I also stayed up unreasonably late tonight, to write to my (Labor) state MP in response to this:

I am writing to express my immense disapproval of the LNP’s announced “antisemitism” laws, and to exhort you to strongly oppose the bill when it comes before Parliament, so long as it remains in the form it was advertised.

According to reporting in the ABC and Brisbane Times yesterday, these laws will prohibit support for Palestinian organisations and pro-Palestine phrases such as “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”.

While outlawing displays of genuine Nazi symbols is something we can all get behind, conflating criticism of ongoing genocide and the government committing it with terrorism and fascist symbols is a terrible path to go down. These two phrases are not terrorist. The only people who should have anything to “fear” from these phrases are those who actively support genocide and apartheid and are afraid of the privileged position they hold as a result of that being removed. Critical support for the leadership of an oppressed people and support for the basic human rights are not creating an environment of fear and they are not hate speech.

All of this has nothing to do with the horrific terror attack in Bondi last year. Reporting indicates the attack was related to Islamic State. Invoking that tragedy to justify these laws follows a familiar pattern in which unrelated acts of extremist violence are used to conflate legitimate opposition to the Israeli government with antisemitism, despite long-standing objections from human rights organisations and Jewish critics of Zionism, and to crack down on anti-genocide protests even though Israel and Palestine were not contributing factors to the shooting.

I was disappointed in the Labor Party’s rather tepid response to the laws, as quoted in the ABC article. Ms Mullen MP’s criticism of the LNP’s narrow consultation is much appreciated, but a clearer position calling for consultation of pro-Palestine groups in particular and calling out the dramatic overreach of banning pro-Palestine symbols and phrases would have been much better.

Jewish Australians, as well as Muslim Australians and all other members of our community, should absolutely have the right to feel safe. However, claims that phrases such as “from the river to the sea” inherently create fear or constitute hate speech should not be accepted as a basis for criminalisation. These slogans, whatever one thinks of them politically, are expressions of opposition to the actions of the Israeli state and solidarity with Palestinians, not threats against Jewish people. Discomfort with such political criticism cannot reasonably be equated with genuine fear or harm, nor used to justify restricting peaceful protest or political expression.

I am calling on you and your ALP colleagues to oppose the bill in its current form, and push for it to be amended to only criminalise genuine hate speech and hate symbols such as Nazi slogans and symbols or those of Islamic State. Not those in support of Palestine.