The court decision striking down NSW Premier Chris Minns’ anti-protest laws in April was a victory for the Palestine movement and all those who stood up and defied them.
Following the outrage about the brutal police violence during the Isaac Herzog protest, it was the second time in six months that Minns’ anti-protest laws were struck down as unconstitutional.
The decision is a further setback for Minns and Albanese’s efforts to crack down on the Palestine movement in the aftermath of the Bondi attack.
Now all the protest charges over the Herzog rally must be dropped. One protester has already had all their charged dropped after police admitted they arrested due to the overturned law. At least 26 other protesters still face charges.
The fight against repression is not over either. We still face the threat of the NSW slogan ban and repression in universities and workplaces.
Globalise the Intifada ban
The Queensland government has banned Palestine protest slogans “From the River to the Sea” and “Globalise the Intifada”. Twenty protesters were arrested in April for defying the ban as part of a weekend of action.
Minns also wants to ban the phrase “Globalise the Intifada”. But this has stalled due to resistance in Queensland and NSW.
There will be a constitutional challenge to the Queensland slogan ban in the High Court. Minns says if the laws are struck down in Queensland “it means we can’t pursue them in NSW”.
But we can’t just rely on the courts. Minns fears resistance. He says that if the ban is introduced and then overturned “we’re in a worse position than where we were” because opposition to the ban would popularise the slogan.
This is all the more reason to continue to use the chant and refuse to accept that support for intifada is hate speech or a call to violence.
Intifada is the Arabic word for “uprising” and refers to courageous episodes of Palestinian resistance to occupation. The call to Globalise the Intifada is a call for a global movement of solidarity with Palestine. This means strikes, protests and boycotts directed against our own government’s complicity, with the spirit of defiance shown by the Palestinians.
Some groups—like the Palestine Action Group in Sydney and Free Palestine Melbourne—have been reluctant to defend the slogan because they say it has not been widely used. But the chant has indeed been raised—and other chants celebrating “intifada” are common at rallies.
Even without the laws in place the movement still faces repression and needs to meet it with resistance.
The Murdoch media led a hysterical campaign against a Stop the War on Palestine forum titled “Why it’s right to say Globalise the Intifada” throughout April and May.
Shamefully, City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore caved and cancelled the venue booking the night before the event was scheduled.
But the forum went ahead in a park in defiance. The 140 people in attendance far exceeded the capacity of the original venue. NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong addressed the crowd saying, “They want to ban Globalise the Intifada because they are genuinely terrified if we get together and mobilise and organise they will lose their power.
“We know with bad laws, there’s only one thing to do with them and that is to break them.”
Royal Commission
The antisemitism Royal Commission hearings that have now begun will be used to justify more repression.
Jillian Segal, arch Zionist and the government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, gave evidence at the hearings, saying antisemitism had become “almost fashionable”. But it is the Zionist pretense that all Jews support the Israeli terror state that feeds antisemitism.
The broader ruling class offensive on Palestine continues. In May, Sydney Uni issued disciplinary letters to two students. They claimed it was “potentially antisemitic” to condemn apartheid, to call for the boycott of Israeli universities, and to display the “Handala” cartoon—a drawing of 10-year-old Palestinian refugee.
Building resistance is urgent. The genocide in Gaza continues, with Israel still restricting food and medical deliveries and killing at least 850 Palestinians since the “ceasefire” started.
According to the UN the first four months of 2026 have seen the most violent start to a year since monitoring of settler violence and harassment in the West Bank began.
This is why we need to Globalise the Intifada. Australia is complicit in the genocide and is directly involved in Trump and Israel’s war on Iran.
It will require real rebellion to stop the shipments of F-35 parts to Israel, Bisalloy armoured steel going to IDF vehicles, the Pine Gap intelligence sharing with Israel and to cut all the ties to Israel.
The fight for sanctions on Israel requires fighting for free speech and the right to protest as well.
By Adam Adelpour
