Stephen Heydt, a 73-year-old Jewish clinical psychologist, was arrested at a Brisbane rally on Saturday after wearing a T-shirt and chanting a phrase banned under new Queensland laws targeting antisemitic hate speech. Heydt, who fled apartheid-era South Africa and has worked in Gaza, was charged with two offences: one for the shirt and one for the chanting. The shirt read 'Jews for a free Palestine from the river to the sea'.
Heydt was one of 22 people arrested over the weekend for displaying or reciting one of two prohibited expressions: 'from the river to the sea' and 'globalise the intifada'. The laws, enacted last month, carry a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment if the phrase is said in a way that could cause 'menace, harassment or offence'. Police confiscated Heydt's shirt.
Also arrested was Palestinian Australian student Zac Karaniki, who was holding a banner with a banned phrase. He was 'ripped away, put in a paddy wagon and held in a watch house for eight hours'. Criminal lawyer Terry O'Gorman compared the crackdown to police repression under former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen in the 1970s, saying it was 'very reminiscent' of mass arrests following a 1977 amendment to the traffic act that suppressed street protests.
Premier David Crisafulli defended the laws, stating they strike a 'balance' allowing protest while banning phrases that amount to a call for genocide, linking them to the Bondi terror attack. However, Heydt and other Jewish activists argue the phrase is about 'people's inalienable right to be free'. Edward Carroll, another Jewish protester arrested, said the laws 'have nothing to do with Jewish safety and everything to do with silencing dissent against the state of Israel'.
The Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president, Jason Steinberg, countered that the phrase is 'not a peaceful slogan' but has been 'used by murderous terrorists since the 1960s'. The activist group Justice for Palestine Magan-djin plans to challenge the laws in the High Court, arguing they are invalid under the Australian Constitution.
