“Chris Minns needs to realise that criminalising protests or certain phrases won’t stop the Palestine solidarity movement from protesting a genocide”, Isaac Nellist said on February 4.
Minns has said he is “open” to designating the Domain a “protest precinct” because he objects to “weekly protests blocking the city’s streets”.
“Minns has a record of attacking people’s democratic right to free speech and right to protest,” Nellist said. “For a Labor premier, he is showing very little understanding of labour values.”
Nellist has been pre-selected to stand for Socialist Alliance in the Legislative Council for the NSW election in March next year. He is studying to become a primary school teacher and is active in housing and anti-poverty campaigns.
“Minns is weaponising the terrible Bondi killings to bring in new anti-protest laws,” Nellist said. “He is wrong to link the Palestine protests to the shocking terror attack, when the perpetrators are said to be linked to Islamic State — which has never supported Palestine.”
Minns has given the police commissioner the power to decide which protest can go ahead and said he will consider banning certain phrases for “social cohesion”. At the same time, he is welcoming Israeli President Isaac Herzog to NSW, despite the International Court of Justice using his comments for its genocide case.
“For the past two-and-a-half years, Minns has tried to stop protests opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Even the Supreme Court ruled he had overreached.”
Nellist has regularly taken part in the anti-genocide protests. “These have been very large and always peaceful. They show that hundreds of thousands of people across NSW see through the lies that standing up for Palestine is ‘antisemitic’.
“The huge turnout for Invasion Day was another slap in the face for Minns’ anti-protest agenda. People will not be told how to react to injustices.”
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