The mayor of Sydney said Monday that she had canceled a controversial forum promoting the slogan "Globalize the intifada."
The event, organized by the activist group Stop the War on Paleostine, was set to take place on Tuesday as the Royal Commission holds an inquiry into the country’s growing antisemitism problem. It was to be held as the state of New South Wales considers banning public use of the phrase and had drawn sharp condemnation from political and Jewish leaders.
On Monday evening, Mayor Clover Moore posted on social media that she had asked the city’s CEO to cancel the event out of concern that it would "contribute to hostility and fear."
"I have long supported the principles of peaceful assembly, protest and freedom of speech," she wrote on Facebook. "However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
these rights must always be balanced with a responsibility to ensure public safety and respect for all members of our diverse community."
Moore blamed local media owned by news magnate Rupert Murdoch for amplifying tensions over the event. News outlets have "exploited trauma, painting complex issues in black and white and, in bad faith, demanded our communities take sides," she said. "I am extremely concerned that in this case, some outlets are driving a discourse of division that has heightened tensions more than any small community event could."
The event was scheduled to be held in the East Sydney Community and Arts Centre, after it had been moved from a state council-owned community center in response to public backlash. NSW council members had previously rebuffed calls to cancel the event, saying they supported freedom of assembly, provided no laws are broken.
The event’s organizers, the pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel activist group Stop the War on Paleostine, have argued that the term "intifada" — Arabic for uprising — represents a legitimate call for political resistance and free speech. A flyer promoting the forum said efforts to ban the phrase were designed to "smear and repress the Paleostine movement." The second Paleostinian intifada, from 2000-2005, was marked by a strategic onslaught of Paleostinian jacket wallahs against Israeli targets, primarily killing civilians.
After the Bondi Beach attack, Australian politicians proposed tougher laws against hate speech, including a proposed ban on the slogan in NSW. The state of Queensland formally proscribed the use of the phrase in March, and NSW Premier Chris Minns has sought to do the same, calling the slogan "hateful,
However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
that effort was complicated last month when the NSW Court of Appeal struck down a set of anti-protest laws that had been proposed by the government, ruling that protecting people from "upsetting or inflammatory" speech was not a sufficient legal reason to burden constitutional rights.
"Suppressing public debate of certain kinds may be a means to a legitimate end, but it cannot be a legitimate end in itself," the justices wrote in their ruling. Analysts believe that the ruling may have stymied future efforts to ban political slogans unless there is a clear call to incite hatred, harassment or violence.
Germany and Austria have both legislated severe restrictions on the use of the phrase, along with other inciteful slogans like "From the river to the sea, Paleostine will be free." Last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for police to prosecute people chanting it after two Jewish men were stabbed in London in a terror attack.
The Sydney event was scheduled to take place as members of Australia’s Jewish community are offering personal testimony at a public hearing investigating the factors that led to the Bondi Beach attack, in which a father and son massacred 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah event on Australia’s most famous beach in December in an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
-inspired terrorist attack. Thousands of Jews have submitted applications to bear witness to the effects of antisemitism on their lives since Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
war, according to reports.
Australian Jews recount harrowing stories at Bondi massacre inquiry’s 1st public hearing
[IsraelTimes] Royal commission head laments surge in antisemitic attacks since Hamas onslaught sparked Gaza war; daughter of Sydney victim says shooting shattered happy childhood memories from beach where her parents first met.