Albanese’s Herzog invitation has backfired
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should not have invited Isaac Herzog to visit Australia. It was a political choice and, once again, underscores how deep Labor’s ties are to the genocidal state of Israel.
The Albanese’s claim that Herzog would generate solidarity and promote “social cohesion” is a joke. Herzog, as everyone now knows, has been found by the United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry to have incited genocide and was one of the most divisive figures Albanese could have invited, save for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself.
Despite the spin, we need to remember that solidarity was shown in spades to the Jewish community after the Bondi attack — from diverse communities across the country. There was and is consensus that such senseless violence against innocent victims must be condemned and the perpetrators brought to justice.
However, the Zionist section of the Jewish community, as well as the Murdoch media and the conservatives, saw, and seized on, an opportunity to weaponise this tragedy, shaft Albanese and rebuild the Coalition’s stocks
The Zionists calculated that Labor would back it up because, for the past two-and-a-half years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Labor has been finding excuses for why it cannot sanction Israel nor end the two-way trade in weapons’ parts.
They have repeatedly claimed the anti-genocide movement was responsible for the attack — despite the shooters being Islamic State-aligned and therefore no friend of Palestine.
Herzog has been pushing the same lie during his visit: his mantra has been that the pro-Palestine protests are antisemitic and the terror attack was waiting to happen.
This manufactured and weaponised moral panic has been Jillian Segal’s line too. The Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism describes the pro-Palestine protests as “sinister” and says the protesters use “hateful words” and wave “terrorist flags”. Her so-called “antisemitism plan” includes stripping universities of funding if pro-Palestine protests are allowed to take place on campuses, and for all universities to adopt the controversial International Holocaust Rememberance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
Segal and Herzog are setting the stage for a dramatic loss of freedoms in Australia, including curtailing protests, and outlawing certain phrases including, but not limited to, “Globalise the intifada” and “From the river to the sea”.
But as Grace Tame, prominent activist and advocate for survivors of sexual assault and 2021 Australian of the Year, reminded the peaceful crowd in Sydney Town Hall Square on February 9, these slogans are about the right to resist violence. She said Herzog’s public signing of bombs before being used on innocent people in Gaza was clear evidence of his complicity in genocide and that he should be arrested, not feted by Labor.
Albanese is now facing Zionists’ demands to remove Tame’s Australian of the Year award, including from NSW Premier Chris Minns, who also approves of the widely documented police violence at the same rally.
Albanese’s pleas to “lower the temperature” are somewhat ridiculous, given he set the fire and continues to fan the flames.
Tame, in her speech, condemned Australia as a “so-called democracy that punishes peaceful protesters like us but welcomes a war criminal with open arms”. She didn’t know then that NSW Police had been given permission, from the top, to unleash violence on innocent people not seen since NSW Liberal Premier Robert Askin in 1966 told police to “run over the bastards” who were protesting conscription in the Vietnam War.
Two-and-a-half years of livestreamed genocide in Gaza has radicalised a generation of young people, who now see the parallels between the settler colony here and Palestine.
Unfortunately, Labor looks set to support the Zionists’ push for new draconian powers to limit people’s right to protest and right to express their consciences. NSW Labor is keen to follow the Queensland Liberal-National Party’s decision to ban the phrase “From the river to the sea”, a chant that Palestinians have recrafted, which calls for equality for all people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
The phrase was originally part of a Zionist demand for a Greater Israel, to subsume Palestine. This is what the Israeli government is practically implementing now. It has repeatedly ruled out a two-state solution — seemingly not a problem for Albanese.
The mainstream media claims Albanese’s invitation to Herzog was “well intentioned”. No, it was a political choice, done at the urging of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia.
The idea of inviting a visit by a head of state accused of genocide to Australia was never for “solidarity”. It was always going to be an opportunity to demonstrate close ties, as Herzog himself has said. The more than 30 anti-Herzog protests around the country bought people from all backgrounds to stand up against a war criminal and the state he represents.
The Jewish Council of Australia published full-page advertisements on November 9 in the 9 Network papers with 1000 Jewish Australians saying “No” to the Herzog visit.
If Labor now calculates its anti-freedom of speech and assembly regulations will stop, or hold back, the Palestine movement for justice, it should take a close look at the composition of the Herzog protest in Gadigal Country. Those who turned up, in the sweltering humidity, were among those who marched cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge last year and they have only become more convinced they are on the right side of history.
[Pip Hinman is a member of the Socialist Alliance National Executive.]