption Committee and the Queensland Human Rights Commission about the proposed laws.
Muslim and Palestinian groups were not consulted.
The legislation is expected to be introduced this week, when the parliament will convene in the first session of the year.
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CORRECTION
An earlier version of this story mistakenly quoted a quote from the Ontario Superior Court decision as Dr. He attributed it to Finola Laughren. This quote is taken from his decision submitted to the NSW inquiry.
