The Queensland LNP government has announced new hate speech laws to be introduced to parliament this week. They are an extreme, authoritarian attack on the Palestine movement and civil liberties. If passed, the laws will make public use of the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” punishable by up to two years in prison.
The announcement follows the passing of the federal Labor government’s Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill, which was widely condemned as anti-democratic and could lead to the outright banning of pro-Palestine organisations. Other state governments have moved to restrict the right to protest; most outrageous is NSW Premier Chris Minns’ attempt to ban street marches for up to three months. The laws proposed by Queensland Premier David Crisafulli continue this trend.
“From the river to the sea” has long been in the crosshairs of the pro-Israel establishment. Anthony Albanese condemned the slogan’s use last year, and some universities have tried to prevent students from chanting it on campus. But this is the first attempt by an Australian state government to ban it, which would set a terrible precedent. In Germany, where the slogan was banned two years ago, police have fined activists and banned protests because they suspected someone might say it.
Contrary to the claims of the pro-Israel establishment, “from the river to the sea” is not hate speech or a call for the genocide of Jewish Israelis. It is a cry for equality and justice for Palestinians and for an end to the apartheid, mass murder and ethnic supremacy of the Israeli state. Conflating the slogan with Nazi slogans and symbols, as the new laws do, is a sickening distortion of the truth.
Last August in Brisbane, more than 50,000 people chanted “from the river to the sea” as we marched to end Australia’s complicity in the Gaza genocide. At that time, hundreds of desperate Palestinians were being massacred at aid distribution sites, and there were almost daily reports of deaths from starvation. According to Crisafulli, those opposing such crimes should be thrown in jail as racists and fascists.
As if the situation couldn’t be more obscene, these laws are being tabled in the same week that Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrives in Australia. Herzog has been found guilty of inciting genocide by a UN commission of inquiry. Yet Australian politicians are giving him the red carpet treatment, while preparing prison cells for anti-war activists.
The Palestine movement’s message of solidarity with the oppressed, our willingness to stand up to the media and the state, and our anti-imperialism have made us a target of the ruling class. Attacks on our rights could continue as Labor’s royal commission creates more space for pro-genocide hacks to attack pro-Palestinian activism and speech.
Regardless of the lies and slander, the movement for Palestine is on the right side of history. Palestinians are still being massacred, and Gaza is being annexed under the cover of a “ceasefire”. A stronger movement will make it harder for attacks on civil liberties and freedom of speech to hold. In an increasingly violent and authoritarian world, we need to defend those rights now more than ever.
Connor Knight is a co-convenor of Students for Palestine Queensland.
