Recent events in Australia have exposed how closely the struggle for Palestinian liberation is bound up with the defence of democratic rights at home.

When the Albanese government invited the President of Israel Isaac Herzog to Australia, protests against the visit and the genocidal war that Herzog has helped orchestrate were restricted and protesters brutalised. Students, workers, activists and writers face discipline from all of our institutions for taking a stand against Israel’s war and in support of a free Palestine. Slogans like “From the River to the Sea” are being blacklisted and censored. The Royal Commission and various other enquiries and new restrictions represent the attempts of our ruling class to shut down the Palestinian solidarity movement and to establish new authoritarian norms throughout society. 

We must resist this and we know that we can. Efforts to silence the movement failed when thousands rallied, marched and organised against the Herzog visit, insisting that opposition to occupation and war cannot be legislated out of existence. We need to draw on past campaigns to defend our civil liberties and democratic rights and to continue to strengthen and deepen the Palestine solidarity movement. Join us for this essential panel, featuring key figures in the fight against modern McCarthyism and for a free Palestine.