{"id":13905,"date":"2026-01-20T05:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T05:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13905"},"modified":"2026-01-20T05:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T05:54:13","slug":"nsw-inquiry-chair-says-globalise-the-intifada-should-be-banned-while-jewish-groups-want-other-phrases-prohibited-new-south-wales-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13905","title":{"rendered":"NSW inquiry chair says \u2018globalise the intifada\u2019 should be banned while Jewish groups want other phrases prohibited | New South Wales politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The chair of a New South Wales inquiry investigating whether to criminalise the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d says his draft report will recommend the controversial slogan be banned, as leading Jewish groups also demand \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d and \u201cdeath to the IDF\u201d be prohibited.<\/p>\n

Labor MP Edmond Atalla said the state parliamentary inquiry into \u201cmeasures to prohibit slogans that incite hatred\u201d would not publish individual submissions. The inquiry closed to public submissions<\/a> last week and will not hold any public hearings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NSW opposition has accused the government of holding a \u201crushed\u201d inquiry without public transparency after the Bondi beach terror attack in mid-December.<\/p>\n

The law and safety committee was asked to review hate speech with a specific requirement to consider the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Intifada, an Arabic word for uprising or \u201cshaking off\u201d, is used by pro-Palestine supporters in reference to uprisings against Israel in 1987 and 2000. Members of the Jewish community have said it is a call to violence against Jews.<\/p>\n

Atalla said his personal view was that banning the phrase was \u201cnot unreasonable\u201d. He said as chair he would recommend the phrase be proscribed in his draft report.<\/p>\n

The Labor-majority committee could then decide whether to amend the report before it was tabled at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI speak Arabic and I know exactly what the word [intifada] means and its historical significance,\u201d Atalla, who was born to Coptic Christian parents of Egyptian heritage, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt in my mind that the Bondi massacre was an act of intifada \u2026 by two [alleged] terrorists against the Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atalla told Guardian Australia only expert and organisational submissions would be published on the committee\u2019s website. About 150<\/a> submissions have been uploaded to date, with six marked confidential and inaccessible.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, in its submission, recommended a new hate speech offence be created for phrases including \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d, \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d and \u201cdeath to the IDF\u201d. The board said the phrases were \u201cso inherently hateful in that they call for violence, ethnic cleansing or death\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) endorsed the board\u2019s recommendation, which would allow a defendant to argue that they had a \u201creasonable excuse\u201d for using or displaying a \u201chateful phrase\u201d.<\/p>\n

The University of Sydney constitutional law expert, Prof Anne Twomey, said the proposal to ban particular political chants gave rise to \u201cdifficult legal issues in areas of the jurisprudence which have not yet been fully developed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Twomey advised the NSW government to stick with \u201ccontent-neutral laws that are closely tied to preventing particular, serious harm to the community\u201d.<\/p>\n

In its submission, the Palestine Action Group said it had not led the chant \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d at rallies organised after October 2023. The group rejected \u201cthe suggestion that this chant, or any associated chant, is threatening in any way\u201d.<\/p>\n

The progressive Jewish Council of Australia said the term \u201cintifada\u201d had been \u201cassociated with violent actions in some historical contexts\u201d, but this was \u201cone interpretation of the term, not its inherent or exclusive meaning\u201d. It said the phrase \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d was \u201calso often erroneously invoked as hateful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Atalla said individual submissions included many \u201cpro forma\u201d responses. Asked if these were mostly against banning the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d he said \u201ca lot of the individual submissions that I\u2019ve mentioned are opposed to banning any form of slogans\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The NSW opposition\u2019s legal affairs spokesperson, Damien Tudehope, told the ABC last week the inquiry \u201cruns the risk of being a law-making exercise\u201d, and that he had \u201cgrave doubts\u201d about the government\u2019s ability to outlaw the phrase without a constitutional challenge.<\/p>\n

Tudehope told Guardian Australia that Atalla\u2019s comments suggested the inquiry had a \u201cpredetermined outcome\u201d. He called for all submissions to be published and for Labor to engage in \u201ca genuine process of well-thought-out reform\u201d.<\/p>\n

Atalla denied the committee had already formed a view, stating that proscribing \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d was \u201cmy position, not the committee\u2019s position\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will put that position to that committee and it\u2019s then up to the committee to accept that position or have a different position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Australian National Imams Council, in its submission, argued measures to ban specific phrases would disproportionately affect Arab and Muslim Australians, and that the word intifada had different meanings in different contexts.<\/p>\n

Atalla said: \u201cI don\u2019t accept that this affects the Islamic community, because \u2018globalise the intifada\u2019 is a direct attack on the Jewish community. It\u2019s not an attack on the Islamic community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The committee comprises four Labor members, two crossbenchers and one National MP. It is expected to hand a final report to the government by 31 January in time for legislation to be voted on when parliament returns in February.<\/p>\n

The NSW premier, Chris Minns<\/a>, has repeatedly called for the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d to be banned after the Bondi beach attack.<\/p>\n

The state Greens justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, who made a submission to the inquiry, said international legal precedent showed that pro-Palestine phrases were not \u201cinherently antisemitic\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf government MPs on this committee bothered to have a single public hearing, any constitutional lawyer would tell them their quest to outlaw political slogans will fall down in the courts and act as a shameless political distraction from evidence-based solutions to tackle antisemitism and racism at its root,\u201d Higginson said.<\/p>\n