Radio host Neil Mitchell has criticised yesterday’s Palestine rally in Melbourne’s CBD, condemning organisers for encouraging schoolchildren to “support genocide” and Hamas, a group that is widely accepted as a terrorist organisation.
Speaking on Friday, Mitchell called for more caution when it comes to political protests, warning those who believe they have good intentions to thoroughly think through what they are supporting.
He referenced one moment in the protest outside Flinders Street Station where people at the rally were chanting “from the river to the sea”.
“‘From the river to the sea’. They don’t get it. Similar euphemisms necessarily imply genocide,” Mitchell said on 3AW.
“Those kids were chanting for genocide.”
Mitchell called on an interview one 16-year-old gave to The Australian, where they claimed “Hamas are doing a good job” and that they “don’t think Israel should exist”.
“Others have been quotes justifying the October 7 attacks. You could say it is the naivety of youth, but they are the words of hatred,” Mitchell continued.
“This isn’t a political debate. This is hatred. It is justifying what this country has classified as a terrorist organisation. It is chanting in support of genocide.
“These kids may well be of Palestinian background, (bit it) doesn’t excuse it. They’re putting themselves out there as legitimate protesters and deserve to be called out.
“Imagine this child going back to school after saying ‘Hamas are doing a good job’, sitting next to Jewish kids, having said the massacre of Jews is a good thing.
“Someone is winding them up. Somebody is feeding them this nonsense, and I suspect it is the left and the university groups. I saw Socialist Alliance had a little bench set up there yesterday.”
Mitchell went on to say “nobody in this country should stand with Hamas, regardless of their views on a two-state solution”.
“Hamas is dedicated to the extermination of Jews around the world. That’s the danger here,” he continued.
“Schools should be talking to the kids that attended and try to explain to them what genocide really is, what terrorism really is.
“Nobody should ever justify the sort of terrorism seen from Hamas, even a 16-year-old kid.”
Mitchell went on to criticise Israel’s heavy-handed retaliation which has now cost over 10,000 lives in Gaza.
“Israel’s response has been horrific,” he said. “But they’re fighting an enemy dedicated to their extermination. I’d love to see an option, but what is it?
“Perhaps that is all to hard for a 16-year-old, but somebody needs to explain a simple point. If you support Hamas, and you say they’re doing a good job, you are supporting butchery, advocacy for genocide and terrorism.”
Similar claims have been made about pro-Palestine demonstrations in the US, prompting action from the Anti-Defamation League.
“Students @uofpenn gathered chanting ‘We want Jewish genocide’, ‘there is only 1 solution’ in reference to the Nazis ‘final solution’,” wrote an Instagram user who shared the clip in a post.
“There has possibly never ever been a more dangerous time to be a Jewish student as Antisemitism continues to grow as a disease.”
The protestors at the rally in question at Penn State are actually chanting, “Israel, Israel, you can’t hide: We charge you with genocide,” the Anti-Defamation League, which frequently speaks out against anti-Semitism and extremism, confirmed in an email to the Associated Press.
Penn Students Against the Occupation, which organised the Penn rally, dismissed the claims as “blatant disinformation” in a statement posted on Instagram.
“PAO would like to explicitly state that this claim is false and did not happen whatsoever,” the group wrote, noting that it was just one of many chants during the demonstration.
“PAO unequivocally stands with Palestine in the face of ongoing genocide committed by the Israeli government, which has been assisted by other Western allies like the United States.”
The Melbourne rally began on the steps of Flinders Street Station and made its way through the Melbourne CBD on Thursday.
“We have come out today, people have left school en masse, to say that business as usual can’t continue when Palestinians are being slaughtered in their thousands,” one protester with a megaphone announced to the crowd.
“We know that a truce or a temporary pause to this atrocity is not enough.
“We’re not fighting so there can be six hours in a day where Palestinians cannot be murdered. We are fighting so that there is never another Palestinian killed ever, ever again.”
After a social media post from Free Palestine Melbourne invited students to walk out of school to join the rally, prominent members of the local Jewish community demanded the Victorian government put a stop to it.
The community feared the protest would inflame anti-Semitic sentiment. And it felt the youngsters taking part would have a naive view of the conflict in Gaza.
“Most students in Victorian schools will not have a direct connection or a comprehensive (if any) understanding of the attacks on Israel and war in Gaza,” an open letter to the Victorian government read.
One of the thousands of petitioners who signed the letter asked parents to think of the dangers before supporting their children’s decision to protest.
Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip without subjecting itself to elections for almost two decades, is designated a terrorist organisation by most of the Western world, including the US, UK and Australia.
The current war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, murdering more than a thousand people – overwhelmingly civilians – and abducting hundreds more.
Negotiations to secure those hostages’ release, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, are ongoing.
Israel has responded by hammering the Gaza Strip, whose Hamas-run health ministry claims the Palestinian death toll has risen above 13,000.