Jewish parliamentary hopeful says anti-Israel slogans ‘incite violence’

A fresh-faced candidate running for a seat in the NSW Legislative Council says anti-Israel slogans “encourage violence”.

A new party has appeared on the list of organizations that regularly pop up at election time in NSW; Josh from NSW.

The “Josh” in question is Joshua Kirsh, a gay, Jewish, 29-year-old former public servant and volunteer ambulance worker who is running on an independent ticket for the NSW Legislative Council from Dover Heights, just north of Bondi.

Mr Kirsh is not the first politician to name a party after himself, but if elected he would likely be the first openly gay Jewish man and one of the youngest members to serve on the council.

The independent candidate served on the NSW Jewish Board of Representatives for two years and, although he left the organization six months ago, shares its belief that pro-Palestinian slogans are “provocative”.

Submitted to the NSW parliamentary inquiry into measures to ban slogans that incite hatred, the panel called for the criminalization of six different pro-Palestinian expressions, including “river to sea”, “globalising the intifada” and “death to the IDF”.

“My experience of the Jewish community helps me understand the damage that some of these slogans and some of these chants are having on social cohesion and community safety,” Mr Kirsh said in his first interview after announcing on Tuesday that party registration was closing for the 2027 NSW election.

“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that some of the worst things said have inspired some of the worst actions taken.

“There is a part here where the criminal justice system needs to be more involved. I personally believe that the laws we have should be sufficient to criminalize some of these slogans and chants… We believe that they are already against the law because they encourage violence.

“The Prime Minister made comments after Bondi that he had legal advice that a slogan like ‘globalise the intifada’ was not consistent with the Crimes Act… We have not actually seen an investigation and the legal advice has not been made public. I would like to understand why that is the case.”

Asked specifically whether a phrase such as “death to the IDF” could be prosecuted under hate speech laws because the chants were directed at a foreign country’s armed forces, Mr Kirsh said it was “still inflammatory”.

“It doesn’t do any good for our community and social cohesion. I think with the current framework that we have under our laws… if someone wanted to bring a prosecution, we could test whether that was actually something that was against the law, and I think that should happen,” he said.

The Jewish Council of Australia opposed banning the slogans, saying there was a “risk of increasing, not decreasing, anti-Semitism”.

“Banning a phrase used by a particular group to raise awareness of injustice will be viewed by that group as discriminatory targeting, marginalization and demonization,” the statement said.

“This will worsen social cohesion, increase racism and reinforce the narratives that the far right has relied on to thrive, that immigrants, Palestinians and Muslims are an inherent problem in Australian society.”

Mr Kirsh said there was “a lack of leadership in bringing people together and getting people to sit around the table” when it comes to social cohesion.

“Governments of all stripes have relationships with both the Jewish and Muslim communities, and I think they have a responsibility to stop wagging their fingers and retreating into your corners and shoving people into a room,” Mr. Kirsh said.

Following the Bondi attacks and subsequent widespread news about the Pakistani heritage of the alleged killers, a group of Muslim graves at Narellan cemetery in Sydney’s south-west were defiled with pig remains.

“I think governments and politicians need to play an active role – and I’m very keen to do that – in engaging different communities and bringing them together,” Mr Kirsh said.

“I am both Jewish and gay, and for me experiencing homophobia is no worse than antisemitism. Both of these affected me in the same way at the same time.

“As a state, we need to accept that everyone who is exposed to hatred experiences hatred.”

Apart from his plans to address social cohesion issues, Mr. Kirsh is pushing hard to improve public mental health services, especially for marginalized communities.

“I have a great friend who does mental health case management work, particularly supporting people affected by the Bondi attacks. Her experience has really helped inform some of the policy development work I’ve been doing,” Mr Kirsh said.

“One of the lessons from Bondi was that when people can connect with that support from a trusted perspective, and especially when they live in a country as multicultural and diverse as we do, they are more likely to get the support they need and they are more likely to seek help,” he said.

“My hope is that we can get to a stage where established community organizations (within their diaspora) can take direction from local health districts and then work with private advocates to coordinate care for people who don’t have the bandwidth or resources to deal with the challenges they face.”

The official launch of “Josh for NSW” is expected to be announced in the coming months.

The NSW election will be held on 13 March 2027.