This is the angry face of tribalism
There appears to be no motive for the sickening violence of the so-called ‘peace’ protesters other than an ignorant hatred of our Western society.
On the streets of Melbourne we saw a dystopian future of hatred and chaos, Clockwork Orange meets Mad Max, with peacenik sloganeering defiled by anarchic violence and Islamist extremist vengeance. This was more than a disruption; it was a symptom of civilisational decay, and it has been enabled by feeble political leadership.
Not so long ago, peace protesters would don tie-die bandannas and share love, music and smiles. This mob donned masks to hide their identity, filled their pockets with projectiles, shouted threats and abuse, set fires and rendered violence.
The protesters portray themselves as heroes standing up to government and industrial might like the tank man of the Tiananmen Square massacre. In truth, they are a fascistic mob, intolerant of other views and determined to impose their will at any cost.
They threw bottles, horse manure, potatoes, onions, eggs, chairs and unknown fluids at police, service personnel, media and passers-by.
They set bins ablaze and rolled them towards police, and they hit police with crates, timber, whatever they could find.
The “peace” protesters abused defence force personnel attending the defence expo, screaming “murderers” and throwing at least one soldier’s hat into the river.
They jostled and shouted at businesspeople attending; one protester in an Indigenous rights T-shirt (“Always was, Always will be”) kicked a man in a suit from behind, seemingly for the crime of being a man in a suit.
People were held up in traffic, prevented from getting to work or home. A woman anxious to pick up her children had her car thumped by threatening protesters and pelted with eggs as she drove away.
Police were hit with projectiles including manure and bottles. Their horses were targeted too, and journalists and camera operators covering the episode were intimidated and bumped.
Ignorant, aggressive and angry, this mob did not come to push causes but to hijack them. If there was a galvanising theme it was the demonisation of Israel, but it seemed their real aim was to create mayhem and rail against the established order.
Western civilisation, the United States, Israel, Australia, capitalism, the rule of law, they pretend to hate the lot. They live and rebel under the liberal democratic freedoms they seem not to value elsewhere.
They cited a bizarre grab-bag of causes: climate change got a mention, Indigenous issues, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel posturing, pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah chanting, and disgust for all things military. This was a protest about as coherent as Joe Biden on a bad day.
One protester held a pro-Palestinian banner that included the inverted triangle used by Hamas, while his face was covered with a surgical mask and he delivered a rant: “End all of the warmongering,” he spat. “End the corporations and greed, institutionalised hatred and ignorance, get out of our city weapons dealers, arms manufacturers, get out of here.”
A woman wore what looked like armed services overalls except for a badge on the chest pocket that read “FCK ISRL” – we do not need to buy the vowels.
A bloke sporting the ubiquitous keffiyeh said: “The reason there’s a big connection is what’s happening in Palestine happened to our First Nations people in this country.”
Where to even begin with this inanity? While many protesters were hateful and violent, they seemed to have their issues confused and conflated.
Slogans and placards focused on an alleged Israeli “genocide” against Palestinians, which is an illogical upending of reality. It is Hamas whose genocidal aim is to eliminate Israel and Jews, and it is Hamas who ventured from their autonomous Gaza territory to deliberately spark a war with Israel by slaughtering 1200 men, women and children and kidnapping 250 others in a blood-curdling display of Islamist extremist terror.
The war in Gaza could have ended in October last year with the return of the hostages and the surrender of Hamas terrorists; and it could end tomorrow the same way. The protesters, like much of the international community, only prolong the war by pressuring Israel rather than Hamas, by emboldening the terrorists rather than strengthening efforts to defeat them.
If these protesters oppose military hardware, perhaps they could muster the courage to condemn Hamas’s misuse of humanitarian aid for decades, spending it on weapons and a maze of terrorist tunnels instead of on health, education and economic development. Perhaps they might question the personal wealth of the Hamas leadership.
Palestinian flags were the most common banner in Melbourne but there were myriad red flags of socialism, green flags of Hamas and a smattering of Aboriginal flags. The Socialist Alternative has been a constant presence at pro-Palestinian rallies.
The incoherence of the protesters is an indictment on our declining education system and superficial media. An SBS reporter covering this anarchic chaos described it as an example of “civil discontent” when it was decidedly uncivil, rebellious and violent.
The same report ran Nasser Mashni, of the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network, disgracefully blaming the police for the violence.
“I’ve never seen police attend a protest in this much kit,” Mashni said. “It creates a space where tensions are elevated.”
One state Greens MP, Gabrielle de Vietri, skipped parliament to join the protest. The Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, defended de Vietri, and targeted police, calling for an inquiry into their tactics.
As they did during the Black Lives Matter protests, the hard left is intent on making the police its enemy – at least 24 police were injured. Victoria Police showed strong resolve, deploying the riot squad, rubber bullets, stun grenades, capsicum spray and sufficient boots on the ground to resist and deter the anarchists.
Tragically, it was a battleground. A tribal battleground between those who use Israel as a proxy for the West, and those who want to go about their lives enjoying the freedom and prosperity that Western civilisation has delivered for all comers.
In a world where people increasingly are told they are entitled to their own truth and the public square has been abandoned in favour of individually tailored digital feeds outsourced to the algorithms of the digital giants, it is little wonder we see a regression to tribalism.
It seems to come also with an abandonment of reason, and a strange combination of narcissism and nihilism.
Social media itself could be a driver in this behaviour, just as it is with youth crime. Part of the reason to attend a protest and escalate it could be for the action-packed selfies, reels and posts – one prominent protester posted a picture of herself harassing a television reporter with the caption “selling this as a poster now”.
As a society we are failing to pass on the secrets of our own success, and therefore we imperil our future. We are producing young people who are ignorant about history, geography, and economics – unaware of the legacy they inherit, they do nothing to enhance it. Instead, they seek to undermine it.
Now yes, to some degree it has ever been thus, and people of my age are tut-tutting younger generations. But we need to be aware of a few factors: perhaps distance from the existential threat of World War II encourages complacency; the march of the left through institutions means our education system focuses on Western failings rather than fundamental strengths; and social media changes everything about human discourse and behaviour, elevating ignorant memes over respectful disagreement.
The protesters seem clueless about the success and centrality of democracy and the rule of law. They must not understand essential facts about world wars, the Holocaust, the rise of Islamist extremism or the history of Israel.
Still, our contemporary political leaders are culpable too. The Melbourne mayhem was made all but inevitable because of the mealy-mouthed way governments have dealt with pro-Palestinian protesters since October 7 last year.
The pathetic showing by NSW police and politicians when Jews were targeted in vile chants on the steps of the Opera House on October 9 only emboldened extremists. The previous night in Sydney suburbs around Lakemba there were celebrations of the Hamas slaughter, and Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun said he was “happy” and “elated” as he declared it was a “day of pride” a day of “victory”.
No arrests were made, no charges were laid, and nor were other hate preachers prosecuted for anti-Jewish bile spread at Muslim gatherings. When this sickening glorification of cold-blooded slaughter is ignored by authorities, it is an invitation for extremists to go ever further.
Anti-Semitism has been on the rise ever since. There have been threats, graffiti, and intimidating convoys into Jewish communities.
But political leaders have been largely silent, except for the odd word of discouragement. Tellingly, every time the Prime Minister and others mention anti-Semitism they feel the need to mention Islamophobia too, pretending there is some kind of equivalence of hatred in the community.
This is denial, a cowardly tactic to avoid the reality, and it matters; leaders need to confront reality.
Law enforcement authorities and governments have let too much go unconstrained in street and university protests and in public debate. There has been no push back to contain the protests and ugly rhetoric, or to put facts and moral clarity on the table. Instead, all this has been left to fester as our communities become more divided and our Jewish population becomes more vulnerable and intimidated.
Anthony Albanese and the premiers have been spineless. And it is that spinelessness that has helped to conjure up what we have seen in Melbourne this week.
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