Welcome to Queensland: Beautiful one day, intimidated the next

Where were the federal police when the flag of an internationally recognised terrorist organisation was hoisted over the campus of the University of Queensland this week, asks Des Houghton.

Where were the federal police when the flag of an internationally recognised terrorist organisation was hoisted over the “Gaza solidarity” encampment on the campus of the University of Queensland this week?

Why did not the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor condemn this outrage and demand the flag be taken down and expel the students who raised it?

Where were the state police when a CFMEU blockade stopped engineering contractors going about their lawful business on Crown land at the $6.2bn Cross River Rail project site?

The freedom to protest should not extend to this.

Welcome to Queensland: Beautiful one day, intimidated the next.

I think our shiny new Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski has some explaining to do. And here I will go off on a tangent and give him a warning:

Sir, you will quickly be seen as Labor lapdog if you continue to jet set around the state with the premier and the police minister as they make political announcements in the run- up to the State election.

I fear Gollschewski may already be compromised for allowing Labor spin doctors to pump out gratuitous comments under his name praising new policing initiatives.

Back at the university it was troubling to see the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) flying amid the pro-Palestinian placards and banners.

Can anyone tell me who made the flags, who paid for them and how did they get to Queensland?

The slick anti-Israel propaganda on show at St Lucia suggests this was no spontaneous rally by a group of well-meaning but naive students looking for a cause.

It was well-organised, calculated and, if judged as a media event, was reasonably successful as were similar protests to those in New York, LA

and London.

The global anti-Israel groundswell reminds me of the divisive anti-Vietnam rallies I covered as a young reporter in 1970.

The Australian reported PFLP is a designated terrorist organisation in the US, the EU and Canada, while Australia has the group on its consolidated list of organisations subject to financial sanctions.

Two key buildings at UQ were stormed by protesters, yet the university’s official response was limp. There with no condemnation from Vice-Chancellor Deborah Terry; just an anodyne quote from an unnamed spokesman saying the university was committed to freedom of speech blah, blah, blah but saying nothing about the PFLP or how or managed to gain entry.

So much for bold leadership.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine flag being flown at UQ on Wednesday

Let’s not forget how this started. Early on October 7 Hamas terrorists stormed civilian communities along Israel’s southern fence with Gaza, slaughtering 1,139 people including women, who eyewitnesses said were raped and then shot while their babies were beheaded.

There were some bizarre follow-ups. Trees planted to memorialise slaughtered children were chopped down in Germany. And swastikas were carved into the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, The Times reported.

About 240 hostages were seized on October 7. An estimated 130 hostages remain captive.

Israel says the war will end if the terrorists in Gaza release the hostages and lay down their weapons.

The Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies said events like the University of Queensland “Gaza solidarity” camp had fuelled arise of anti-Semitism across the state.

The university students may not know it, but they are helping create an Australia that is no longer safe for Jews said board president Jason Steinberg.

“Anti-Semitism is rising across Queensland,” he told me. “Its straight out of Nazi Germany of the 1930s.”

There have been increasing episodes of violence and calls on social media to boycott Jewish businesses.

Steinberg said a man was savagely punched and kicked on the Victoria Street Bridge for wearing an I Support Israel T-shirt.

“Kids at a school have had water pistols waved at them and heard threats like ‘I’m gonna kill you, Jew’.”

He said these episodes were well known to the State and Federal Governments.

But they do not see that a line has been crossed.

But we can see it, and other people can see it.

“It has gone to a point where it is OK to demonise Israel, demonise Jews.”

He said Jewish women were fearful of wearing their Star of David necklaces for fear of attack.

“What is also perplexing is that when you hear people saying I am not an anti-Semite, I am anti Zionism and I’m anti-Israel.”

He said the popular anti-Israel chant, From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free, was “a genocidal call against every Jew in Israel and every Jew around the world, me included”.

“The activists are promulgating hate.’’

He said there were Holocaust survivors in Brisbane who said to him: “We’ve seen this before, please stop the hate.

“But it is not being stopped.”

Several cases of anti-Semitism in Queensland were outlined in Parliament recently.

Christian Rowan, the Member for Moggill, said he was disturbed to hear how Jewish students were targeted for harassment.

“We cannot ignore the rise in anti-Semitic actions such as the use of inflammatory slogans at rallies and the inappropriate indoctrination of children,” he said.

“In one incident, a Jewish teenager was confronted by individuals who identified themselves as ‘Neo-Nazis’ or ‘Hamas freedom fighters’, and in Cairns a Jewish child was told, ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘free Palestine’.”

Rowan added: “Our commitment to combating anti-Semitism must be unwavering. We cannot allow hate to flourish in our schools, universities and workplaces or any part of society. It is imperative that we learn from history and recognise the signs of people spreading hatred and intolerance.’’

Tim Nicholls, the Member for Clayfield, said a Jewish woman who contacted him was upset after attending a Greens community meeting in Kenmore.

“There she encountered a man wearing a hi-vis shirt emblazoned with a chilling message.

“She told me the shirt read ‘Zionist Final Solution’, a phrase echoing the darkest times of her people.”

Nicholls told the House other members of the Jewish community were frightened to leave home after seeing “Free Gaza” graffiti at West End.