Waleed Aly has been accused of shamefully making excuses for Australian protesters who waved flags of the banned terrorist group Hezbollah and displayed photographs of their slain leader.
Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory was angered by Aly’s comments on The Project explaining why protesters were not arrested or had their photos and flags taken.
The symbols were paraded last weekend at protests in Sydney and Melbourne against Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza and Lebanon, sparked by the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The Project host said he was against Hezbollah, but explained that current law does not empower police to arrest or confiscate symbols unless they are used for incitement or defamation.
“I certainly don’t like it.” Aly said. ‘I have nothing good to say about Hezbollah.
‘The way the law is written, the crime is not simply displaying that symbol. That is not all that is required to commit the crime, it is necessary, but not all.’
The chief executive of the Australian Jewish Association urged Aly to “carefully reconsider his words” at a time when Australia’s social cohesion was being damaged by “ugly” scenes at protests.
“Waleed Aly should not excuse the disgraceful behavior we saw over the weekend,” Gregory told Daily Mail Australia.
Waleed Aly said the AFP was making a subtle legal argument that protesters waving a Hezbollah flag was not in itself a criminal offence.
Melbourne protesters could also see Hezbollah’s yellow and green flag and photographs waving.
‘Hezbollah is an evil terrorist organization, responsible for the murder of thousands of people. It is shameful that Waleed is wrong.
“As a public figure, and particularly as someone from the Muslim community, Aly should do everything possible to condemn, in the strongest possible words, any support for a terrorist organization on the streets of Australia.”
Mr. Gregory He claimed there was a police double standard between the hands-off approach at last weekend’s demonstrations and the aggressive closure of protesters during Covid-19 lockdowns.
“Protests during Covid were treated very harshly and we have seen many other cases where protests have been treated much more harshly than these anti-Jewish or anti-Israel protests,” Gregory said.
‘We are very disappointed in the police. Since October 7 last year, they have not shown a strong will to prosecute these types of crimes,” Mr Gregory said.
“There is little point in having anti-terror laws for terrorist groups if people are free to openly support those terrorist groups on the street.”
He added that any non-citizens who openly support terrorist groups should be deported, while citizens should be prosecuted.
Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory criticized Aly for “excusing” protesters and said the TV presenter should have condemned those who support terrorist groups.
The Australian Federal Police said in a statement that simply holding the flag or a photograph of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was not a crime in itself.
It only rises to the level of a crime if the symbols are used to spread ideas of superiority or racial hatred or if they could offend, insult or intimidate a person for reasons such as race, religion or nationality.
Officers can order people to remove the symbols, but cannot forcibly remove them, although those who do not comply face fines.
In New South Wales, protesters initially complied when asked to remove Hezbollah flags, but many later removed them, leading police to confiscate at least two flags.
The Islamic Council of Victoria said only a small number of protesters were carrying Hezbollah flags and that focusing on them was a deliberate effort to distract from the main issue of the Israeli bombing of Gaza and Lebanon.
“It has been made clear that Hezbollah flags are not welcome and should not be brought,” said the group’s president, Adel Salman.
“It is a national shame that condemning a flag has become easier than facing the brutal reality of a rogue state trying to annihilate an entire population.”
Political leaders have also expressed concern about the flames of social conflict being fanned by protest actions.
“We don’t want people to bring radical ideologies and conflict here; our multiculturalism and social cohesion cannot be taken for granted,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said ahead of a cabinet meeting in Canberra on Monday.
Home Secretary Tony Burke warned that non-citizens at protests who tried to “incite discord in Australia” could have their visas denied or revoked.