This not the Democracy I grew up in. We seem to be becoming more Chinese, Russian, and less and less the country of a “fair go”. We have Jewish friends who we went to school with but are less likely to have Indigenous ones. We may have some Muslim friends but less likely African ones. But it’s our Jewish friends who are now calling us anti-Semites, why? Because we don’t support the Israeli Government’s draconian policies. However, shamefully the Australian Government does, and it’s they who shame us. When did protest stop becoming a civil right?

The criminalisation of pro-Palestinian activism could see states implementing further anti-protest laws that would stifle democratic freedom of speech, writes Tom Tanuki.