Letter
Erasing our rights
It’s bad enough that we have an antisemitism envoy at all when the nation made clear it didn’t want a “divisive” Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Envoy Segal’s proposed measures to deal with antisemitism should be dismissed from the start, based as they are on the IHRA definition of same. It is appalling that our government and universities have adopted that definition.
That definition robs us of our rights to free speech and protest about actions of Israel and its government. No nation is immune to criticism. Israel is not an exception and it is not antisemitic to say, in current circumstances, that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine. If it became a crime to say so and jail were the punishment, we would have to provide accommodation for many thousands of Australians.
Antisemitism laws should never be adopted for a particular group. Such laws should be generic, covering all races, creeds, nations, etc, with examples from specific groups only as appropriate.
It will be interesting to read the anti-islamophobia envoy’s forthcoming recommendations to see if he will also advocate suspension of our basic rights. Or will Mr Malik be looking at fostering the rights of ‘all’ of us?
— Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122