‘Globalise the Intifada’ chants are madness, says Jewish Australian mourning slain daughter
Arnold Roth’s daughter Malki was 15 when she visited a pizzeria in central Jerusalem and never returned home.
Melbourne-born Malki was a talented flute player who took pride in looking after his blind younger sister. He was catching up with his best friend when a Hamas suicide bomber entered the pizza restaurant and detonated the bomb.
16 civilians, including Malki, lost their lives in the explosion, which coincided with the beginning of the process known as the second intifada. This period included more than 100 suicide attacks by Palestinian terrorists inside Israel and Israel’s harshest military action since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
It is estimated that approximately 1,100 Israelis and 3,200 Palestinians died in five years.
“We lost our daughter and never recovered,” Roth says by phone from Jerusalem. “The hatred of the people who do this is terrible and appalling.”
He was also born in Melbourne and spent the first half of his life in Australia before moving to Israel with his family in the late 1980s. He continues to seek the arrest of Ahlam Tamimi, who helped plan and carry out the bombing.
Tamimi, who is on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists, was released from prison in a hostage-prisoner exchange in 2011 and now works as a television presenter in Jordan.
Nearly 25 years after the terrorist attack that killed his daughter, Roth’s pain remains visceral. So is his anger. His anger was reignited last week when he saw footage of protesters supporting the global intifada at rallies in Australia’s biggest cities against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Among them was former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who shouted “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalize the intifada” in a speech outside Sydney City Hall.
When Roth hears this sentence, he hears a call for violence and murder and an insult to his daughter’s memory.
“Globalizing the intifada is an act of madness,” he says. “Encouraging globalization of the intifada has consequences that will shake Australia to its core. It is a mistake and an exercise in stupidity. I deliberately use a derogatory word because it seems incredible to me that people who use this slogan in public do so with no understanding of what it means.”
Tame came under fierce criticism for his appearance at the Sydney rally, including calls from leading Coalition politicians for him to be stripped of the 2021 Australian of the Year title. NSW Premier Chris Minns described her use of the slogan as “appalling”. Roth says she is disturbed that UN Women Australia has chosen Tame to headline its International Women’s Day event in Sydney on March 4.
“For my family and me – today I am still petitioning Jordan and the US to extradite Tamimi to stand trial on terrorism charges. [for the attack that killed Malki] “This adds salt to an open wound,” Roth, 74, says of the incident.
Tame defended his use of the slogan in an Instagram post last week, saying the focus on his speech distracted from Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza.
“Disingenuous distortion of definitions has been a cornerstone of Israel’s propaganda strategy for decades,” he said. “Choosing to attach a negative meaning to the word intifada – it literally means to shake off [in Arabic] – just another example of this.”
Tame wrote: “I have spent more than half my life fighting for the rights and safety of children. I do not advocate violence. I do not advocate antisemitism, Islamophobia or hatred of any kind.”
Tame has been contacted for comment.
Roth says that while some protesters may have interpreted the slogan differently, his interpretation was clear. “The intifada is about murder,” he says. “People who try to camouflage this with the language of resistance or self-determination rhetoric have no idea what they’re talking about.”
The Queensland government announced it would ban the phrase following the Bondi Beach massacre. A NSW parliamentary inquiry, dominated by MPs from the Minns Labor government, recommended the slogan be made illegal if used to incite hatred, harassment, intimidation or violence. Roth supports this proposal, saying: “I don’t understand why it hasn’t been banned.”
But most submissions to the NSW inquiry opposed banning phrases such as “globalize the intifada” and “Palestine from river to sea will be free” because it would place an unnecessary burden on freedom of expression.
Australian Council of Imams He said that intifada “does not have a single, fixed or inherently violent meaning” and that it “has historically described a range of resistance activities, including non-violent civil actions, the meaning of which depends entirely on context.”
“Criminalizing political expression through reference to particular slogans is unnecessary, legally problematic and risks having a disproportionate impact on certain communities,” the council said in its submission.
Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey warns against outlawing certain speech. NSW Bar Association “It is critical not to introduce legislation that risks criminalizing by association the behavior of those who do nothing more than participate in peaceful political movements and meetings,” he said.
Executive Council of Australian Jews He supported the ban and said its use “normalises hostility, dehumanisation and intimidation, particularly towards Australian Jews, and contributes to an environment where violence becomes more likely”.
Roth is determined that Australia does not become a place where such slogans are normalised. “This is about changing the public discourse from political differences and debates to open calls for murder. I don’t know anyone who could understand those words and just say, ‘Yeah, that’s okay.’ It’s not, and it never will be.”
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