Protesters have no idea what to do with Hamas

The contemptible behaviour of Pakistani-born Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, who posed on Friday beside a placard reading “keep the world clean” and showing an Israeli flag over a rubbish bin, has no place in a civilised society, let alone Australia’s upper house. Senator Faruqi should be more sensitive than most to the evils of Hamas’s terrorism. Born in the city of Lahore in 1963, she came to Australia in 1992. She cannot be unaware of the way her country of birth has been ravaged by decades of jihadism and extremist sectarianism. Neither her apology, nor Greens leader Adam Bandt’s attempts to dismiss the incident as inconsequential, should let her off the hook. Yet she was willing to behave in a way that rekindled dark recollections of pre-war Europe in the 1930s. She should know better, as should actors of the prestigious Sydney Theatre Company who donned Palestinian keffiyehs during the opening night encore of Chekhov’s The Seagull last Saturday.

Their pathetic little protest, led by Harry Greenwood, the son of Hollywood star Hugo Weaving, apparently was intended to condemn the “occupation” and “genocide” of Gaza. The production has been adapted by former STC creative director and playwright Andrew Upton and his wife, dual Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, who was among the first to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. There was, of course, no condemnation of Hamas’s war crimes and atrocities. Neither was there any acknowledgment of the reality that for decades the STC has relied on the largesse of Jewish benefactors. As company director and philanthropist Jillian Segal said, the actors would do well to realise “there are many members of the Jewish community, and other ethnic and faith communities, that are proud patrons of the STC and the arts”.

No less offensive is the attempted indoctrination of students in the inner city and Maribyrnong areas of Melbourne this week by teachers during a “week of action” for Palestine. For good reason Rabbi James Kennard, principal of Mount Scopus College, Melbourne’s largest Jewish school, fears for the safety of Jewish students in schools taking part in the week of action. The teachers’ activism, as Rabbi Kennard says, “crosses the line into anti-Semitism”.

Those involved in such protests fail to answer a key question. That is, what do those who think they’re defending Palestinians (who have suffered mightily at the hands of the terrorist organisation) think should be done with the terrorist organisation? Israel has the chance to rid the world, as well as Palestinians, of the evil proxy of the Iranian theocracy. If Palestinians are to have the chance of forming and building their own state, they need to be able to do so without Hamas. The terrorists’ mindset and legacy are reflected in the sad eyes of four-year-old Avigail Idan, one of the hostages released on Sunday to face life without her mum and dad, whose slaughter at the hands of Hamas she was forced to witness.

The unfolding of the war and the prisoner exchange in which Israel, which treasures its citizens’ lives, has agreed to return three Palestinian prisoners for every hostage released demand accurate, impartial coverage informed by knowledge of the historical background of the region. So does the reporting of the ugly, threatening tide of anti-Semitism that has reared its head in Australia since October 7. Sections of the journalists union, the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, at Guardian Australia, the ABC, Schwartz Media’s The Saturday Paper and The Monthly, and Nine Entertainment newspapers have urged journalists to avoid “both-sidesism”, apparently finding an unjust moral equivalence between the democratic state of Israel and a terrorist group backed by Iran. Nine’s editorial leaders wisely have banned reporters who signed the petition from reporting on the conflict. The petition has attracted 270 signatures, which reflects the ignorance and moral confusion of those involved.