Two pro-Palestinian protesters have been charged with breaching Queensland’s controversial new hate speech laws, with one of them allegedly uttering the banned phrase “from the river to the sea”.
The arrests came at a small protest march that began outside the state parliament building on Wednesday, just hours after the new laws, passed by parliament last week, came into effect.
Under the law, a person can be sentenced to up to two years in prison for saying a prohibited phrase – including “from the river to the sea” and “globalizing the intifada” – if doing so constitutes a “threat, harassment or offense.”
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Liam Parry of the Students for Palestine group led the protest, where there was a large police presence including officers from the public safety response team.
“I’m not sure if everyone here (knows) the history of the different slogans that the government is trying to prohibit us from saying, so (in) the interest of education, I want to explain it to you,” he said at the protest.
He continued to deny that the phrase was terrorist or anti-Semitic, saying it was rather a call for the freedom and dignity of the people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
“So when we say, from the river to the sea, we are asking for the freedom of the people of Palestine,” he said.
He discouraged others from chanting the slogan.
Moments later, as protesters began to march, he was arrested.
Witnesses said a second person was later arrested at the end of the march to King George Square, who they described as wearing a T-shirt that said “from the river to the sea.”
Parry was released from the Brisbane guardhouse on Wednesday night.
A police spokesman said both protesters had been charged.
Parry was given a notice to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on April 8 for the offense of recital, distribution, publication or display of prohibited speech, the spokesperson said.
“Officers later arrested an 18-year-old woman in King George Square and are assisting police with their inquiries,” the spokesperson said.
“Investigations continue.”
