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Has the cacophony of hate unleashed on Australian streets finally reached a pitch that even Labor can’t ignore? The sight of ‘pro-Palestinian’ protesters in Melbourne and Sydney – with the full endorsement of the Greens – waving Hezbollah flags (a criminal offence) and calling for the death of Jews prompted even Labor’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to mumble something about ‘cancelling visas’.
Right before he and his Labor colleagues immediately walked it back.
First, what happened.
Pictures and video from the thousands-strong protests for Gaza and Lebanon in Melbourne showed more than a dozen masked and unmasked men walking together through the Melbourne CBD streets commemorating Nasrallah, whose death was confirmed by the Israeli Defence Forces and the Iran-backed militant group on Saturday in a massive air strike on Beirut.
The group of mostly young men were filmed chanting “labayka ya Nasrallah” in Arabic, which translates to ‘at your service, Nasrallah’ or ‘here I am, Nasrallah’. The slogan expresses the willingness to dedicate the life of the individual and the community to defend the leader of the group, who is typically both a religious and political figure that must be obeyed, even to the point of death.
Many of the protesters were seen wearing Hezbollah emblems while waving the terror groups’ flag, which translates to ‘Hezbollah will be victorious’. Some were carrying frames of Nasrallah that reads, ‘we belong to Allah and to him we shall return.’
Other chants heard include ‘no more USA, no more Israel, no more Saudi Arabia’.
In Sydney, both adults and children carried posters of the late Hezbollah leader. A couple of others were seen holding and wearing Hezbollah flags. One woman held a poster showing assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Nasrallah under the words “A nation led by martyrs will triumph”.
There was much worse, in fact. As Drew Pavlou points out on X, protesters were recorded, clearly chanting, Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud! Jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud! The phrase, which translates as ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, Oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return,’ is a reference to the massacre of the Jews of Khaybar by the Islamic prophet in 628 AD. Khaybar is regularly referenced by jihadists as a warning to Jews that Muslims are waiting to massacre them again and again.
Of course, that’s not how the left-media reported it.
The ABC barely mentioned the presence of the Hezbollah supporters at all. Under the heading, ‘Cries for peace’, it merely reported that:
Thousands of protesters have gathered to voice their concerns about the Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, with many also marking the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
In another report, the ABC called it a ‘show of solidarity for Gaza and Lebanon’, and buried any reference to the pro-Hezbollah protest deep in the lower reaches of the story.
As for Tony Burke’s damp-lettuce-leaf ‘threat’, his colleagues were quick to walk the ‘tough’ talk back. Treasurer Jim Chalmers couldn’t even bring himself to condemn the terror-supporting protest, instead vaguely blaming Israel for ‘regional escalation’, wittering about ‘innocent victims’, and demanding a cease-fire.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong responded by demanding a ‘clear timeline’ for recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite says Australian visa holders should be “mindful … if you do the wrong thing, your visa will be cancelled”.
Except that he immediately hand-balled it down the line.
“Now it’s up to the authorities obviously to make judgments about that and the court system to enforce that.
“But we strengthened the laws to make sure that people can’t incite violence or bring terrorism here to Australia.”
Where Labor are missing in action, the Dutton opposition is, yet again, finding clear moral ground to stand on.
Peter Dutton says it is “completely unacceptable” that no arrests and visa cancellations have happened since the protests in Melbourne and Sydney on Sunday where some waved Hezbollah flags or portraits of slain terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“We’ve got Jewish schools where we’ve got armed guards out the front of, there are people who are living in the Jewish community in fear and there is an absolute outrage in relation to the glorification of a terrorist leader, which surely must be against the Australian law; and if it’s not, the parliament should be recalled to pass a law that prohibits that from happening,” the Opposition Leader told 4BC radio […]
He accused the Prime Minister of having “allowed these protests to continue on for months at university campuses, and on weekends and flying the Hamas flag, etc.”.
“The Prime Minister, I think, sent a very clear message that it’s okay, that some anti-Semitism is okay,” Mr Dutton said. “It has no place in our society whatsoever.”
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said that visa cancellations should be just the start, with criminal charges as well. Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson questioned why the government isn’t directing the Federal Police to enforce laws around terrorist symbols and slogans, and incitement.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie really unleashed on the weak, divisive Labor government.
“Well, obviously nothing’s going to happen to them, and that’s why this will continue in the country, because quite frankly, you know, you have your minister out there, and you have a PM out there that is too scared to say, you’re getting on a plane this morning,” she said.
“I mean, where do they think this is going to lead? Do they think by not dealing with this today, or in the next week, that this is going to be good for the country? Because I can assure you, it is not.
“Turning a blind eye to this stuff, and not holding people responsible, and making sure actions are taken against them, this will continue.
“They want a peaceful country. I suggest they start being grown-ups. They start showing that they’re a leader, and they start showing goddamn courage in this country, and saying, you don’t belong here, you’re getting out, and get them out of here.”
Good luck with that. Labor aren’t about to deport or lock half their voters in critical Western Sydney seats.
At the very least, though, a censure motion ought to be moved against the Greens for their condoning of terror symbols and cheerful presence at marches where anti-Semitic threats are depressingly commonplace.
But, again, Labor will be too gutless to move against the party they’ll almost certainly make an agreement with to hold on to minority government at the next election.
All while the ‘tiny minority of violent extremists’ begins to look more and more like the majority.
