Court rally arrest for Gaza flotilla detainee member
A Gaza flotilla member was arrested after protesters gathered outside the court in support of pro-Palestinian activists accused of using banned speech.
Helen O’Sullivan was part of a rally outside Brisbane Magistrates’ Court in support of around 30 people who allegedly breached Queensland’s new no-expression laws.
The grandmother was among a group of protesters supporting squadron member Sam Woripa Watson and dozens of others who are due to appear in court Tuesday.
About 26 people faced charges under the Liberal National government’s hate speech laws, which ban phrases such as “river to sea”.
“We speak out against the Crisafulli government, which is trying to silence valid criticism of the state of Israel,” O’Sullivan said on a loudspeaker outside the court.
“It is a call for democracy and freedom from the river to the sea.”
Police did not intervene when O’Sullivan addressed the crowd and he repeated it outside court.
“On behalf of all the children of Palestine, I say from river to sea, save Palestine from apartheid, illegal occupation, genocide.”
Police officers moved to arrest O’Sullivan shortly after Watson and others previously charged with a non-speech order entered the courthouse.
Watson said he plans to challenge the charge out of court if his Supreme Court challenge to the law’s validity is not successful.
O’Sullivan and Watson were detained by the Israeli army in May along with nine other Australians who joined a convoy of small boats to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza war zone.
Watson allegedly used the phrase “river to sea” in a speech to approximately 300 people in King George Square in Brisbane after returning to Australia from Israeli custody.
Queensland banned the phrases “river to sea” and “globalizing the intifada” in March, classifying them as hate speech against Jewish people under its new “combatting anti-Semitism” law.
The highly controversial statements are seen by some to advocate genocide of the Jewish people from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.
Queensland Attorney General Deb Frecklington said in February the laws were a “common sense” response to the Bondi terror attack.
