It's absurd. Like the British guy arrested for wearing a "Plasticine Action" tshirt.
Just because something is illegal, doesn’t make it wrong and just because something is legal, doesn’t make it right. We need more illegal action against those who oppress legally.
Best example: the holocaust was legal, hiding Jews to save their lives was illegal.
Again, why does any country who is not Israel care at all about this? Does Australia have a military base there?
The Coalition were all about free speech when Andrew Bolt published a series of articles explicitly attacking and trying to humiliate named Aboriginal people on the basis of (what he decided was) their race. They tried to weaken the racial discrimination act. Brandis even said Australians have "a right to be bigots" - this was only 12 years ago. The double standard is breathtaking.
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Calling for the destruction of a nation - be it Palestine or Israel - is calling for genocide.
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It should be legal to call for genocide.
1.5 "from the river to the sea" is not a slogan calling for the destruction of Israel.
By defining the geographic scope of a future Palestinian state as the entire territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the slogan encompasses the land where Israel currently exists. To remove all doubt about the context, remember that it has been widely used by groups like Hamas - whose founding charter explicitly calls for the elimination of Israel.
I'm sure there are people who use this phrase now and do not wish to destroy Israel. Just like there are people who use phrases like "all lives matter" and genuinely want racial equality. Unfortunately the terms are hard to disambiguate from the people chanting them.
Either way, we won't settle this argument now, and we don't have to. I simply do not wish to see people imprisoned for saying offensive things. That seems like an important pillar of democracy to me. I uphold the rights of people to say offensive things especially when I disagree with them. Free speech means nothing unless we're doing it when it's really hard.
If your interpretation of "Palestine will be free" somehow includes killing people because they're Jewish, then you're telling on yourself.
It's really simple, and didn't require a text wall to explain.
Additionally, genocidal speech is a crime, or evidence thereof at least, and rightly so.
“Palestine will be free”
This is not part of the original call to action. That is a modern addition used very selectively. It is frequently omitted, as we see on the t-shirt on the activist in the article. Selectively adding a nice phrase on the end of a very bad phrase doesn't erase the original meaning, intent, and history of the phrase.
Please also note that I did not suggest that the slogan is a call to kill all Jews. The slogan is a call to destroy Israel. Those are not mutually inclusive. Palestinian activists argue that when right wing Israelis call for the destruction of Palestine, that does constitute intent to commit genocide, and I agree. So I don't have much tolerance for hypocrisy on this. I find the call to destroy any nation - be it Israel or Palestine - to be incredibly immoral.
It 100% is, and pretending it isn’t just makes it worse.
What a silly thing to say. Here are a few examples of actual genocidal language:
Galit Distel Atbaryan (Likud MK, former Public Diplomacy Minister): Called for "erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth" and described the enclave as needing to be "wiped out".
Amit Halevi (Likud MK): Stated that the goal of the war is that there is "no more Muslim land in the land of Israel" and suggested leaving Gaza as a "monument, like Sodom".
Nissim Vaturi (Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Likud): Stated in February 2025 that "all adults in Gaza should be killed" and that "the children and women need to be separated and the adults in Gaza eliminated".
Boaz Bismuth (Likud MK): Invoked the biblical reference to "erase the memory of Amalek," a phrase frequently interpreted as a call for the total destruction of an enemy, similar to references made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ariel Kallner (Likud MK): Urged a "Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of '48," referencing the 1948 forced displacement of Palestinians.
Tally Gotliv (Likud MK): Demanded "crushing and flattening Gaza without mercy". Hnoch Milwidsky (Likud MK): In a 2026 report, was cited as having stated during a debate that "it is legitimate" for soldiers to rape Palestinians.
"from the river to the sea" means to eliminate Israel. This isn't debatable. It's genocidal.
Cool ass lady

Are we ok with this people?
Obviously, assuming this is the whole story, no. Are there any planned protests? Is there an open donation box for this person's legal fees open? Is there any other way in which the average person can help?
I'm getting sick of rhetorical questions about tyrannical governments, without any effort made to show people what they realistically can do to help.
Is there an open donation box for this person’s legal fees open?
Just had a look and found this one: https://chuffed.org/project/173177-justice-for-palestine-legal-defence
Are there any planned protests?
Justice for Palestine Magan-Djin (indigenous name for Brisbane) has announced a 'weekend of action' against the laws on the 18th-19th of April: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVvfrhOk20n/
yes, "we" are. How do we know this, look at election results.

You know, in the UAE, they have freedom of speech enshrined in their laws, too...
Are you implying that Australia has freedom of speech enshrined in our laws? Please could you point me to them?
What a fucking legend.
I got down voted last time for pointing out that "between the river and the sea" was the motto of the town of mosman park
Does Australia not have freeze peach laws in general? Asking as an ignorant Yank.
No, we don’t. In fact our leftist government is currently adding more and more authoritarian censorship and speech-restricting laws seemingly every month these days.
You can now be jailed for saying something that might offend a certain subset of people even if no one actually was offended. Let that sink in.
Its a very recent addition that creates some exceptions to australian free speech protections under the guise of combatting anti-semitism. Basically just the Israel lobby getting their personal laws.
Australia's constitution has been interpreted by our High Court to contain an implied right to freedom of political communication. Restrictions on that right may be constitutional if they are (1) for a valid purpose and are (2) narrowly targeted towards that purpose.
The law she was arrested under was only passed by the Queensland state Parliament earlier this week (or late last week? I forget). It is definitely going to face constitutional challenge, and there is a very good chance it is ruled struck down. This is because the law literally outlaws two specific phrases from one side of a political issue, and is likely to be seen as stifling free flow of political discourse, rather than being a more "content-neutral" law.
This article, written by a constitutional scholar, gives some great insight: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/08/the-lnps-phrase-banning-law-is-wide-open-to-constitutional-attack-is-it-a-victory-for-the-people-or-a-smart-political-play
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