Premier Allan spins anti-genocide protest as ‘War on Christmas’ 

Myer has announced it is cancelling the unveiling of the annual Christmas window display this Sunday due to a planned anti-genocide protest, the same planned anti-genocide protest that has been occurring every Sunday since the political and media class left its morality behind 13 months ago. 

“Blocking the Christmas windows won’t change a thing in the Middle East, but it will let down a bunch of kids in Melbourne,” chimed Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on the sinking ship that is Twitter, deciding it was diplomatic to share her views. 

“We are all sick of this stuff,” she said, refering to the protests (not the genocide). 

Allan sounded a note, leading the familiar discordant choir of Neil Mitchell and David Southwick, singing to the backing jingle of the overtly pro-Zionist media. But as the Premier stirred up something that could be seen as counterintuitive to social cohesion, and even as Raf Epstein picked up the “Battle for Xmas” songbook and joined the chorus on ABC Melbourne Radio, many of us were thinking, “but WE are all sick of this stuff.”

That’s the point of the protests, isn’t it?

Australians have been sick of this stuff enough to turn out to consecutive protests Sunday after Sunday, Myer windows or no Myer windows, for thirteen months. Through all the seasons of a calendar year, concerned Australians from all walks have been turning out to protest in capital cities around the country, appalled at the inaction of our political class. We are all sick of this stuff.

I attended the last Sunday rally for The Shot to see Senator Fatima Payman speak before protestors. On a clear Spring day before the State Library in Melbourne she thanked those that had “gathered in their thousands” week after week for over a year. “You are the voice that rings out over bullets and bombs saying, ‘we see you’, we will not look away”. 

The WA senator has become emblematic of the public resistance against the Labor government’s stance on Israel and its slaughter in Gaza, and a voice of reason on the conflict that is rare to find in Canberra. She ultimately sacrificed her position in the party for it, as her colleagues turned on her for taking a moral position they lacked the courage to express themselves. And she paid for it.

“This Labor government that once promised principals, once claimed to be champions of justice – cannot claim to uphold human rights while supporting regimes that bulldoze homes, imprison journalists, annihilate aid workers, and snuff out the dreams of children,” the former Labor senator told the crowd. 

Channelling the national frustration towards the government, who has done nothing but offer versions of concerns while it sinks to record lows in popularity, Payman called out Labor and its empty words, saying it was “time to act”.

She is right. 

I met with Senator Payman amongst a mixed crowd at the longest continuous peace protest in Australia this century, and asked her what the government could do to help them make a better judgement on their current stance. “Truly listening to the community,” she said, “not trying to silence them through social cohesion.”

Speaking to the frustrations many Australians are having about their sovereignty (or lack thereof), Payman gestured towards Australia’s position as a key middle power with our own set of national interests: “We can’t resort to the US position just because we are an ally”. 

Payman’s words ring prescient as the genocide becomes more impossible to fathom, highlighting the callous capture of political power in Australia by a morbid and foreign set of ideas that run against the national and public interest. The biggest disgrace is that these morbid ideas define the current Labor government, who could simply and reasonably condemn Israel, suspend trade, send home its diplomats, (because they are committing genocide) and most of these protestors wouldn’t have to spend their weekends yelling at them to take the most logical, most humane action. 

“Where is our sovereignty as Australia? Where is our independent foreign policy, where we put our nation’s interests first, not the interests of some other country? When it comes to justice and equality, why can’t the same standard be applied to all?” – Senator Fatima Payman

The continuous protests and worrying polling reflect that the public is taking action where the government clearly isn’t. Steve has attended the protest since the start and is a nearly 50-year Labor voter. “I will never vote for them again, with what I’ve seen them do in regards to collaborating with the state of Israel”. 

Ronnie has been attending on and off for two months, and says he “switched on” to the genocide via social media. As someone who has lost family to health issues, he thinks, “it’s fucking despicable that someone (government) could support the choice of taking someone’s life.” 

Ruth has been coming for six months and says she does so because, “it’s the only thing that keeps me sane while the government gaslights us, and it’s just disgusting and terrifying what they are doing to us. Terrifying.” 

Thirteen months into this protest, and there is a clear beleaguerment in the people you speak to. An exhaustion of mind, body and soul that I share. As Trump ascends into another term of the White House with a cabinet full of Zionist neocons, and Australians see both their major parties posit for attention from the incoming president instead of choosing to leave the shitshow, things feel like they are changing for the worse.

How many more empty statements can be made from this government, when it took them over 12 months to use a single one of them to condemn Israel’s actions? The civilian death toll in Gaza and now Lebanon is outrageous. By not acting, a Labor government has allowed a shift in norms that no longer represent the views of this secular democracy. And of the other side of all of the commotion, backed in full by the same pro-Israel corporate, media, and lobby groups who Albanese has scrambled to break bread with, awaits Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with one of the most overt pro-Israel stances seen in a modern Australian political leader.    

“This is not a distant tragedy. Every act of complicity, every silence, every handshake with those responsible for this oppression is a stain on our nation’s conscience.” — Senator Fatima Payman

Labor has been complicit in maintaining diplomatic, economic and military normalcy with Israel as it commits the unconscionable. They have hollow words that mask their inaction, they have shaken hands with those responsible on multiple occasions, and they are offering nothing different to Australians who act as the nation’s conscience in lieu of anyone in Canberra, mortified that this is the most moderate government Canberra can offer us. 

It is a Labor government that has acquiesced its moral platform by supporting Israel out of its own fear and instinct for self-preservation, a Labor government that has been at the helm during this dark period in history, and it will be a Labor government that will ultimately have to answer for the position it has taken in the election.

The ALP has forgotten who it once was, and who its voters expect it to be. The handling of this genocide by the Albanese government has revealed this reality to Australians like never before. It was the responsibility of Labor to set a standard, to educate Australians about the truth of this genocide, but they chose the side of Peter Dutton, Lachlan Murdoch and Benjamin Netanyahu. And now they wonder why the cities are abuzz with protest every week? Labor has demonstrated an unwillingness to take a definitive stance on many major issues in this country, and their stance on this genocide puts them in the corner with those who want to see them gone. 

Payman sounded an alarm not heeded by those that operate within the leadership of the Australian Labor Party. The position she has on Labor’s stance towards Israel’s actions, a position that saw her shunted out of her own party, is a view that also reflects the widely held view of the membership, and the adopted party policy platform that calls on Labor to recognise the state of Palestine. With the membership, the public, and perhaps some quietly in government wondering what has happened to the party that traditionally fought for human rights, it takes a young immigrant from Afghanistan to represent the essential and traditional values of the Labor party that have left this government. 

These are values that are still widely appreciated in Australian society today, and values that many Australians will be fighting to protect in any way they can, and the protests will keep on occurring until those values are represented in our elected representatives again.

Payman was too good for Labor, and so are Australians, who are far more upset about genocide than a few protesters at the Myer windows. Labor couldn’t bear to look at the courageous Senator, because she reminded them of who they were meant to be. So they removed her voice and cast her out to a place where they could sling barbs. Labor can’t bear to listen to the steady crescendo of public outrage that has hummed in the streets at these significant protests. It can’t bring itself to recognise the sincerity and passion of Australians who hold up the nation’s moral compass at these rallies in their absence, ordinary people who use their own precious time to demand better. And it may cost them dearly in a 2025 election.