No evidence of antisemitic 'gas' chant at pro-Palestinian Sydney protest, police find

Deceptichum@kbin.social to World News@lemmy.world – 181 points – No evidence of antisemitic 'gas' chant at pro-Palestinian Sydney protest, police find
sbs.com.au

Edited footage of protesters chanting "gas the Jews" at a rally outside the Sydney Opera House in October was shared on social media, but NSW Police said an extensive investigation found no evidence of it happening.

36

You are viewing a single comment
View all commentsShow the parent comment

You're grasping at straws, you clearly didn't read the article (and don't want to), so I quote the relevant passage for you as you seem to only have read the headline:

When asked whether there was evidence of other antisemitic phrases being used at the rally, Lanyon said “certainly”.

That + repeating "where's the Jews" during a rally immediately 2 days after Hamas' killings and mass rapes on October 7th is definitely indefensible and certainly is incompatible with how you want it to be interpreted.

You hoped that this article would be a gotcha moment but you seem to not have read anything beyond the headline, because the article is actually still pretty damning.

Mate, I know what happens in my country.

Hundreds of Australians have marched in solidarity with Palestinians after the Israeli government formally declared war against Hamas in response to its surprise attack.

https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/09/pro-palestinian-rally-in-sydney-calls-for-australia-to-drop-support-for-israel

These were nationwide protests against Israel’s oppression. And they were justified, everything everyone said would happen has happened.

The reason “Gas the Jews” was lied about was because it would provide legal recourse to arrest those protesting. It was a deliberate attempt to abuse the justice system to silence victims. This lie led to further protests being cancelled and was spread worldwide to create a narrative that Palestians wanted all Jewish people dead.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/12/13/viral-footage-gas-the-jews-police-factcheckers-unverified/

Soon after the protest, organiser Fahad Ali posted on X that he had heard “anti-Semitic chants from a group of idiots who were in a minority”, and who he asked to leave. A further post from the organiser Palestine Action Group’s Facebook page also acknowledged that a “group of young boys, mostly in their teens chant[ed] ‘fuck the Jews’ “.

Ali confirmed to Crikey this week that he heard the other chant but did not hear “gas the Jews”, nor had he seen any evidence it was chanted.

As for your “well there was other antisemitic remarks made” argument.

There is no defence for editing video footage with faked audio and using that to influence political decisions to further oppress an oppressed people.

The reason “Gas the Jews” was lied about was because it would provide legal recourse to arrest those protesting. It was a deliberate attempt to abuse the justice system to silence victims.

But the article says it was used to change the hate crime laws. That makes it sound like it wasn't covered by laws at the time this allegedly happened.

1 more...