{"id":620422,"date":"2026-04-21T02:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620422\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:14:10","slug":"jewish-man-among-first-charged-in-pro-palestinian-slogan-crackdown-that-reminds-some-of-1970s-queensland-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620422\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish man among first charged in pro-Palestinian slogan crackdown that reminds some of 1970s Queensland | Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Heydt woke up on Saturday, put on a T-shirt, hobbled out the door with the aid of a walking stick and spoke at a rally in the middle of Brisbane<\/a> \u2013 where he was promptly arrested by a large and heavily armed contingent of police.<\/p>\n

For his choice of words and wardrobe, the 73-year-old Jewish clinical psychologist became one of the first people in Queensland<\/a> charged under new laws designed to crack down on antisemitic hate speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wearing a T-shirt which displayed the six-word phrase which I can\u2019t say, and I gave a speech using the six-word phrase which I can\u2019t say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost immediately I was arrested and charged with two offences: one for the shirt, one for the chanting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shirt read \u201cJews for a free Palestine<\/a> from the river to the sea\u201d.<\/p>\n

Heydt said he had the shirt printed in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to get anyone here [in Queensland] in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heydt was one of 22 people arrested at the weekend<\/a> for the display and reciting of one of two expressions frequently chanted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators that were prohibited under Queensland laws last month<\/a> \u2013 taking the overall total to 25. Police confiscated Heydt\u2019s shirt.<\/p>\n

Zac Karaniki (right) and William Sim (in white T-shirt) are arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest<\/p>\n

Also arrested was the Palestinian Australian student Zac Karaniki.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was one of those people holding up a banner that had one of the banned phrases on it,\u201d Karaniki said. \u201cA huge wave of cops descended on the protest \u2026 [I was] ripped away, put in a paddy wagon and held in a watch house for eight hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with the phrase \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d, \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d is now a \u201cproscribed phrase\u201d which \u2013 if said in a way that could cause \u201cmenace, harassment or offence\u201d \u2013 carries a maximum sentence of two years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The criminal lawyer Terry O\u2019Gorman<\/a> said the events of the weekend harken back to the dark days of police repression under the corrupt former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.<\/p>\n

A name synonymous with the fight for civil liberties in the sunshine state, O\u2019Gorman compared the laws to an amendment Bjelke-Petersen made to the traffic act in September 1977 that essentially suppressed the right to street protests. Mass arrests followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very reminiscent, it is a very similar scenario to what occurred in October 77,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first major freedom of speech, civil liberties or public rally issue [in Queensland] since.\u201d<\/p>\n

But speaking to the press on Sunday, the premier, David Crisafulli, said the laws were designed to strike a \u201cbalance\u201d that allowed protest but stamped out phrases that amounted to a call for genocide \u2013 and directly linked those words to the terror attack at Bondi.<\/p>\n

Heydt fled apartheid-era South Africa and has worked treating people with trauma and disability in Gaza and the West Bank through three Israeli wars in the 2000s.<\/p>\n

He has a very different interpretation of the phrase emblazoned upon his custom-made T-shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s [about] people\u2019s inalienable right to be free,\u201d he said of the phrase.<\/p>\n

The first speaker arrested at Saturday\u2019s rally, Edward Carroll, was also Jewish.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old transport worker, who is active within the pro-Palestine movement, said it was important to have \u201cJewish voices speaking on this issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian protesters march through Brisbane on Sunday. Photograph: Joe Hinchliffe\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause these laws have nothing to do with Jewish safety and everything to do with silencing dissent against the state of Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Their interpretation of those phrases, and the Queensland laws that ban them, though, are in stark contrast to many Jewish organisations in Australia.<\/p>\n

The Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president, Jason Steinberg, said the phrase was \u201cnot a peaceful slogan nor one shrouded in mystery\u201d but had been \u201cused by murderous terrorists since the 1960s\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrisbane should be a city of inclusion but there is no room on our streets for a terrorist slogan that calls for the annihilation of others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cQueensland\u2019s new laws are clear for all to see, and those who protested on the weekend understand the penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A huge wave of cops descended on the protest\u2019 \u2026 William Sim and Zac Karaniki who were arrested at the weekend<\/p>\n

William Sim is a student activist who was arrested along with Karaniki.<\/p>\n

A Mununjali man, Sim said he was willing to be arrested for a cause he said had parallels with that of Indigenous Australia.<\/p>\n

He said he planned to contest the charges laid against him \u201call the way\u201d.<\/p>\n

The activist group Justice for Palestine Magan-djin has said it would be coordinating a high court challenge to the laws, arguing it was invalid law under the Australian constitution.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Gorman said the activists would have a \u201cstrong case to argue\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cross-examined Joh at the Fitzgerald inquiry on the street march issue, and fundamentally put the proposition to him that it was all about politics,\u201d O\u2019Gorman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he eventually, after a lengthy cross-examination, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all about politics too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Heydt woke up on Saturday, put on a T-shirt, hobbled out the door with the aid of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-620422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}