The Slippery Slope Towards Criminalising Criticism of Israel and Zionism

Victoria police has charged well-known Naarm-Melbourne pro-Palestinian figure Hash Tayeh with four counts of “using insulting words in public” on Friday, 7 March 2025, in relation to his having allegedly repeatedly chanted, “All Zionists are terrorists” at a rally in May 2024.

Tayeh, the owner of the Burgertory chain of restaurants, came to national attention in November 2023 after the torching of the Burgertory Caulfield outlet and then again with the attempted firebombing of his house in April 2024, which were crimes committed against him as a result of his Palestine activism, following the launch of the Israeli-perpetrated genocide in Gaza in October 2023.

The odd aspect to Tayeh being charged in this way is that the authorities are trying to criminally prosecute him over having repeatedly stated that Zionists, adherents to a political doctrine, are terrorists at a protest ten months ago, while this “slur” was not aimed at any specific individual/s, and, due to its political nature, it doesn’t even consist of the type of prejudice that amounts to a hate crime.

The Palestinian-Australian businessman’s arrest has further stoked fears that major party politicians may attempt to criminalise criticism of Zionists and the nation of Israel as antisemitism, because the recent political fear campaign staged around rising antisemitism, which has now been shown mainly to have been based upon fabricated crimes, has all been propagated in an attempt to shield Israel.

This shift towards outlawing criticism of Israel and the doctrine of Zionism is in no way confined to this country, as right now it’s being attempted across the western world, and while other nations have moved further down this path, the charging of Tayeh shows that the authorities are grasping for options that might serve to criminalise criticism of apartheid Israel and its settler colonial project.

Criminalising pro-Palestinians

Victoria police were planning on arresting and interviewing Tayeh last July, in relation to allegations of his inciting hatred towards Jewish people, as part of his pro-Palestinian activism, and more specifically attempting to charge him, under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2007 (VIC), as his chanting and the speeches he had given at Palestine rallies might be considered antisemitic.

Tayeh has been a key figure targeted by a campaign to demonise and outlaw the huge pro-Palestinian movement that sprung up immediately on outbreak of the Gaza genocide, and the Burgertory owner is only one amongst many cultural figures who’ve been targeted in a witch hunt perpetrated against supporters of Palestine under the guise of framing them as antisemitic.

However, after handing himself into state law enforcement, Tayeh was then released without charge, and it’s only now that Victoria police has charged him with using insulting language in public, contrary to section 17 of the Summary Offences Act 1966 (VIC).

For a first offence, this crime carries a fine of $1,975.90 or 2 months imprisonment, while a second offences carries a fine of $2,963.85 or 3 months inside, and for a third offence, the penalties that apply are a fine of $4,939.75 or 6 months gaol time.

The charging of Tayeh over publicly stating “all Zionists are terrorists” is not the norm, as this offence is usually applied to an individual who personally insults someone in public, especially a police officer, or someone who uses offensive language in public. However, Tayeh’s comments weren’t directed at anyone in particular.

Indeed, Victoria police appears to be applying this law in an attempt to find a legal avenue to deter the criticism of Zionists and Zionism in public, with police not having been able to pursue charges under the state’s racial and religious tolerance laws, while the Allan government is currently progressing new hate crime laws, in much the same way as NSW and the federal government have.

As we remembered Zion

Zionism is the 18th century European political doctrine that advocates for the creation of a Jewish state in historic Palestine, which is a settler colonial project involving the transfer of Jewish people from elsewhere around the world and has been accompanied by the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from their land to enable this.

Zionists are people who adhere to the Zionist doctrine that underpins the state of Israel. Not all Jewish people are Zionists, and not all Zionists are Jewish. In the United States, there are more Christian Zionists than there are Jewish Zionists.

Since October 2023, there has been an attempt to conflate antisemitism with Zionism and criticism of Israel in this country, in order to deflect from the crimes of the Israeli state, as it has been genociding the Palestinians of Gaza, which again continues to see the further removal of Palestinians from their land to progress the doctrine of Zionism and secure a Greater Israel.

So, when Tayeh allegedly chanted “all Zionists are terrorists”, he means people who believe that Israel has the right to continue to progressively displace Palestinians from their homelands, and this was being said when many people were outraged that Israel was perpetrating a genocide in the Gaza Strip, of which it continues to do to this day, and to say this is a political criticism, not a hate crime.

The assertion originally made about Tayeh to police involved the conflation of criticism of Zionism and Israel with antisemitism, as the charge of antisemitism carries the weight of the Holocaust, so it’s not taken lightly, and, as US academic Judith Butler explained during a conference in Paris last year, Israel has been propagating this conflation since the 1970s to block criticism of its prejudicial policies.

Hate crime law doesn’t protect colonising political doctrines like Zionism. The attempt to turn Zionism into an attribute with protected status is somewhat akin to considering the criticism of China’s colonisation of the nation of Tibet as a type of racial prejudice against Chinese people.

But the new charge levelled against Tayeh appears to be an attempt to protect against and in turn criminalise the criticism of Zionists and the doctrine of Zionism, which would set a precedent.

A dangerous conflation in law

The attempt to have Tayeh charged with antisemitism appears to have relied on the conflation of a Zionist as being a Jew, despite the former being the holding of a political belief and the latter an adherent to a religion, which is a common ploy to criminalise critics of Israel and those advocating on behalf of its apartheid regime, while more broadly outlawing this criticism outright.

The US House of Representatives passed a resolution on 5 December 2023 that equated anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and although the measure is not recognition in law, it does give more legitimacy to the type of antisemitism definition espoused by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which recognises anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment as prejudice against Jews.

At the time the US House adopted this measure, there were no concerns that such a definition would take hold here, however Universities Australia announced on 27 February that all 39 Australian universities have adopted a new definition of antisemitism based on that advocated by the IHRA and it considers Zionism “a core part” of “Jewish identity” that should not be criticised.

Various parties have been calling for the heightening of hate crime laws and other measures, such as the declaration of a national emergency due to antisemitism. Yet, it came to light this week that the major spate of antisemitic crimes that took place on Gadigal land in the Greater Sydney region were all staged as part of an organised crime plot to distract police and extract benefits from the courts.

In among these calls is the suggestion that the type of antisemitism definition that has been adopted by the universities might be more broadly applied in the Australian setting, with the Australian attorney general Mark Dreyfus having publicly suggested last October that when people are criticising Zionists it’s coded language and they’re actually insulting Jews in an antisemitic manner.

“The label Zionist is used, not in any way, accurately,” Dreyfus was quoted as saying, as he delivered the 2024 Colin Tatz Oration at the Bondi Pavillion last October. “When critics use that word, they actually mean Jew. They’re not really saying Zionist, they’re saying Jew because they know that they cannot say Jew, so they say Zionist or words Zeo or Zio.”

However, the suggestion that the huge and diverse Free Palestine movement that has sprung up across this country since October 2023 has been acting in this manner is intentional disinformation, as those within the ranks of the movement, especially the numerous Jews, have clearly been critical of those advocating the political doctrine of Zionism as opposed to the followers of Judaism.

‘Never again’ is a phrase often used to convey that the world should never forget or repeat the horrors perpetrated against the Jews of Europe during the 1940s Holocaust. And in the present context, this would mean doing everything possible to prevent the Israeli state from continuing its attempt to purposefully wipe out the Palestinians of Gaza through mass killing and starvation.

Yet, in the current context, criticising the commission of and calling for the end to a genocide perpetrated by Israel might soon be considered illegal hate speech.