Rita Panahi: Panahi: Authorities cannot show weakness against lawless activists

To see four race-obsessed grievance mongers so effortlessly breach Parliament House security doesn’t fill one with great confidence and it’s time this kind of activism is met with the full force of the law.

Race-obsessed grievance mongers have been emboldened to the point where they feel entitled to invade Parliament House in Canberra to unfurl massive banners with genocidal messages.

To see four activists so effortlessly breach Parliament House security, and then occupy the rooftop for the best part of two hours, does not fill one with great confidence.

In recent weeks pro-Palestinian, or to be more accurate anti-Israeli, anti-Australian and anti-West, activists have desecrated the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Australian Army monuments.

For members of the Jewish community, it must be chilling to see the anti-Semitic message “From the river to the see, Palestine will be free” draped on our seat of democracy.

That slogan is rightly deemed as anti-Jewish given it calls for the elimination of the only Jewish state and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on the record acknowledging it as a violent statement that has no place in Australia.

Race-obsessed grievance mongers have been emboldened to the point where they feel entitled to invade Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

The ugly message unfurled by activists at Parliament House is one that is regurgitated constantly from politicians to celebrities to corporate virtue signallers. Picture: Martin Ollman

As we have seen at protests around the country since October 7, these activists also often push an anti-Australian narrative suggesting this country is illegitimate and built on genocide. One of the giant banners unfurled at Parliament House on Thursday read: “No peace on stolen land, Genocide since 1788”.

Shamefully, that ugly message is one that is regurgitated, in one form or another, constantly from politicians to celebrities to corporate virtue signallers who blithely say phrases like “always was, always will be Aboriginal land” without thinking what that means.

The endless and pointless welcome and acknowledgement of country statements also reinforce this message of racial division.

The Parliament House protesters released a statement again connecting the Aboriginal cause to that of the Palestinians.

“Today, anti-genocide activists ascend federal parliament in an act of solidarity with our Palestinian, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kin,” they said in a statement.

It’s time that the lawlessness we have seen in capital cities was met with the full force of the law.

For months protesters have blocked roads, vandalised public property and intimidated passers-by with little in the way of consequences.

That weakness from authorities has only encouraged further lawlessness.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist