Ben Harvey: Tone-deaf timing of pro-Palestine protests only plays into the hands of Pauline Hanson

I understand why people are protesting in the name of Palestine. I have serious misgivings about the tactics used by the Israeli military since October 7, 2023. The disproportionate number of Palestinians killed is compelling evidence that the IDF wasn’t as discriminate as it might have been. There was a reason the US military didn’t raze Baghdad, opting instead to go door-to-door in the hunt for insurgents. The policy meant more American casualties but ensured the city, once cleansed, had the chance to prosper, which it (slowly) has. By destroying so much of Gaza, Israel has guaranteed a new generation of would-be martyrs and left the rest of the world on the hook for the reconstruction. We have a right, maybe even an obligation, to question Israel’s response because we all have skin in the game. Bondi showed us that. But . . . There is a time and place for criticism of Tel Aviv and that time and place was not when Israel’s president was in Australia to mourn a national tragedy. And we should all appreciate that many of the people protesting Isaac Herzog’s presence Down Under had no real understanding of this centuries-old religious war. In the course of writing about the Middle East over the past couple of decades I have interviewed scholars, politicians, soldiers, diplomats and aid workers. I have read countless news stories and reams of analysis. After all that I still don’t feel confident enough to make the kind of definitive statements that Australian of the Year (for now) Grace Tame was making last week. How I envy her ability to distil the most vexed geopolitical problem of our time into one pithy slogan: From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada. How do you think the Islamists you seem to revere treat rape victims, Grace? They don’t, because not many men get convicted of crimes against women over there. Penny Wong, the architect of Australia’s recognition of the State of Palestine, was likely applauding when Tame addressed the mob in Sydney last week. Do you know what they do to outspoken women who are openly gay in the Middle East, Penny? Show me one strain of Islam that is even remotely tolerant of homosexuality and I’ll eat another newspaper. Don’t worry about pray the gay away; they shoot the gay away. Why do people like Penny and Grace, who position themselves as leaders in the fight against misogyny and the patriarchy, lose the courage of their convictions at the gates of Australian mosques? Why don’t I see them turning the heat on the Imams about the chauvinism and bigotry writ large over some Islamic teachings? Why aren’t they holding up a burqa when railing against the perils of coercive control? Have they fooled themselves into believing every female who dresses head-to-toe in black do so as empowered, independent women? Grace and Penny probably believe the protests will change the direction of the country. Maybe they will, but not in the way the agitators want. Pauline Hanson would have been rubbing her hands with delight at the chaos outside the Sydney Town Hall. For her, national division is manna from (an exclusively Christian) heaven. Division is, and always has been, the perfect environment for the far right. It’s a particularly opportune time for Hanson because the Liberal Party is a dumpster fire that can’t be extinguished. She could end up being the Steven Bradbury of conservative politics. What do Grace and Penny think will happen if the backlash to their antics means people like One Nation candidate Corey Bernardi get their hands near the policy levers? This is a bloke who argued that same sex marriage could trigger a wave of bestiality, who opposes women in the military, and who wants abortion banned. There are yokel hillbillies in Kentucky who’d consider this bloke a close-minded redneck. The danger for “progressives” who stormed the streets of the nation’s capital cities last week is that people like Bernardi supplant the Coalition as the effective voice of Opposition. One Nation will force Labor to talk about side issues such as the refugee intake, welcome to country and flag burning. In doing so, they’ll make Anthony Albanese sound like he hates the ANZACs, loves Somalian child soldiers and wants to turn our backyards into scared sites.