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Democracy·Protests

Jewish man among first charged under Queensland's new pro-Palestinian slogan ban

Tuesday, 21 April 2026, 02:08 · 1 min read

A 73-year-old Jewish clinical psychologist, Stephen Heydt, was arrested at a Brisbane rally after wearing a T-shirt bearing the phrase "from the river to the sea" and repeating it in a speech — making him one of the first people charged under new Queensland (Australia's northeastern state) laws that prohibit two pro-Palestinian slogans in contexts likely to cause menace or offence, carrying a maximum two-year prison sentence. A total of 25 people have now been charged under the legislation, prompting civil liberties lawyer Terry O'Gorman to compare the crackdown to the suppression of street protests under the authoritarian Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen in the 1970s. Premier David Crisafulli has defended the laws as a balance between protecting the right to protest and banning phrases he described as calls for genocide, while a legal challenge to the laws' constitutional validity is being prepared for Australia's High Court.

Sources
The GuardianJewish man among first charged in pro-Palestinian slogan crackdown that reminds some of 1970s Queensland ↗︎
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