Dear Paul,

But now the victims have turned into the abusers.
So Hitler won.

With thugs on the streets waving banners and dancing on the graves of Israeli civilians massacred a year ago, it is clear that we have lost Australia without a peep from the Albanese government. Australia is now a multicultural cesspit of division and hatred, with Albanese continuing to import Islamists who will never let their hatreds and bigotries go, handing them on to beautiful little innocent toddlers, standing up with little signs bearing Israel-hating messages.

Over the weekend, a Rabbi carrying only our Australian flag, trying to remind these people where they are now, was arrested for disturbing the peace!

The responsibility for the new hate-filled Labor/Green/Teal Australia rests squarely on the shoulders of Albanese and Wong.

And peace in the Middle-East rests squarely on the
shoulders of Netanyahu and his government. Some
people's hatred of Palestinians is greater than their
love for our shared humanity.

Peace will only come in the Middle East when their love
for their families and children will be greater
than their hatred of the Palestinians.

The continued occupation, the draconian system of control,
the de-humanization and deaths are not important to some.
That doesn't upset them. Only the sad sight of a
small child carrying a placard to make a point, upsets some
people, as well as an Australian
government striving to not take sides and asking for a
ceasefire, seems to strike their ire and inflame them.
Go figure.

It takes all sorts.

But do we need them? This isn't a football game or a pub
brawl.

Dear Foxy

I think people who display symbols of Nazi, Stalinist, Islamist and other vile ideologies and movements should be challenged, condemned and despised, but not criminalised.

My main reason for thinking this is that freedom of speech means nothing if it does not encompass the freedom to say things that are stupid, abhorrent, offensive and wrong. It is central to our democratic system, and ironically by trying to silence democracy’s opponents we revert to using their tactics.

My second key reason is that the best way to demonstrate that these ideologies are wrong is to expose and engage them, not to suppress them. The extremists and conspiracy theorists who gravitate to them are likely to find them more attractive, not less, if they are suppressed. They are drawn by the thrill of the transgressive.

Some other reasons:

Symbols are complex and can be used to signify different things. The woman who waved a flag showing a swastika inside a Star of David in the blue and white colours of the Israeli flag was not, I believe, applauding Hitler but trying to paint a moral equivalence between the Holocaust and the plight of the Palestinians. I think this inference is vicious, racist, stupid and wrong – but it should not be illegal to use symbols in this way.

Symbols are also easy to approximate and can have many different meanings. Pity the Hindus and other faiths for whom the swastika was a sacred symbol long before the Nazi Hakenkreuz. Many anti-Israeli demonstrators wave flags that incorporate the colours and some features of extremist Islamist groups without replicating them entirely – should they be banned too?

Finally, I think this argument is part of a sad trend for us to lose sight of the difference between things we ought not to do, and things we ought not to be allowed to do. These issues are best resolved through vigorous social discourse and evidence, including social sanctions, not by government edict.

Hi Rhian,

Well said!

people who display symbols of Nazi, Stalinist, Islamist and other vile ideologies and movements should be challenged, condemned and despised, but not criminalised.
Rhian,
Totally agree and, add integrity-devoid bureaudroids as criminals ( not to be confused with decent public Servants) to that list.