Andrew Bolt: Voice is just more tribalism to divide Australia

It’s tribalism to blame for Australians who see brutality in Israel and celebrate with fireworks, and it’s tribalism that will divide Australia into warring tribes, with one always the victim, the other the colonising sinner.

As if we didn’t have enough reason to vote against the Voice. Now Jews here live in fear of barbarians celebrating the rape and murder of Jews in Israel.

No, I am not needlessly politicising the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, this ordered on Saturday by the Hamas leaders of Gaza.

I’m warning as few yet dare: there is a link between the Voice and the tribalism that inspired a pro-Palestinian mob on Monday to chant “gas the Jews” at the Sydney Opera House.

And not just that. In Sydney, Muslim protesters chased a Jewish man; in Bellevue Hill, a tradesman of Middle Eastern appearance threatened to “kill” Jewish youths if they didn’t hide their Israeli flag; in Melbourne’s Toorak Rd, four men told a pedestrian they were “on the hunt to kill Jews”.

So serious are the threats that the NSW Police on Wednesday created a task force to protect Jewish schools, synagogues and hospitals.

That this is needed now, in Australia, makes me sick.

So why do I link this with the Voice?

I know, many peace-loving people of good heart, including Jews, support the Voice – Labor’s plan to divide us by race by creating an Aboriginal-only advisory parliament.

But so do a striking number of the people now celebrating the attack on Israel by Islamist terrorists who slaughtered whole families, beheaded babies, paraded women they’d raped, and kidnapped some 130 hostages who they now threaten to kill in front of cameras.

Protesters at Rally For A Free Palestine burn the Israeli flag on the forecourt of The Sydney Opera House. Picture: Jeremy Piper

You wonder what kind of Australians see such horrors and celebrate with fireworks. Hold marches in Sydney and Melbourne attacking Israel and blaming Jews for the evils done to them.

The answer is tribalism. It’s the mob madness that treats your tribe as always right, no matter how wrong. That dehumanises the other and kills pity. That tells us we are not all Australians together.

The Voice is also tribalism. It divides us into warring tribes, with one always the victim, the other the colonising sinner.

So to me it’s not surprising to see Aboriginal flags waved in both the Sydney and Melbourne anti-Israel protests this week.

It’s also no surprise that Sydney’s Imam Ibrahim Dadoun, filmed screaming that the Hamas attack on Israel was “a day of pride”, last year preached that the Voice was “very important” in “coming to terms with what happened with the Aboriginal community”.

No surprise, either, that the Australian National Imams Council, our top Islamic body, last month declared “Australian Muslims say Yes to the Voice”, and this week responded to the horror in Israel by defiantly saying it “supports the Palestinian people’s right for self determination”, with no word of criticism of Hamas.

In fact, the Lebanese Muslim Association directly linked the two issues: “The LMA sees the trials and tribulations suffered by Australia’s First Nations people in the 235 years since British settlement commenced as being similar to the more than 75 years of persecution inflicted on the people of Palestine by Israel.”

Tribalism is to blame for Australians seeing horrors in Israel and celebrating with fireworks. Picture: Jasmine Kazlauskas

It’s not just Muslims making that connection. Rugby league star Josh Addo-Carr posted an image of both the Aboriginal and Palestinian flags, with the legend: “One struggle, one fight. Land back.”

Voice architect Professor Marcia Langton even borrowed the Palestinians’ vocabulary in selling the Voice in May, warning there could be an “intifada” if conditions for Aborigines did not improve.

God spare us if the notion grows that Aborigines can consider white Australians as Hamas considers Jews.

Yet again and again we see prominent campaigners for this race-based Voice – especially the Greens – also use the Hamas attack to beat Israel.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi tweeted “I stand with Palestine”, and NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd damned the decision to light up the Opera House in Israeli colours as “misguided”.

Greens leader Adam Bandt did at least say, perfunctorily, the Greens “condemn the horrific attacks on civilians”, but immediately switched to attacking Israel, not Hamas: “We condemn the occupation.”

So sick. How can people be so deaf to the screams of the victims of the side they support?

It’s tribalism, and we must fight it. I know, people naturally prefer their own, and even I cheer the Dutch cricket team.

But governments mustn’t cement such differences into our Constitution – especially differences of race. Their duty is to make a one out of the many, by reminding us through laws and rituals that what unites Australians is bigger than what divides.

Never has that seemed more urgent, as Muslims hunt Jews in our streets.