Opinion
I’ve never been exactly a fan of former Olympian Nova Peris’ politics — after all, she entered politics on the Labor side at Julia Gillard’s behest, and has long co-chaired the Australian Republican Movement.
Or, rather: she had.
Because, although she might have chosen to go into politics on the “side” I dislike, Peris has shown that she is nonetheless a decent person, when the chips come down. Where the first instinct of too many of her Labor fellows has been to take the side of Hamas, Peris has staunchly supported Israel since October 7. Unlike PM Anthony Albanese, she made an extended visit to the embattled country after the horror of October 7.
And she’s willing to put those principles ahead of a cushy sinecure.
Australian Olympic champion Nova Peris has quit her role as co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement after her co-chair, Craig Foster, made comments that she considered “inaccurate” and “divisive”.
The athlete and former Labor senator said she was unable to continue in her role after Foster published an open letter to FIFA and Football Australia calling for Australia to back suspension of Israel from international football.
The Australian
Oddly, for all his blatherskite about “human rights”, Foster was quite content to swan to Qatar during the World Cup. He’s also been notably silent about Hamas’ appalling human rights record.
But he clearly holds Jews to a different standard. Funny about that.
In fact, despite their increasingly hollow denials of anti-Semitism, it’s notable that the “pro-Palestinian” mob turned out to violently counter-protest a Melbourne rally against anti-Semitism.
If you’re protesting against a protest against anti-Semitism, then logically, you are promoting anti-Semitism. The game is up.
Especially when you advertise your dinky counter-protest with imagery straight out of the Nazi era: a jackboot crushing a Star of David.
There’s not much room for nuance, there.
Hundreds of police were forced to spend Sunday afternoon keeping the peace outside parliament, after a group of violent pro-Palestine protesters, yelling “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” rallied in opposition to a demonstration against anti-Semitism.
The chaos unfolded on Spring Street little more than 24 hours after pro-Palestine protesters had stormed the Victorian Labor Party conference, and the party had passed six anti-Israel motions.
Naturally, the state Labor government is trying to run and hide from the obvious.
While [Premier Jacinta Allan] said she was “disgusted” by protesters who “brought violence, homophobia and anti-Semitism to the front door of state conference” on Saturday – preventing some state ministers from entering and yelling a homophobic slur at one – she downplayed non-binding motions championed by her Socialist Left faction as a matter for the federal government.
“Foreign policy should be left to the federal government because Australia must speak in one voice on the world stage,” Ms Allan said. “My priority as the state’s Premier is maintaining a cohesive society where all Victorians are safe and respected.”
In a spectacularly gutless game of political pass-the-parcel, the federal government hand-balled it right back.
A spokeswoman for Anthony Albanese said motions at state Labor conferences were “a matter for the party”.
While these cowards dodge responsibility, though, the ugliest scenes of brownshirt thuggery reminiscent of 1930s Berlin were playing out in Melbourne.
As thousands of members of the Jewish community and their supporters, including the Christian founders of the “Never Again is Now” movement, politicians and religious leaders gathered for their rally, pro-Palestine protesters, some of whom covered all but their eyes with keffiyehs, congregated on the other side of a large police cordon, which included public order response and mounted brigades.
At one stage, the pro-Palestine protesters blocked off the northern-most entrance to the parliament train station, preventing members of the public trying to attend the rally against anti-Semitism from exiting the station and accusing them of “supporting genocide”.
One 84-year-old Jewish woman — who declined to be named out of fear for her safety — was separated from her group and repeatedly poked and called a “Zionist pig” by protesters whose faces were covered.
Tell us again that it’s not anti-Semitism.
Time and again, these anti-Semitic thugs hide behind the code-word of “Zionism”. Which, remember, is simply the affirmation of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and the existence of the state of Israel.
Unlike the craven Albanese, Peter Dutton is clear and unequivocal.
The federal Opposition Leader said he had been shocked and appalled by the “magnitude and intensity of the anti-Semitism which has emerged in Australia since a seething mob chanted slogans of slaughter on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on 9 October … In the battle against anti-Semitism in Australia, I say to Australians of Jewish faith, you are not alone. The fight will not be yours alone,” he said. “The Coalition I lead will continue to call out and condemn anti-Semitism.”
The Australian
And Labor will just keep on dog-whistling to its Muslim heartland in Western Sydney.