Waleed Aly has been accused of disgracefully excusing Australian protesters who waved the flags of proscribed terrorist group Hezbollah and paraded photos of its slain leader.
Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory was angry at comments by Aly on The Project in which he explained why protesters were not arrested or had their flags and photos taken.
The symbols were paraded last weekend in protests in Sydney and Melbourne against Israel‘s bombing campaign in Gaza and Lebanon which was sparked by the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The Project host said he was against Hezbollah but explained that the current act does not empower police to arrest or confiscate symbols unless they were being used for incitement or vilification.
‘I certainly don’t like it.’ Aly said. ‘I’ve got nothing good to say about Hezbollah.
‘The way the law is drafted, the offence isn’t merely holding up that symbol. That’s not all that is required for the offence, it’s necessary, but not all of it.’
The Australian Jewish Association CEO urged Aly to ‘reconsider his words carefully’ at a time when Australia’s social cohesion was being damaged by ‘ugly’ scenes at the rallies.
‘Waleed Aly should not be excusing the disgraceful behaviour we saw over the weekend,’ Mr Gregory told Daily Mail Australia.
Waleed Aly said the AFP was making a subtle legal point that protesters waving a Hezbollah flag was not in itself a criminal offence
The yellow and green flag of Hezbollah and photographs could also be seen being waved by the Melbourne protesters
‘Hezbollah is an evil terrorist organisation, responsible for the murder of thousands. It’s disgraceful that Waleed would equivocate.
‘As a public figure, and particularly someone from the Muslim community, Aly should be going out of his way to condemn, in the strongest possible words, any support for a terrorist organization on the streets of Australia.’
Mr Gregory claimed there was a policing double-standard between the hands-off approach at last weekend’s rallies and the aggressive shutdown of protesters during Covid-19 lockdowns.
‘The protests during Covid were dealt with very harshly and we’ve seen many other instances where protests have been dealt with much more harshly than has been with these anti-Jewish or anti-Israel protests,’ Mr Gregory said.
‘We’re very disappointed in the police. Since October 7 last year, they haven’t shown a strong willingness to prosecute these kinds of offenses,’ Mr Gregory said.
‘There is little point having anti-terror laws for terrorist groups if people are free to openly support those terrorist groups on the street.’
He added any non-citizen who openly support terrorist groups should be deported, while citizens should be prosecuted.
Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory slammed Aly for ‘excusing’ the protesters and claimed the TV host should have condemned those supporting terrorist groups
The Australian Federal Police said in a statement that merely holding the flag or a photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was not an offence in itself.
It only rises to the level of an offence if the symbols are used to spread ideas of racial superiority or hatred or were likely to offend, insult or intimidate a person for reasons such as race, religion or nationality.
Officers can direct people to take down the symbols but cannot remove them by force, although those who fail to comply face fines.
In NSW, protesters initially complied when asked to put away Hezbollah flags but many brought them out later, prompting police to seize at least two flags.
The Islamic Council of Victoria said only a small number of protesters had Hezbollah flags, saying focusing on that was a deliberate effort to distract from the main issue which was Israel’s bombing of Gaza and Lebanon.
‘It has been made clear that Hezbollah flags are not welcome and should not be brought,’ the group’s president Adel Salman said.
‘It’s a national disgrace that condemning a flag has become easier than confronting the brutal reality of a rogue state intent on annihilating an entire population.’
Political leaders have also expressed concern over the flames of social conflict being fanned by protest actions.
‘We do not 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 Affairs Minister Tony Burke warned non-citizens at the rallies who sought ‘to incite discord in Australia’ could have visas refused or revoked.