There is some irony to the fact that 570 acres of what is today Bankstown, a suburb home to a large Muslim immigrant population, was first settled and owned by Esther Abrahams, a ‘stirring, industrious’ Jewish woman, who as a convict arrived in Australia on the First Fleet. Esther later married a man who was briefly Governor of NSW, George Johnston, and her descendants include Rear Admiral Sir David Martin, also a Governor.

As Jew-haters yet again seek to march in our streets, seek to defile our most iconic tourist spots and gleefully strike fear into the hearts of Jewish Australians, it is past time for well-meaning Australians of all ethnicities and walks of life to take a stand and insist that enough is enough. The idea that the current ‘protests’, ‘marches’, or ‘rallies’ (pick your preferred euphemism) are legitimate examples of ‘free speech’ and ‘freedom of expression’ is asinine. These are hate-marches, pure and simple.

To understand why, it is important to first understand the twin radical Islamist concepts of jihad and taqiyya. At it’s most basic, to the radical, jihad means an ongoing spiritual, cultural and/or physical struggle that must be waged against our Western way of life. And taqiyya is an obligation to ‘deceive’ in order to ‘gain the upper hand over an enemy’. The goal of both being, however fanciful, for the radical to help bring about a global ummah, ie. caliphate.

Within minutes of the 7 October, 2023 footage going online, celebrations were occurring in Sydney’s western suburbs, with one prominent community leader announcing he was ‘elated’ at the bloodshed. Less than 48 hours after the atrocities – of which the depravity was such that viewing the films of the massacres, rapes, beheadings, dismemberments and kidnappings, gleefully released by the perpetrators themselves, leaves the average person dry-retching and shell-shocked – activists appeared on the steps of the Sydney Opera House brandishing a plethora of Palestinian flags, Hamas slogans and other well-organised paraphernalia. At this point in time, not only had no retaliation from Israel occurred, the blood was barely dry on the cots and kitchen benches where the pogroms had occurred. With cries of ‘Where’s the Jews?’, ‘Kill the Jews’ and, allegedly, ‘Gas the Jews’ coming from these ‘protesters’, this was no ‘free speech’ rally of legitimate political import. Rather, this was unequivocally hateful incitement to – and celebration of – deadly violence directed squarely at intimidating Australian Jews. By the simple arithmetic that holds all successful communities together, ‘an attack on one is an attack on all’. This was not a ‘rally’ – it was a form of jihad.

Since then, fanatical individuals obsessed with a racist and supremacist ideology have inflicted all manner of jihadi-style symbols and cries on our major cities on a regular basis. Indeed, at many ‘rallies’ we hear the cry to ‘globalise the intifada’, another deceptive euphemism for violence, or the genocidal ‘from the river to the sea’. For this, nobody is ever punished or even apprehended. And other than a few mealy-mouthed platitudes about ‘combatting antisemitism’ (always coupled with ‘…and Islamophobia’) from our Labor leadership, there has been no serious attempt to alienate, isolate or degrade these aggressive and intimidating fringe radical groups. Rather, these activists have repeatedly been encouraged and emboldened by the Albanese government’s criticism of, and antipathy to, all things Israeli – and most recently by ‘recognition’ of the non-existent state of Palestine.

Then there’s taqiyya. There are many deceptions at play. The first massive deception is that these marches and rallies are only targeting the politics and government of Israel – and not targeting Jews. As stated above, the first marches took place before a single shot had been fired in Gaza, let alone any military action. Moreover, from the get-go leaders at these hate-marches advised their followers to only ever use the word ‘Zionist’ instead of the word ‘Jew’ (even in Arabic). Deception. To these activists, the words are interchangeable, proving that the primary target of all these ‘anti-Zionist’ marches is indeed Jews, not Israel or its leadership. No matter how much they protest to the contrary, the sad truth is that anyone who partakes in these hate-marches is either deliberately or inadvertently offering moral support and succour to those whose sole goal is the harassment, hatred, vilification, demonisation or dehumanising of Australian Jews. Similarly, authorities who permit these marches to take place in the name of ‘freedom of expression’ – despite the fact that these marches are clear intimidation by one group of Australians against another – have abrogated their sworn duty to protect and safeguard all Australians.

The second lie is that these marches are in support of a Palestinian state and an end to the war in Gaza. The Australian and other governments have already recognised a Palestinian state and the Trump administration is in the process of ending the conflict in Gaza. Therefore these activists should either be sitting happily at home or, if so keen to take to the streets, be out marching in favour of these initiatives.

The third great lie is that you cannot ban these marches without sacrificing our democratic freedoms. This is palpable nonsense. As Peter O’Brien points out this week, regardless of one’s view of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, it is Australian law and these marches clearly flout that law. At a huge cost to the public purse, these regular hate-marches across our capital cities have generated fear and loathing on our streets. No other communal discord in our migrant history has generated such deadly dangerous momentum. It is not democracy that is failing, it is failure to integrate and assimilate that is now threatening our democracy. If you deny one law-abiding cohort of our citizenry the freedom to enjoy daily life because of the threat of violence from another cohort, your ‘right to free speech’ is meaningless.