The following article has been published in J‑Wire by Julie Nathan.

The protest against the Israeli Film Festival went ahead in Sydney last Thursday evening, despite the preceding court drama.

The NSW Police had obtained an order in the Supreme Court to prohibit the protest from being staged outside the Palace Verona Cinema in Oxford Street, Pad­ding­ton.

The Palestine Action Group (PAG), the organ­isers of the protest, were not gracious losers. Reverting to type, they com­plained of a vast, dark con­spir­acy to deny their right to protest. Shopworn tropes about a Jewish con­spir­acy were shame­lessly aired on their news websites and social media.

Raul Bassi, a member of PAG and Socialist Alliance, blamed “the Zionist lobby” for the adverse court order and asserted that the NSW Police were “under pressure from the zionists and its allies” to prohibit the planned protest.

In the same article, Ray Jackson, another anti-Israel activist, also accused an “all-powerfull jewish lobby”[sic] and the “pervasive zionist lobby groups here in sydney and around the country” who he claimed were trying to “subvert our right as citizens.”

On the PAG Facebook page, many of the comments also made unsub­stan­ti­ated and con­spir­at­ori­al claims against Jewish communal organ­iz­a­tions. Comments included “This just shows how powerful, organized and well equipped the Zionist lobby is. Supported by our main stream media & many of our politi­cians unfor­tu­nately” and “Perhaps, the jews comunity is pressing the police comis­sion­er or the NSW goverment to take this action” [sic]. After the court ruling, it was posted that “It is very obvious that the Zionist lobby group has once again gotten its’ way.”

There was not a flicker of recog­ni­tion that the police might have had valid concerns about the safety of ped­es­tri­ans (including pro­test­ers) on a main artery out of the city at peak hour, and the dis­rup­tion caused to workers trying to get home. Or that after five anti-Israel protests in Sydney in five suc­cess­ive weeks, the anti-Israel movement had already had more than a fair go. Or that police resources are limited and needed urgently elsewhere.

One com­ment­at­or even suggested that the police should be checking those attending the Israeli Film Festival for “war criminals” when she wrote “How abom­in­able that the NSW police are not invest­ig­at­ing the indi­vidu­als attending to see who will be tried for war crimes next year. Special attention should be paid to audience members who have served in the IDF.” How abom­in­able that she is so out of touch with reality.

The target of this protest was the screening of Israeli films. It was said this would “whitewash Israel’s genocide against the Palestini­ans.” Inter­est­ingly, at the same time, there is an Arab Film Festival in Sydney, also with many great films. However, there are no known demon­stra­tions against the Arab Film Festival to protest the Syrian civil war which has seen 200,000 people killed, or the atro­cit­ies of the new IS Caliphate in Iraq, which crucifies and beheads those it opposes, including children, or a myriad gross human rights viol­a­tions in Arab countries, including the sub­jec­tion of women, gays and ethnic and religious minor­it­ies.

Nick Riemer, of the ‘Sydney Staff for BDS’ (based at the Uni­ver­sity of Sydney) declared that “No matter how pacifist, liberal and committed to justice a film’s message might be, the best thing to do for peace in Israel-Palestine is not to passively consume it, but to actively boycott any festivals in which it might be shown when these are sponsored by the Israeli state.” Riemer, a senior lecturer in the depart­ments of English and lin­guist­ics at Sydney Uni­ver­sity, denounces pacifism, liberal values and justice. Riemer also opposes both freedom and national self-determ­in­a­tion, at least when it comes to Jews and Israelis. He routinely refers to Israel as “a country whose founding was a crime” and asserts “Israeli film­makers have no right to an audience.” Really? Well, I’ll be attending anyway.

In spite of the court ruling, PAG made the decision to go ahead with their planned protest, but changed the venue to Taylor Square, some 400 metres away from the Verona, out of sight and out of earshot. Tech­nic­ally, the court order did not actually prohibit the protest but removed the immunity from pro­sec­u­tion that pro­test­ers otherwise have for dis­rupt­ing traffic and obstruct­ing the public. Despite all the main­stream media publicity, and claims that 1,000 people would protest, only about 150 turned up. A similar number of police attended to ensure public order was main­tained.

At Taylor Square, placards from previous rallies re-emerged, and there were new ones. One new placard read: “The root of all evil in the world is Zionism!!! Zionism created the new World Order 6 6 6”. This is a bizarre accus­a­tion that the Jewish right to national self-determ­in­a­tion in their homeland is not only evil, but the root of all evil. The numbers 666 is from the Christian Book of Rev­el­a­tions and is said to be the number of the Devil. Demon­isa­tion doesn’t get cruder than that.

Other placards used a film theme “Lights, camera, genocide” and “Your films can’t hide the killing” to accuse Israel of genocide. Put together, the theme makes the claim that Zionism, Israel, the national home of the Jewish people, is abso­lutely evil and genocidal. The appro­pri­ate word to describe the con­dem­na­tion of a whole ethnic group is racism, in this case, antisemitism.

During the speeches, several of the speakers referred to the NSW police pro­hib­it­ing the protest outside the Verona. They claimed it was a trend around the world. They cited several times that in Paris three anti-Israel protests had been banned. Riemer said that the banning of the three Gaza protests in Paris and a tight­en­ing of restric­tions in Australia were part of the same trend. Even on their Facebook page, PAG posted that “Today’s decision recalls the banning of a protest against the Gaza war in Paris last month.”

Not once, did these speakers even acknow­ledge that the reason for the Paris bans were that protest­ors turned into a violent mob and attacked syn­agogues and Jewish owned shops in Paris. Hundreds of Jews were trapped inside a synagogue while the mobs outside bayed for their blood. It was these actions by anti-Israel pro­test­ers that led to the banning of protests in Paris. When pro­test­ers ignored the bans, and took to the streets again, syn­agogues and Jewish shops were again targeted with arson accom­pan­ied by chants of “Death to the Jews” and “Hitler was right.” In all, eight syn­agogues in France were attacked. Anti-Israel protests were permitted in other cities in France, where there had been no violence against Jews. For the Aus­trali­an pro­test­ers to claim the Paris ban was akin to the Sydney ban is utterly dishonest.

Ridah Hassan, of Socialist Altern­at­ive, made repet­it­ive claims about the “Zionist Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment”, asserting that “Israel is a racist terrorist state” and that “the racist police are trying to shut down our protest.” In fact, the police quietly stayed back and allowed their protest in Taylor Square to proceed.

When it was announced that they were going to march down to the Verona, the police formed a cordon to prevent the pro­test­ers from crossing the road. To get around the court pro­hib­i­tion, the pro­test­ers in small groups moved away from the street corner, and crossed over further away. Some went through back streets and came out on the east side of the Verona while some came from the western side, another group were across the road from the Verona. The pro­test­ers were corralled into several groups by police, and were unable to get closer to the Verona. The city-bound direction on Oxford was closed off by police vehicles to allow the police to manage the pro­test­ers.

After 20 or 30 minutes of incessant chanting and attempts to get to the Verona, the pro­test­ers were ordered to move on, away from the Verona. Police followed them to ensure they did not double back or take a side street to the Verona. As the pro­test­ers walked, they continued with their angry chants.

A male driver in a passing car, having seen them and heard their anti-Israel chants, yelled out “Kill the Jews!” I spun around to get his number plate, but it was too dark. That hateful and murderous call was a direct result of the anti-Israel protest. I doubt many of the pro­test­ers would agree with his call, but the sentiment may resonate, given the pro­test­ers’ rhetoric, chants and slogans, which aim to destroy the Jewish state, where six million Jews live.

This murderous call by the driver comes only two weeks after thirty Jewish primary school students, aged between 5 and 12, on a school bus were verbally assaulted and threatened with “All Jews must die”, “Heil Hitler”, and “we’re going to slit your throats”. This attack occurred only a few kilo­met­ers away. The fact that there are publicly and unashamedly calls for the killing of Jews is of great concern.

Those who protest against Israel, its existence and all things Israeli, need to under­stand that they are becoming part of the vanguard for a very dark and sinister sub-culture that is moving toward a re-enactment of medieval anti-Jewish barbarism or rehab­il­it­a­tion of a Nazi-like extremism.

Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry.