Jewish Melbourne MP Demands Peaceful Protesters Be Jailed For ‘Jews Hate Freedom’ Banner
A Victorian Liberal MP has called for nationalist activists to be jailed for holding a banner saying “Jews hate freedom” during a protest against new laws restricting speech and protest rights proposed as a result of lobbying from the Jewish community.
Member for Caulfield David Southwick, who is Jewish, spoke out on Saturday night after joining embattled Victorian Liberal Party leader John Pesutto to condemn the demonstration by the National Socialist Network on the steps of Parliament in Melbourne on Friday.
“Enough words and empty announcements, Premier – it’s time to take action and put these cowards behind bars where they belong,” he said, addressing his comments to Jacinta Allan, who is behind the controversial new laws giving police greater powers to stop protests and imposing jail terms of up to five years for so-called hate speech.
This is Victoria, not Nazi Germany. Where is the Government?
Enough words and empty announcements, Premier—it’s time to take action and put these cowards behind bars where they belong.#Springst https://t.co/mK3pd1b0Yj
— David Southwick MP (@SouthwickMP) December 21, 2024
Protest leader Joel Davis said during his speech: “Why does 0.4% of the Australian population – the Jews – get to dictate to the Victorian government what our freedoms should and should not be?”
He later told Noticer News: “We rallied on the steps of Parliament to show our opposition to new proposed laws to restrict our freedoms to protest and speak freely. These laws are being passed under explicit pressure from the Jews, with our politicians openly acknowledging they are being passed as favours to the Jews.
“Jews should not dictate what our freedoms as Australians are and are not. They are trying to have all criticism of them outlawed, because they don’t want to be held accountable for the undue and subversive power they exercise over our country.”
Exclusive video obtained by Noticer News shows right-wing activists with a “Jews hate freedom” banner in front of Victorian parliament in Melbourne on Friday.
They were demonstrating against new “hate speech” and protest laws being brought to combat anti-Semitism. pic.twitter.com/FhwKTDxiXB
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) December 20, 2024
He also responded to a statement from Victoria Police saying they were trying to identify and track down the protesters, saying on X: “So now they’re going to arrest me and prove my point that Jews hate freedom by locking me up for offending Jews by protesting against them making it illegal to criticise their attacks on our freedom?”
The protest was peaceful apart from the actions of a lone left-wing agitator, and no arrests were made.
Mr Southwick, an outspoken supporter of Israel who has made regular calls for tougher laws on anti-Semitism, last week joined the Jewish Community Council of Victoria to demand that Ms Allan recall parliament before Christmas to pass the proposed legislation, which has been criticised by human rights groups.
Ms Allan announced the sweeping new “social cohesion” laws last week, saying they built on already tabled anti-vilification legislation, following the alleged firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, Melbourne, earlier this month.
The proposed laws, which are expected to pass parliament early next year, outlaw masks at protests along with flags of banned terrorist organisations and the use of glue or other attachment devices to prevent protesters being moved on.
Ms Allan said on Tuesday that the protest laws were part of a “renewed promise to Jews” and were formulated following consultation with the Jewish community, who have been demanding police be given more powers to stop anti-Semitism.
But David Mejia-Canales, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, told SBS News Australians should be “very, very, very critical” of the proposed laws, and said they were an attack on the right to protest.
“Protest is the purest expression of democracy in many ways … because protest is democracy in action,” he said.
“And any politician who does not like democracy in action, as long as it is peaceful, maybe we should really question their motivations.
“If the premier thinks that these measures criminalising peaceful protest is going to fix antisemitism and other forms of racism, then she’s deluded. This will not do that.”
Professor Luke McNamara, a member of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law and Justice, said the slow accumulation of new anti-protest laws in across Australia was making it “increasingly difficult to be a law-abiding, peaceful protester”.
“Individual instances of restrictions on protests might in and of themselves seem from one particular point of view, acceptable, necessary, tolerable,” he said.
“But when you put them all together and ask the question, ‘what is happening to the shape and resilience of the right to protest in Australia?’ And I do think it’s being chipped away.”
Header image: Left, Friday’s protest. Right, David Southwick (Facebook).
