Grace Tame event moved after Murdoch coverage fuels harassment campaign

Grace Tame’s sold-out International Women’s Day speech was moved to a secure location after harassment and threats against organizers increased in the wake of the Murdoch news, writes Dr Rosemary Sorensen.

When GRACE TAME accepted the invitation Women Make Connections Bendigo’s business network group be bendigoThis was undoubtedly a very pleasing coup. tickets indeed International Women’s Day Tickets for the event on February 27 sold out in two days.

Bendigo has been subject to some negative press recently. Following revelations about how La Trobe University requested the festival be canceled following the massacre at the Bendigo Writers Festival last August Randa AbdülfettahThe city’s reputation took a hit.

It looked like the Murdoch media would receive another blow. Australian Jewish Association He had written to Be Bendigo complaining about Grace Tame appearing at IWD events. It followed him speak out At the protest against the Israeli President in Sydney Isaac Herzog‘s visit to Australia.

The event listing has disappeared from Be Bendigo’s website. The ticket page has disappeared. And the organization’s staff and board of directors were devastated.

Has it been cancelled?

The sold-out event was not cancelled, but they did delete all mentions from their website in response to trolling targeting the organisation.

The trolling had begun even before the Sydney protest: Grace Tame’s uncompromising activism in support of women’s rights is offending a group of anti-feminist Australians who have had the courage to use social media to harass her over the past two years.

When this group of angry aggressors combines with the angry aggression of the anti-Palestinian lobby, the abuse becomes very ugly indeed.

To protect the speaker and audience from threats of violence, the event will be moved to a location designated as closed to the public. This must have required extraordinary effort from the staff of this small organisation, and the cooperation of both Grace Tame’s office and many others in Bendigo.

If Prime Minister Anthony Albanese He needs more evidence that welcoming the President of a genocidal state (which is currently offering to sell occupied Palestinian territory to Australian buyers) is not only divisive but dangerous, so here it is.

Because you said “Globalize the Intifada” – this means “Take the resistance against the destruction of Palestine worldwide” – Grace Tame is not only under relentless attack from the Murdoch media, she is also threatened and demanded to be safe from violence.

Those who claim this when they hear words like “Globalize the Intifada” They don’t feel safe and now they have literally made it physically unsafe for someone to say those words. And our governments encourage violence by supporting false demands to criminalize criticizing Israel.

On International Women’s Day, in a city already rocked by bullying demands to revoke freedom of expression, it is beyond ironic that the Australian of the Year, who campaigns to protect women, needs protection from harassment and violence.

When will it be enough? Will governments have to get hurt to stop this march towards the terrible kind of censorship that enables the agendas of pro-Israel lobbies?

Bendigo stood firm this time. And Grace Tame is more admired and respected than ever. But of course this is not Australia, where a small but extremely powerful group of bigots dictate to the government, through a corrupt media, what and who we should hear.