Sydney’s lord mayor has banned a pro-Palestine meeting from being held in a council building, saying the decision came after “a persistent media campaign by the Murdoch press against this event”.
The Stop The War On Palestine group had planned to hold a “globalise the intifada” forum at the East Sydney Community Arts Centre on Tuesday night.
But Clover Moore said on Monday night that she had asked the city’s chief executive to block the booking because public events must not “contribute to hostility and fear”.
“This evening I asked the city’s CEO to withdraw the booking of an event in a city-owned venue advertised as: ‘Why it is right to globalise the Intifada’,” she posted on Facebook.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailShe said she had “long supported the principles of peaceful assembly, protest and freedom of speech” but those rights “must be balanced with a responsibility to ensure public safety and respect for all members of our diverse community”.
Moore took a swipe at the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers, which she said had campaigned against the event in coverage that had “exploited trauma, painting complex issues in black and white and, in bad faith, demanded our communities take sides”.
She wrote on Facebook: “Some in the media have conflated any protest against Israel’s war with antisemitism. This is an insidious and divisive false dichotomy. Protesting the war is legitimate, and in no way affects my deep sympathy, solidarity and concern for Jewish communities.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said in a statement: “It should not have required a public campaign, weeks of commentary and approaches to the lord mayor by the daughter of a murdered Bondi hero for this to happen.”
“There is a royal commission happening now, and it should investigate what on earth is going on in local government,” Ryvchin said.
The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies said on Monday night that it was relieved about the council’s decision.
“We have been engaging intensively with the council to explain why this event would endanger public safety and grievously undermine social cohesion.
“It is entirely appropriate that the City of Sydney council has refused to provide a venue for such an event.”
Stop The War On Palestine said in an Instagram post: “Venue cancelled but forum going ahead.” The group said the meeting would instead be held at Charles Kernan Reserve in Darlington.
The organisers wrote: “We reject the implication from Clover Moore that our meeting risks public safety and respect for members of the community.”
“It is the Murdoch media that has been spreading fear and lies about the forum and about the slogan ‘globalise the intifada’,” they said.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said on Tuesday he thought Moore had “made the right call”.
Minns, who recently walked back his pledge to ban the contested phrase “globalise the intifada”, said: “I’ve made it really clear … that phraseology is antithetical to the kind of community that we want to live in.”
The state opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, said the Coalition would introduce legislation to parliament to prohibit the use of council-controlled land or facilities “by any person reasonably suspected of being likely to engage in antisemitic activities”.
Minns subsequently said he had not seen the details of the opposition’s proposal, but the government did not have the resources to police 128 councils.
A spokesperson for News Corp Australia said: “Our mastheads will continue to be a guiding light in condemning the antisemitic blight that threatens to cripple our society.”
The first day of the antisemitism royal commission on Monday heard from victims of the Bondi beach terror attack in December, when 15 people were shot and killed during Hanukah celebrations.
