Chris Minns, symbolism, policing, and the narrowing of dissent
By Ricky Pann
The five-day visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Australia in February 2026 was framed by the federal government as a gesture of compassion. A “moment of profound significance,” we were told, intended to comfort a Jewish community still reeling from the Bondi Beach massacre. Yet as Sydney’s CBD was placed under extraordinary police powers under the authority of NSW Premier Chris Minns, and peaceful dissent was progressively marginalised, a harder question emerged. Who exactly was being comforted, and who was being disciplined?
This essay is not about Jewish Australians, nor is it an attack on Jewish identity, culture, or faith. It is about power. Specifically, it examines the political influence of pro-Zionist lobbying networks, their intersection with far-right activism, and the way criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza has been recoded as antisemitism in order to narrow the space for lawful protest and political dissent in Australia.
The radicalization confronting this country is not racial or religious. It is ideological.
Symbolism, Selectively Applied
Political authority in modern Australia is increasingly exercised through symbolism. In October 2023, the Premier Chris Minns NSW Labor Government authorized the projection of the Israeli flag onto the Sydney Opera House, a unilateral display of solidarity following the outbreak of war in Gaza. No equivalent space was afforded to Palestinian grief, despite mounting civilian casualties and credible allegations of war crimes.
Less than two years later, when hundreds of thousands of Australians sought to march peacefully across the Harbour Bridge in the “March for Humanity” to protest the starvation and bombardment of Gaza, NSW Premier Chris Minns attempted to block the demonstration entirely. The stated reasons were “logistics” and “public safety,” yet the inconsistency was glaring. The same government that had no difficulty illuminating national icons for one side of a foreign conflict suddenly discovered insurmountable risk when confronted with mass civic dissent.
This contradiction matters because Minns’ own federal party had already moved to recognize the State of Palestine in early 2025, a move grounded in international law and bipartisan precedent. His resistance to the march therefore cannot be explained by party policy. It must be understood as political pressure from lobbying networks that historically provide the largest sponsorship of non-government funded international trips for federal parliamentarians.
Electoral Mandates and Managed Fear
Minns’ 2023 election was powered by Muslim and multicultural Western Sydney electorates. These communities did not merely vote Labor. They organized, volunteered, and mobilized. By 2026, those same voters found their protests discouraged, surveilled, and in some cases forcibly dispersed under expanded “Major Event” police powers.
The Premier moved from campaigning on inclusion to presiding over the criminalization of dissent. Symbolically, he shifted from promising a “fresh start for all of NSW” to publicly accepting praise from Isaac Herzog as a “friend of Israel,” even as Palestinian Australians were told their grief must remain silent.
Why?
Dissent Recast as Disloyalty
That question sharpened further when the police response and official rhetoric began to frame protesters as “anti-Australian.” The remark was not incidental; it signaled a reframing of peaceful assembly as national disloyalty.
Anti-Australian is not marching with placards. Anti-Australian is pepper-spraying, manhandling, and arresting ordinary citizens exercising democratic rights. Among those dispersed and detained at Town Hall and Bondi were young people affiliated with the Labor movement itself. The irony is difficult to ignore: a government elected by grassroots mobilization now presiding over the physical suppression of its own political base.
When dissent is redefined as threat, the social contract fractures. Protest becomes suspicion. Citizenship becomes conditional.
The Infrastructure of Influence
The answer lies not in religion, but in networks. Central to this landscape is Jillian Segal, Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism appointed by Prime Minister Antony Albanese. Appointing any lobbyist as a special envoy is a dangerous move for social cohesion, especially one with strong links to a right wing government that operates with its military, intelligence agencies, the military industrial complex and propaganda machine hand in glove.
While the role is framed as protective, its credibility has been undermined by Australian Electoral Commission data showing her household, via the Henroth Discretionary Trust, as a significant donor to Advance Australia. Advance Australia led the campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, arguing that constitutional recognition would grant disproportionate influence to a single minority. Yet the same ideological ecosystem now demands exceptional legal protections that redefine criticism of a foreign state as racial hatred. In doing so, it collapses the distinction between antisemitism and opposition to Zionism or Israeli military policy.
This is not a contradiction. It is a strategy.
By expanding definitions of antisemitism to include phrases, political speech critical of Israel, these actors create a legal and cultural environment in which Palestinian Australian identity itself becomes suspect.5 Protest becomes threat. Dissent becomes hate. Assembly becomes extremism.
Fear as a Political Tool
Former Foreign Minister and Labor Premier of NSW Bob Carr has described the pro-Israel lobby in Australia as a “well-funded foreign influence operation.” Its power does not rest solely on donations, though the Henroth Trust alone provided $280,000 to the Liberal Party in 2024-25, but on fear. Fear of reputational destruction. Fear of being branded weak on security. Fear of becoming the next viral political target of confected rage.
Public rebukes from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including claims that Australian policy “fueled” the Bondi attack, functioned as signals. The message was clear: deviation will be punished. For a state premier, the threat of an organized backlash from internationally connected lobbying networks appears to have outweighed the expressed will of his voters, the principles of his party caucus, and the basic democratic right to protest.
The Theatre of Tragedy
The Bondi Beach attack must be named for what it was: outright terrorism driven by radicalized ideology. It is a national trauma. Australians are grieving. Jewish Australians are grieving. Muslim Australians are grieving. This pain is real and shared.
To use that tragedy as diplomatic cover for Herzog’s visit is not an act of healing. It is socially inflammatory populist theatre. It is exploitation pornography, weaponizing grief to silence dissent and to morally coerce the public into picking a side while laws are quietly rewritten in the background. Politicians call for social cohesion while banning words, narrowing protest rights, and empowering police to detain, search, and suppress political opponents. They invoke unity while demanding ideological compliance.
Is this cohesion, or is it theatre?
Surveillance and the Authoritarian Horizon
That question becomes more urgent in light of the federal government’s expanding relationship with Palantir, the data analysis firm whose platforms underpin United States immigration enforcement (ICE) and provide battlefield intelligence to the Israeli military.
Australia has now granted this company “protected-level” access to sensitive national data following its Nov 2025 assessment. The question is no longer theoretical. How long before these tools are turned inward? How long before citizens who challenge laws championed by foreign-aligned lobbyists find themselves catalogued, profiled, and neutralized in the name of security?
True social cohesion is not achieved through surveillance, intimidation, or moral blackmail. It is built through consistency, restraint, and the protection of civil liberties. When governments abandon those principles, they do not preserve democracy. They hollow it out. And no amount of symbolic lighting can conceal that erosion.
Author’s Note
I am pro-Jewish. I am pro-Arab. I am unequivocally opposed to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and political violence in all forms. I draw a clear distinction between race, religion, and ideology. In an age of populism and misinformation, where mainstream and social media demand that we pick a side, I refuse to do so. As a centrist, I reject the false binary that equates moral clarity with tribal allegiance. Democracies fail not when citizens disagree, but when dissent itself is recast as disloyalty. I have resigned from the Labor party as it no longer hears my voice or represents my values.
Works cited
1. Albanese says Isaac Herzog’s visit will bring unity – but to many …, accessed on February 10, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/08/albanese-says-isaac-herzogs-visit-will-bring-unity-but-to-many-palestinian-australians-its-a-slap-in-the-face
2. Israel’s Netanyahu lashes out while world shows shock and sympathy over Australia shooting – CTV News, accessed on February 10, 2026, https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/israels-netanyahu-lashes-out-while-world-shows-shock-and-sympathy-over-australia-shooting/
3. NSW declares Israeli President’s visit a ‘major event’ | SBS News, accessed on February 10, 2026, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/special-police-powers-in-effect-on-monday-as-nsw-declares-israeli-presidents-visit-a-major-event/e3gcrw17h
4. Herzog’s Australia Trip: Controversy and Support – The Jewish …, accessed on February 10, 2026, https://thejewishindependent.com.au/herzog-visit-australia-debate
5. Australian PM rejects Netanyahu’s linking of Palestine recognition to …, accessed on February 10, 2026, https://www.timesofisrael.com/australian-pm-rejects-netanyahus-linking-of-palestine-recognition-to-bondi-attack/
6. Segal and husband have “shared values” — Celebrated by G-G – The Klaxon, accessed on February 10, 2026, https://theklaxon.com.au/segal-and-husband-have-shared-values-celebrated-by-g-g/
7. Thousands protest against Israeli President Herzog’s Australia visit – Al Jazeera, accessed on February 10, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/9/thousands-protest-against-israeli-president-herzogs-australia-visit
This article was originally published on Mindscapes
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Both Albanese and Minns…lack of courage, lack of judgement,lack of leadership.Our country is heading into a dark place.I hope people remember and think carefully before the next vote.There are alternatives..other than the LNP detritus or the right wing grievance peddlers.
It is Albanese’s job to comfort Australian families especially those killed on Australian soil not Zionist Israel soil.To invite a known genocidal war criminal to comfort a religios group is pure folly. The fact that the genocidal war criminal is a foreign politician rather then a respected Australian religious leader begs the question, does the Australian Jewish community have more faith in a Zionist Israeli genocidal war criminal rather then a respected Australian Jewish religion leader to comfort their grieving people? It is very strange that the Zionist Israeli lobby demanded that a foreign politician with a egregious and heinous reputation was their pick to console their grieving people.
Herzog says Australia has been a close ally for decades since our soldiers defeated to Ottoman forces in what was then Palestine. So how does he explain the destruction of Australian and Commonwealth War Cemetery graves in Gaza by the IDF? So much for the precious bloody alliance!! Herzog is an immoral, absolute opportunistic Zionist hypocrite and has no credibility here in Australia.
We need Bob Carr back on board. Minns you bastard, you’re fired!
I note that Judaism is an ancient theology that has become entangled with a 19th century European colonist settler theology to overcome centuries of anti-Judaism action by successive European governments.
Uhm ….. 1) “intended to comfort” the ZIONAZI supporters of the ETHNIC CLEANSING authorised by the Isrevil Knesset, conducted as a Hannibal Directive by the amoral IDF and supplied with military armaments by the USA (Unites States of Apartheid). This GENOCIDE IN GAZA has taken 70,000+ Indigenous Palestinian lives, wounded an estimated about 400,000 more, and clear demolished the settlements of the Gaza Strip.
2) The NSW Crass Minus LABOR GOVERNMENT has become beholden to the ZIONAZI lobby, that group of incessant whingers about anything that they do not like, under the mistaken belief that their history in Germany 1933-1945 justifies everything they stand for, including the GAZA GENOCIDE.
3) The organised police attack on a peaceful demonstration AGAINST THE UNWANTED STATE VISIT BY THE ZIONAZI PRESIDENT was made because the protest organisers wanted to march NORTH to NSW Parliament House, AWAY FROM the location in southern Sydney CBD where a HERZOG meeting was being held.
Indeed, the preferred police route had the protestors moving south the Belmore Park, just across from the ZIONAZI meeting place. Was Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon trying to create the opportunity for a public riot for international publicity purposes?? Is Lanyon a ”fit & proper person” to be NSW Police Commissioner??
Who gave the order to shrink the meeting perimeter thus causing danger to all the encircled protesters, injuring too many, some seriously (spine broken in four (4) places example in SMH 120226)?
4) NSW Premier Minus has failed the voters very, very badly, selling his soul to the ZIONAZI lobby, was that for the biblical ”thirty pieces of silver”? Tin ears appear to be standard issue among too many LABOR politicians. Listen to the voters ….. WE DO NOT WANT ZIONAZIS IN OUR COUNTRY!!
5) Obviously SLO-MO ALBO has sold out LABOR supporters with the appointment of ZIONAZI Segal as ”Special Envoy”. Certainly this looks strongly like an attempt by Albo to appease major financial ”political donor(s)” in the worst COALition tradition.
6) Shades of the anti-Vietnam protest marches!! The government lackies were wrong then and the NSW and feral governments are wrong now. If we are to protect our Australian democracy we will have to do more than lick the backsides of the ZIONAZI whingers, Netanyahu the Butcher of GAZA and his running pig Herzog.
Jon, I think Minns has a majority of 1? He will find himself with a majority of about -15 next time around, especially when the Muslims of the West recalibrate their previous voting cards.
The 120226 SMH report noting extreme actions by NSW Police.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/labor-mps-back-investigation-into-police-behaviour-at-sydney-protest-20260211-p5o1h7.html (paywall?)
With respect to the Public Broadcaster, ABC News Breakfast interview YouTube video –
THE LIGHTLY POLISHED BOOTS OF HERR MINNS AND HIS NARRATIVE SANITISED SPITTLE OF LIES AND DECEPTION – without any duly considered or balanced context – RESIGN OR BE FIRED!
We need a Commission of Inquiry into this and Minn’s affiliations starting with the ZFA, where he celebrated his triumph the following day at the International Convention in Darling Harbour boasting about his military police operation. The Zionists loved it just like the compatriots who slaughter 21,000 children in Gaza – He fails to mention that context to start with and targets the protesters the day before as the perpetrators for ridicule by his audience as a parallel for their hatred of Palestinians in Gaza – And that is boasting, bullying and incitement, and a very dangerous precedent.
Minns at the ICC Sydney, Darling Harbour on Tuesday, 10 February 2026, addressed an exclusive ‘un-Australian’ community event: He spoke with fanfare at the ‘Evening of Light and Solidarity’ hosted by the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) in partnership with other ‘Jewish’ organisations, I’ll leave you to work out exactly which ones were there and were not. Listen to the clapping and the praise, he is there to please them, not Australians.
Minns must be investigated for:
(1) inciting violence by the NSW Police, directing them and ‘allowing’ them to assault members of the public in a brutal way, failing to choose the path of optimum safety, failing to ensure safety at all, and then defending them and denying any assaultive violence or wrongdoing.
(2) For assuming a level of office that is the sole responsibility of the Prime Minister’s Office on matters of foreign policy, visiting heads of State, national domestic policy and international relations, in violation of our Federation and Constitution.
(3) For corruption and direct association with, donations, bribes and deals on or behalf of Zionist lobbyists and organisations like the ZFA (Zionist representatives NOT ‘Jewish’ representatives per se).
(4) For gaslighting and false accusations of public antisemitism at the behest of a foreign power and Zionist lobby groups.
(5) For deliberately misleading the people of NSW, conflating the cause and real issues of the Bondi attack with antisemitism and the true purpose of the Hertog visit, an alleged war criminal of renown who signs bombs to kill the children of Gaza.
(6) For complete failure to represent the interests of the people of NSW, public safety and protections, including those who voted for him as opposed to the interests of a foreign power and supporting a genocidal cause under the mask of grief and empathy for the Bondi attack.
(7) For using and deploying the NSW Police force as a weapon against the people of NSW and charging through court orders at the eleventh hour, when they could not possibly have been realistically implemented in a peaceful way, one hour before thousands had already gathered at Town Hall. He tried this on with the Sydney Harbour Bridge march last year, where he failed, it went ahead and there was absolutely no hint of violence. Same crowd – a diverse multicultural representative, electoral and legitimate group of the people of NSW.
(8 ) For inflammatory, defamatory public dialogue and lies to the media and general public about the general public, making out they were hostile protesters not peaceful members of the public, failing to recognise their peaceful cause and demonising our Australian communities, diaspora and multicultural society.
(9) For bringing the arm of the law and a foreign power down on the people of NSW to silence us and rob of us our freedom of speech, political opinion, movement, respect, dignity and access or exit from public spaces, right to protest and criticise Israel – Fundamental civil and human rights – creating a police state, stamping out social cohesion with illegitimate use and abuse of authority.
And before all this, he must resign or be fired –
Margaret Beazley, Governor of NSW must now evaluate, act and do her duty on behalf of the people of NSW, regarding whom they have lost trust and faith in, and his position of office is no longer constitutionally tenable. Correct the errors of the past aka Gough Whitlam and for once do it for the people.
And it should be noted this YouTube clip of the Minns diatribe on the following morning interview, giving him full air, disallows any public comment – Well done ABC, you do well to silence us and amplify his narrative – is it little wonder that people end up frustrated, protesting in the streets – Authoritarianism and muzzling everyone is what escalates these highly sensitive, corrupt and underlying inhumane practices and affiliations.
The ABC coverage amplifies public distrust and disillusionment. You couldn’t even do your homework on where Herr Minns would be that same night, who he’d be talking to and why – Not Bonafide Australians but the one sided, extremist, non-elected and non-representative foreign lobby, the Zionist Federation of Australia in the throbbing heart of Sydney Darling Harbour to pomp and fanfare – wow! No doubt mocking, commiserating and parading his good ‘Zionist’ deeds at the expense of his State electorate. A truly Trumpian moment, he has designs for emperor’s clothes!
The Heart of Sydney is in a state of arrest, thanks to our delusional Mr Minns, ‘humble’ Premier of NSW.
With respect to the Police Assaults compilation – Brings it all into focus… Just horrific, thank God the police didn’t unholster their guns, but the aggression, hostility and superiority is palpable as it is sinister!
The rest of this I did post elsewhere –
We all saw the footage from multiple angles and phones in the crowd how the police manhandled the elderly, the young and people from all cultures and religions – our multicultural society, that Albanese keeps banging on about. The young one pinned down prone and older guy in white shirt grabbed and repeatedly punched like punched bags by police out of control – elderly women grabbed and marched off the street, not escorted or protected, no respect, no dignity, no sense of public service, duty, safety or protection; just arrogant demeaning military punitive, vengeful thuggery, just like the book of Israel in Palestine (and once upon a time in Jericho?) –
https://www.facebook.com/reel/3356488197861606
https://www.facebook.com/reel/933498379126226
https://theshovel.com.au/2026/02/10/social-cohesion-enforced-by-3000-police-with-pepper-spray/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUnQ8hZDBgC/
Pleasing the people https://www.facebook.com/reel/901661362869895
and the longer reel –
https://youtu.be/LH1BZa27XAw?si=cE7Ic3W5RTwjHNxQ
This is the canvas Minns has nailed up on the wall – a war on the general public, the people of NSW in the shadow of Albanese, Herzog, lesser known Maimon (ambassador of Israel) and the ZFA Zionist lobby – Quite literally ‘Israel in Australia’ the ambassador’s FB-website slogan with 31,000 followers –
https://www.facebook.com/IsraelinAustralia
This is what we are up against. Minns posing with the three of them in front of the Israeli, Australian and Aboriginal NATIONAL flags, for the public limelight and spectacle. Since when did a State premier dictate Australia’s international foreign and national domestic policy! What do other premiers have to say or Federal Parliament for that matter, we know what Australians have said!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1342151577957547&set=pcb.1342152831290755
And once again where are the mainstream media with their political analysis – The ABC and SBS dribbling the ball in the opposite net?
We are shaking hands with Zion, the raw arms of Zionism and Minns is the puppet, the pretender usurping Albanese’s throne. This is rabid symbolism beyond his role as Premier flirting with, championing, worshipping the genociders, leading the way for Albanese.
Time and time again the people of NSW have said no and the people in all capital cities of Australia have said no to Albanese.
This is our stage and it pleases not the people.
Ghosts of Albanese https://theaimn.net/ghosts-of-albanese/
…and there is the other Michael West video at the beginning that features Minns at the ICC rally in Darling Harbour, heart of Sydney, organised by the ZFA on Tuesday night (the day after all these NSW Police assaults and rhetoric), more on ISAAC HERTOG and how the mainstream media is missing all the cues, misreporting or not reporting the facts at all captured by Michael West – you have to go the independent media for truth, facts, honest and dead straight political analysis. The SMH, The Age, ABC and SBS all fudging and misinforming the public to appease their masters, owners, sponsors and advertisers Go to link https://theaimn.net/ghosts-of-albanese/#comment-21082 comment earlier today –
‘MINNS, HERZOG, ZFA AND WHO ELSE? THE UNFOLDING PERFORMANCE AND NARRATIVE
At first I thought at the beginning it was a Trump rally…’
The moment the PM chose Jillian Segal as his “special envoy” the trajectory was clear. And here we are!
Ricky Pann. Now there’s a blast from the past.
Good to see you again.
@ Jon Chesterson: Thank you for the information about other activity by Minus and his police enforcers.
Thank goodness we have independent media to provide information that politicians and ZIONAZS would prefer stayed unknown by the voters.
It’s less about “comfort” but more about putting the frighteners on the various gubmints of Australia. Netanyahu and cronies have done a masterful job of scaring the shit out of most of our pollies. Look at the massive overreactions from Minns and the changes to hate laws just for starters.
Uhm ….. it would be too easy to speculate that the LIARBRAL$ ”leadership” debate is a prelude to a future grab at direct political power by the ZIONAZI faction of Australian politics.
Think Tim ”ZIONAZI” Wilson, (LIARBRAL$) returned to Parliament by a predominantly Isrevili electorate despite the excellent representation by a very talented Teal lady (The LIARBRAL$ SWINGING BIG DICKS CLUB ARE ALL MISOGYNISTS). Now add the former diplomat Senator David Sharma, a political appointment returned to Feral Parliament by the NSW Parliament (LABOR) in 2023.
Then this ”leadership” pantomime generated by the on demand Mainstream Media Manipulation Monopoly during a slow news week when the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) invited Herzog to Australia to prove that the ZFA has control of state & feral Australian governments.
OK, this is just speculation ….. but sillier things have happened elsewhere – think election of TACO Trumpery (twice) in America and the success of Brexit in England. All these results WORK AGAINST the best interests of the voters.
Very, very accurate thinking behind that article.
And the responses.
Throw the book at the bastards as well as Minns!
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/02/the-new-south-wales-premier-patronises-us-yet-again/?
https://michaelwest.com.au/police-face-potential-legal-trouble-after-protests/
https://michaelwest.com.au/is-chris-minns-channeling-donald-trump/
https://michaelwest.com.au/herzog-protests-medics-attacked-too-lawyers-question-police-violence/
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/02/cowardice-the-dominant-political-police-response-to-protests-against-genocide/?
Social cohesion hey….your Government is dead in the water Albo
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2026/02/11/social-cohesion-protest-herzog?
I don’t like the term “Jewish Australians”, you are either an Australian or your not? Onces faith is a personal issue and is the concern of no one but you.
To the best of my knowledge the bulk of those killed at Bondi were Australians, one of those who did the killing was also an Australian..
Why the Prime Minister pf Australia had to bow and scrape to a genocide practicing Israeli of the Jewish faith is beyond me!! Just what are Australia’s values?
@jonangel
This is long because it is what it is.
THE PROBLEM WITH MINNS, HIS ASSOCIATES, LANGUAGE, POLITICS AND POWER
The term ‘Jewish Australians’ may be problematic, understandably more so, if the term Jewish refers to religion and that is sometimes the misunderstanding. Jewish in this context may also refer to nationality, place of birth, parent’s nationality, upbringing, a matter of identity which can be dual and just as easily shed or put aside, or both. Not everyone who is Jewish believes in God or at least uses this as a label of their religion, which more accurately is Judaism. I am English but that doesn’t make me Anglican, and Anglican doesn’t make me English. Roman Catholics don’t all come from Rome – a historical analogy.
It is very common to use dual identity, for instance the poet who is listed in Wikipedia as being Jewish American (Emma Lazarus) or Lebanese American (Kahlil Gibran) for instance, designated their identity or heritage (and that is all, everything else is assumption without more information), and not necessarily religion. I mention them particular because they are both migrants in the past and relevant to this discussion.
Interestingly their poetry reflects this very well, one famous poem by Emma sits at the bottom of the statue of liberty, Khalil’s is perhaps more prophetic warning about what a nation or its leader’s might become (Minns would do well to read them both). Both have contributed to the society of both their nationalities for good I might say, but two out of three of these nations today have not followed the values and warnings they wrote about – And here we are suffering the Minns and Zionist hubris and dynasties because we throw around labels like social pathologies.
I identify as English Australian, if that comes with some sort of prefix or prejudice from others, which by the way it often does (anglo-saxon, white, arrogant, privileged… and I am none of these, neither in personhood or character, these are stereotypes); it doesn’t define or stop from being who I am. I am both and neither. To identify me as one, Australian is not correct – it is not a true representation of who I am, it falls far short for any useful purpose other than crossing a national border., getting out or getting back in. And I will not own someone’s else’s perception of me – that comes from them, I refuse to be boxed or badged with such a label, and most certainly as a group or diaspora.
The second statement is not true either, not in the sense that it has been played as a political game by Australian politicians and also by Zionists and people like Netanyau from Israel as a way of insulting us with the label of antisemitism, which is also totally invalid as it is an insult. Minns flies around between ZFA meetings forging his war on antisemitism with this very point in mind, ignoring this distinction.
At Bondi, the son was born in Australia, the father was born in India (and may or may not have been naturalised), both their heritage are Indian, they are now both of dual nationality regardless of what their passport says. Their passport does not determine their behaviour or who they are, just a convenient distinction by which they travel and identify by current living and working abode or country – if that is permanent and how they wish to be as long as they abide by the law and join us in a multicultural society in a friendly way, they don’t have to agree to everything another Australian believes – we are multicultural and free to choose our religion and beliefs (Constitutional), so our politicians keep saying but sometimes I do wonder if that is just a convenient phrase to serve their purpose. It is political we can’t escape that.
But what is wrong here is you cannot simply say the son was Australian because he was born here or the father because he was naturalised as an excuse to blame Australians for what happened, because that is exactly what Minns and his minions have done, as has Netanyahu – it is fallacy deliberately deployed to suit their politics, blaming and social engineering – a dangerous thing for a politician to do and we should adamantly resist it. It is stereotyping.
Our nationality, identity, culture, beliefs and behaviour are far more nuanced than the label on our passport, being Australian does not mean I act the same way as other Australians – because if it did, I’d ask which Australians are you comparing me with? Just because I have dual nationality and that is my preferred identity, (face level only) that does not explain who I am, since I disagree with many things in both Australian and English society at social, political, religious and historical levels – it simply does not describe or define who I am, my behaviour and what I do.
As for what is Australian, I struggle with that too, because frankly I think it is a cop out in understanding these many nuances, which get flashed around when it is politically convenient. What is Australian? I don’t surf and I am not interested in the beach, does that make me un-Australian? I do love mountains and clouds. Minns has messed with our heads and it is very deliberate, either that or he is a very ignorant and prejudiced man. In observing his behaviour I would say he is all three and one hell of a lot more, I’d say he is pathological and thoroughly manipulative, misguided, authoritarian, utterly unfit to govern or lead (lead us particularly) and that is just to start with. I also think he is corrupt and bought, puppet to someone, a cause or social conditioning – thus a product of.
I think we need to be careful how we throw around labels, and nationality is one. We don’t suddenly become someone else when we migrate or change a job, but we do join, we do commit t something new and it is up to us to contribute to those around us.
These two men did what they did not because they were Australian obviously! But not because they were Indian either, thought the father’s regional origin and history is worth bearing in mind, because he comes from a region of both serious religious and political unrest and conflict arguably related to his fundamental beliefs. So their reason for what they did is more likely their personality, conditioning, religion, fundamentalism and they chose to break our laws – so far from excusing them, they were tragically misguided, call it evil- criminal for that is what it was. This was clearly an antisemitic attack, but you cannot tell me in all honesty or that this had anything to do with being Australian or Indian, either or both, or that Australians are increasingly becoming antisemitic as cause or consequence, this act is no argument or evidence for this – But Minns thinks it is. The two are simply not connected in any logical or reasonable way.
So Minns and Netanyahu, Herzog and Zionists (who hold such radical beliefs) and the ZFA as an example of a dangerous political lobby acting on behalf of foreign interests, (with whom Minns closely identifies and associates at the expense of the people of NSW he represents), all who practice these convenient simplicities are playing with fire and I say it is deliberate – imposing their rule and beliefs on everyone else and to defend and justify their actions which are malicious and unjustifiable. Netanyahu and Herzog are in the game of genocide, the world’s greatest crime, little wonder they fry the airwaves with hate disguised in language and manipulation – they have money, power and influence and they throw their weight around for political favour, they have powerful connections and own some of the businesses and corporations to manipulate public opinion, our politicians and government, Minns is caught up in this web.
Minns is doing exactly the same twice over – first in supporting them in their cause, mission and by definition their methods and outcomes (the genocide, slaughter out of vengeance), and secondly by the social policies and hubris he forces onto us, the people of NSW.
Albanese should never have invited him – He has opened up a can of worms without thinking how to manage the evil political and social forces at play, the pathologies of individuals, and the social manipulation of organisations and institutions and foreign power, not least the media and politicians who rarely play fair, but are in the game to manipulate public opinion their way. It was huge misstep and look what has happened. This was deliberate and an exercise to teach all of us the power they can wield – an exercise of power and control – That in my book is darn right abuse of office, from both of them, but especially Minns.
So on your last two points I absolutely agree – What was Albo thinking! And Just what are Australian values? On the Minns matter – HE MUST GO, NOT NEXT ELECTION – HE MUST GO NOW, otherwise there is absolutely no purpose or point to our democracy and having a governor of NSW. Margaret Beazley are you getting this?
I don’t disagree with the thrust of your post, in fact I’d support most of it. But the simple fact is we don’t talk of Catholic Australians, or Anglican Australians do we?
The use of the term “Jewish Australians” creates division and division we don’t need.
Regarding “dual nationality””, I am totally opposed and have declared so many times, you, (in my view) cannot have allegiance to more than one nation. That is our countries greatest problem, those migrants who move to escape the problems of their homeland and bring their problems with them.
@jonangel
You are right we don’t talk of Anglican, Catholic, Muslim or Hindu Australians. So why do we permit and condone Jewish Australians, should it not be Israeli Australians, we are long past the historical term Jewish before 1948 where there was no Israeli homeland. By conflating religion with national origin or identity, we fall right into the lap of the Zionist lobby, who milk this to the level of gross foreign interference in our domestic affairs, and if we distinguish, clarify or god forbid critique or complain, we become antisemitic – so many labels they can hide behind, conflate and the political abuse we have to put up with from Israel that serves their purpose of unaccountable genocide and antisemitic cries.
Palestinians don’t go by their religion, they are Palestinian Australians, Lebanese… etc. Dual nationality is commonplace in Australia, we are a multinational, multicultural country – and another reason why I oppose antisemitic legislation, when antiracist is inordinately sufficient. We are conflating religion, nationality and ethnicity. Do we therefore need Islamophobic, anti-christian legislation – God I hope not.