NSW treasurer declares ‘intifada’ protest chant is hate speech

Pro-Palestine protest chant “globalise the intifada” is hate speech, the NSW treasurer declared, as the government steps up monitoring of hate speech and radical clerics after the Bondi Beach massacre.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey vowed the government would be improving the way hate speech is monitored and how existing laws are enforced. While hate speech and tackling antisemitism have come into focus since Sunday’s terror attack on a Jewish festival on the first night of Hanukkah left 15 people dead, it has been an issue the Minns government has sought to tackle for years.

However, the Herald can reveal that since 2018, the criminal charge of inciting violence based on race, religion, sexual orientation and other traits has been successfully prosecuted only three times.

A total of nine cases were brought before the courts in the past seven years involving the charge known as 93Z, but six were finalised when the charges were withdrawn.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a swath of hate speech reforms, including a renewed focus on hateful preaching. Hours later, Mookhey said the NSW government would provide any additional resources needed to agencies to stamp out antisemitic hate speech – including “globalise the intifada”.

“I personally think that any reasonable person would just see what the consequences of that [chant] has been, on Sunday night,” he said.

“They are dividing the community. They are jeopardising community cohesion. I don’t think that there’s a place for that in peaceful protest.”

UK police have arrested two pro-Palestine protesters for calling for an “intifada”, which refers to a Palestinian uprising against Israel.

The chief minister of Sydney’s Great Synagogue, Rabbi Benjamin Elton, said at an interfaith memorial at St Mary’s Cathedral on Wednesday evening that the phrase calls for violence against Jews.

“We can have all the political disagreements in the world, and we should be able to express them reasonably, but hateful rhetoric has to stop,” he said. “Let no one deny what globalise the intifada means. It means Jewish blood on the sands of Bondi Beach.”

Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees said labelling the word intifada as hate speech was “ridiculous, ignorant and offensive”.

“The word literally means ‘shaking off’, and refers to the efforts of Palestinians, through mass protests and uprisings, to shake off the illegal occupation and apartheid racist policies that the state of Israel imposes on the Palestinian people,” Lees said.

“Banning it in Australia is the equivalent of banning expressions of solidarity with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.”

Lees said he did not believe the phrase had been chanted at any of the group’s dozens of rallies through Sydney’s CBD since the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza. He said the Bondi Beach attack was being “exploited” by those wanting to silence his movement.

Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said the phrase could not be considered hate speech under existing state laws because many considered it a legitimate form of political expression calling for nonviolent resistance against Israel’s occupation.

A multimillion-dollar joint state and federal funding package for victims of the attack and the broader Jewish community was outlined on Thursday and includes direct support for victims and local businesses.

Mookhey said victims and families of the deceased would receive $75,000, and the government would cover funeral and burial arrangements.

Jewish community organisations will receive $2 million to support victims’ families, and a $3.6 million package will go towards six recovery officers who will work with impacted families.

Legal Aid and Disaster Response Legal Services will receive $1 million to provide legal services, and Jewish organisations providing mental health triage will also receive $1 million.

Small businesses in the immediate vicinity will receive up to $25,000 in grants. A $1.5 million boost will be provided for security at Jewish community locations, and Waverley Council will receive $1 million for clean-up efforts and community events.

More coverage on the Bondi terrorist attack

• Three days after: What we know about the Bondi terrorist attack
• The victims: ‘Too big for this world’: The father who died a hero at Bondi and ‘went down fighting’ gunman
• Analysis: Police were young and outgunned: Where was the back-up at Bondi?
• Guns in Sydney: The Sydney suburbs with the most guns, as overall numbers rise