Two protesters in Queensland were arrested for using the slogan “From the River to the Sea” at a rally on 11 March—the day new laws that ban the phrase came into effect. One of them now faces charges which carry the threat of two years’ jail.
The images, beamed around the country, of a young woman with “From the River to the Sea” on her shirt being arrested by a swarm of police have made the ban a national issue.
Queensland Liberal National Premier David Crisafulli’s laws also make “Globalise the Intifada” a prohibited expression, on the false basis that both encourage hate and call for the “eradication” of Jewish people in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Queensland police are also empowered to stop, detain and search protesters and vehicles without warrants when the police suspect that a person has committed or is committing the offence of using the prohibited expressions.
This is only the latest outrage in an ongoing attempt to silence Palestine solidarity with new anti-protest and anti-free speech laws.
In NSW, Labor Premier Chris Minns is also introducing legislation to criminalise the slogan “Globalise the Intifada”.
Anthony Albanese helped lay the groundwork for outlawing these phrases and criminalising protest. In 2024 he outrageously agreed with pro-Israel former Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg that “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a “very violent” slogan that “has no place in Australia”.
But there is nothing violent about calling for the end of Israel as an apartheid state and its replacement with one democratic state in Palestine for all peoples. This would be a state where Israeli Jews would have the right to live but where there are equal rights for Palestinians and where Palestinians and their descendants made refugees by Israel’s terror would have the right of return to their land.
The movement must defy every attempt to silence the fight for Palestine. This is the only way to push back against government attacks and stop the repression deepening.
The tens of thousands of protesters who rallied against Israeli President Isaac Herzog massively embarrassed Albanese and prevented his attempts to rehabilitate Israel’s image and build public support for the terror state after the Bondi shooting.
The defiance of thousands of protesters in Sydney against police violence who managed to march down the light rail tracks from Town Hall to Central forced the NSW police to drop the new anti-protest measures that prevent street marches. This shows how protests can beat back attacks on the movement.
More anti-protest measures
Minns’ latest move is the establishment of a new police unit of 250 officers who will carry long-arm weapons like the semi-automatic Colt M4 carbine—the weapon of choice of the US military—operating as a round-the-clock “hate crimes” unit.
Its job will be patrolling and monitoring places of worship and religious events, as well as mass protests like those we’ve seen for Palestine, supposedly in the name of “community safety”.
This makes the police taskforce Operation Shelter, set up after October 2023 explicitly to target “large protests”, permanent.
The unit will also work on “coordinated intelligence gathering”, likely through trawling social media posts and protest footage. This will no doubt be used to charge people for using prohibited slogans like “Globalise the Intifada” and other offences at protests.
We can expect more anti-protest measures targeting the Palestine movement as pro-Israel activists such as Albanese’s antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal seek to use the Bondi attack and the Royal Commission to press for further restrictions.
In WA police can now refuse to give organisers a permit for a protest if they decide it is “encouraging hate”, due to new laws passed by the state Labor government.
A bad political precedent for free speech has also been set by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in a recent case against protester Hash Tayeh for chanting “All Zionists are terrorists”. VCAT found that while “Zionist does not mean Jew” it carries “a deep connection with Jewish people”, ruling that the chant constituted unlawful racial and religious vilification.
The chant “All Zionists are terrorists” is problematic because it attributes the violence of the IDF and Israeli settlers to any person who supports Zionism. However, while the decision is in a civil tribunal rather than a criminal court, it sets the worrying precedent that protesters can be prosecuted for criticising Israel and Zionism.
Continuing to mobilise for Palestine and collectively defying bad laws will be key to beating back repression. Indeed, we must Globalise the Intifada if we’re to free Palestine from the River to the Sea.
By Luke Ottavi
