Waleed Aly has backed protesters’ legal right to wave flags of a banned terrorist group and photographs of its slain leader, despite The Project host opposing their message.
Thousands of people marched over the weekend to protest the mass killing of civilians in Gaza and Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, with some waving the flag of Hezbollah – defined as a terrorist group by the Australian government – and its leader Hassan Nasrallah. , who was killed in a targeted Israeli strike. .
Tensions flared on The Project when co-host Steve Price asked Aly if a person should be allowed to carry the Hezbollah flag or a photo of its leader in Australia.
“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.
‘There also needs to be other elements, basically incitement and defamation. That’s where it gets complicated. That’s where I think the police investigation will take some time, because it won’t just be about whether you waved a banner.’
The Australian Federal Police said in a statement that simply holding the flag or a photograph of Nasrallah was not a crime in itself.
It only rises to the level of crime if the symbols are used to spread ideas of superiority or racial hatred or that could offend, insult or intimidate a person for reasons such as race, religion or nationality.
Waleed Aly has backed protesters’ legal right to wave flags of a banned terrorist group and photographs of its slain leader.
Tensions flared on The Project when co-host Steve Price asked Aly if a person should be allowed to carry the Hezbollah flag or a photo of its leader in Australia.
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.
Price said the law didn’t go far enough.
‘Today’s Australian public has a right to be very confused. “Nasrallah is a deadly terrorist,” Price said.
“He’s been responsible for some horrible terrorist attacks, murders of Americans and all kinds of people, and yet you can walk down the street with a framed photograph of him after Israel eliminated him.”
He said there was a police double standard between the hands-off approach to protesters at the weekend and the aggressive shutdown of even peaceful protests against Covid-19 lockdowns.
“(In) the Covid protests, people protesting being locked in their homes were shot with rubber bullets and arrested and dragged down the street,” Price said.
However, Aly dismissed the comparison as an “apples and oranges argument” as holding a protest during the lockdown was a crime in itself as mass gatherings were banned at the time.
“It’s such an exceptional circumstance that I think trying to draw the line is crazy,” Aly said.
Melbourne protesters were seen holding up framed photographs of recently assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Melbourne protesters also waved Hezbollah’s yellow and green flag.
A spokesman for Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said the AFP had confirmed they were investigating a series of breaches, believed to number six.
Australian Jewry Executive Council co-leader Alex Ryvchin called it “disgusting to see other Australians on our streets mourning the death of this terrorist kingpin.”
The protests went beyond concerns about the loss of life and the future of Lebanon and turned toward “active, open and targeted support for Hezbollah” against which police needed to take action, Ryvchin said Monday.
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.