Comment on Greens senator defects to Labor
Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 days agoNot a good look harassing jews outside a pub (with of course Jonathon Sri in tow) recently
You seriously gonna take the word of a Courier Mail hit piece supported by our pro-genocide Lord Mayor? Why not take it from the mouths of the people who were there: facebook.com/…/pfbid0367K3jZ7w3BskcQP3zpbFR4uKT8w…
The protest was not “harassing jews”, it was a peaceful protest against an explicitly zionist organisation, organised by workers at the venue that had hired itself out to these genociders.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Nah the comment I linked to was a person who was there:
Not really. These protesters were out of control.
Five members of my family were dropped off by a taxi next to this protest to go to a nearby restaurant and were immediately set upon by a few members of the protest group.
My family members included an elderly couple, a middle aged couple, and a teenage son.
First the protestors demanded to know if they were attending the Wickham event, and they replied “no, please leave us alone.” (I mean come on, an elderly couple going to a dance event, c’mon).
But the protest group kept following them and harassing them all the way to the Japanese restaurant they were eating dinner at.
For the record, our family is generally left leaning, and has no ties whatsoever to either the Jewish or Islamic communities. They were simply passing by.
They’re all very shaken up by it even a few days later.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Full text of Sriranganathan's post
Watching the mainstream media and the Liberal National Party constructing alternate realities is fascinating but also kinda scary. The mayor has been defaming me on his public social media channels, but he’s previously blocked my account so I can’t even respond to the misinformation. For those who missed it, there was a peaceful protest outside the Wickham Hotel on Saturday night after a bunch of hospo workers refused to work at a social event organised by the State Zionist Council of Queensland. The Zionist Council is a political group which supports forcibly removing Palestinians from their land (often referred to as ‘ethnic cleansing’) and annexing the rest of Palestine into the Israeli nation-state. I was present for most of the protest on Saturday (I left about 15 minutes before it ended). It largely consisted of people standing on the footpaths outside the Wickham, chanting slogans about freeing Palestine and rising up against oppression etc. Some media reports suggested there were 150 people participating in the protest. Personally I reckon there would’ve been 70 or 80 at absolute maximum. Usually the mainstream media grossly underestimates the number of people attending pro-Palestine protests, so it’s funny that in this case they’ve significantly exaggerated the turnout. Let’s look at some of the claims made by the Courier Mail and other conservative media outlets like 4BC radio: - protesters ‘surrounded’ the building – this is false - protesters blocked entrances/exits to the Wickham Hotel – this is also false (I think reasonable people could argue that it WOULD have been ethically justifiable to block entrances to prevent the Zionist event from happening, but that’s not what happened here in the real world) - protesters “stormed the venue” – utter bullshit - protesters ‘hurled objects’ at attendees – I didn’t see anyone throwing anything at Zionists, and people on the megaphone were repeatedly emphasising the importance of keeping the protest peaceful. It’s worth noting that several police were present at the main entrance and would almost certainly have arrested a protester if they’d thrown something. Channel 7 had a cameraman onsite and lots of other people were filming too. If a protester had thrown something at another person, there’s a very high chance it would’ve been filmed, and there probably would’ve been arrests. I’m gonna treat this claim as false too until someone shows me footage to the contrary. So what we have here is a noisy but strictly non-violent footpath protest, that didn’t block roads, driveways or building entrances, during which even the Queensland Police (who love creating bullshit excuses for arresting activists) couldn’t find ANY examples of assault, hate speech, trespass or anything else for which they might justify arresting someone. And yet, if you read the Courier Mail or listen to 4BC radio shock-jocks, you’d be led to believe that a violent anti-Semitic mob attacked a Jewish religious festival. We’ve all seen media beat-ups before. But in this case the chasm between reality and how the media are describing it is breathtakingly wide. I should note that a few commenters have suggested that even though Israel’s genocidal invasion and occupation of Palestine is worthy of condemnation, it’s wrong to protest outside a social event that’s held to coincide with a religious festival. This line of argument falls into the same trap of conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Remember: this event was organised by a political advocacy group in a bar/nightclub. It’s in no way equivalent to a religious ceremony at a church/temple/mosque. If the Minerals Council of Australia (a political lobby group that advocates for the interests of mining billionaires) held a Christmas Party at the Wickham Hotel, I would protest that too. The fact that the party was connected to a religious event – Christmas – doesn’t mean that protesting outside would be equivalent to spreading hatred against Christians. Political groups that wield significant power in society while advocating harmful and destructive policies don’t get to claim immunity from protest just because their social events double up as religious festivities. I know different people have different definitions of what the word ‘Zionism’ means to them, but as far as I know, the State Zionist Council of Queensland is still actively supporting the Israeli regime and advocating for more Australian government support for Israel’s invasion of Palestine. Until the Zionist Council publicly condemns the brutal murders of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, I will feel very comfortable supporting peaceful protests against such an organisation. I’ll end with a quote from a Jewish-Australian woman, Robin, who was present outside the Wickham Hotel on Saturday night in support of the workers protesting against the event. “Shame Courier Mail! Disgraceful so-called journalism. I was there - on the outside - and I am Jewish. It was a Zionist event - not a Jewish one. It was literally the Zionist Council of Queensland. We don’t know the ethnicity or religion of the people who attended - only that they are Zionists- which is a political ideology. Many Zionists are not Jewish. And many Jewish people - like me - oppose Zionism. No-one on the outside said anything about Jewish people. And no-one stormed the place. The Courier Mail has “limited” who can comment on this story but we need to call out their conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and their referring to Zionists as Jews. Stop the genocide. Free Palestine!”
He also live-streamed a video of it while he was there. You can see they’re being particularly non-disruptive. I’m not particularly inclined to trust the word of anonymous strangers, especially when directed towards criticising anti-genocide groups and Sriranganathan: both groups I know tend to attract unfair outsized criticism. And especially with a claim like
This just reeks of pearl clutching.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 4 days ago
It’s interesting that I can’t find a single video on youtube of what was happening there so I’ll stay quiet for now :P
Ilandar@lemm.ee 4 days ago
The story in that comment does sound consistent with behaviour at similar rallies, though. When there was that protest outside the Melbourne military expo last year, random people just walking past were being assaulted because they looked like attendees (committed the crime of wearing a suit). It’s also worth noting that nothing in that linked Facebook statement actually disproves the anecdote you shared:
Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Here’s a news article that does a better job of representing the event than Courier Fail.
If you can find a way to access it, here’s the video. It’s honestly a shame to me that Sriranganathan continues to almost exclusively use Meta social media properties. As a politician I get that he needs to be where the people are, but as an anarchist you’d think he’d at least try to be promoting federated social media. But unfortunately as it stands, to be involved in political activism in Australia requires being on Facebook.