Pro-Palestinan activists have vowed to challenge new Queensland laws banning the phrase ‘From the River to the Sea’ in the high court after more than 20 people were arrested in a weekend of mass protests across Brisbane.
At least two more people were arrested on Sunday in a march on Parliament House to protest against the laws, a day after 20 were arrested for reciting the prohibited expression or displaying it on a banner.
The new laws, which also ban the phrase “Globalise the intifada”, carry a maximum sentence of two years in jail.
But the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin spokesperson, Remah Naji, told reporters in King George Square on Sunday afternoon that protesters would seek to have those laws struck down.
Naji said that, after weeks of uncertainty over how the new laws would be enforced, police advised protesters on Saturday that “similar words to the banned phrases” were “not captured by the legislation”.
“So if we say, according to that advice: ‘between the river and the sea’, we should be fine,” she said.
“So the problem here is clearly the ‘from’ and the ‘to’: prepositions,” she said.
“This is how absurd these laws are. But they are also dangerous – and this is why Justice for Palestine Magan-djin has been working with a group of legal experts, and we will be coordinating a high court challenge to the reckless Queensland law on the basis that it’s an invalid law under the Australian constitution.”
Moments after the press conference, one protester put the laws to the test by leading a chant with the words: “From the River to the Sea”. Within minutes, he was arrested and taken away in a police van. Those who responded to his chant with ‘Palestine Will be Free’ were not.
After the speeches, as the crowd assembled for its march through the heart of the city, a woman kneeled in the middle of Adelaide Street, which was cleared of traffic, and quietly repeated the phrase until she too was arrested and taken away.
Ella Gutteridge was one of the 20 arrested on Saturday. She said two Jewish people, a Palestinian and an Indigenous man, were among those taken into custody.
“I am seething with rage at the Crisafulli government and the fact that they want to mass arrest peaceful pro-Palestine activists,” she told Guardian Australia.
“I’m not going to be intimidated, and I’m not going to stop protesting and fighting for Palestine.”
Speaking on Sunday morning, the state’s premier, David Crisafulli, denied that his government was cracking down on free speech, insisting his new laws were about “striking a balance”. The premier claimed the proscribed phrases amounted to a call for the genocide of Jewish people.
“No one is suggesting that people can’t strongly speak about what’s happening in Gaza, of course they can – and they can absolutely talk about freedom for Palestine,” he said.
But the premier said “hate” could not be let go unchecked – drawing a direct link between it and the terror attack at Bondi.
“But because we didn’t call it out in the past, that led to people being mowed down doing the most Australian thing you can: being on a beach,” he said.
The face of the former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, infamous for his corruption and repression of freedom of assembly, appeared on one sign, while the blond mullet of John Farnham adorned another.
Farnham has become a symbol of the movement against Queensland’s new laws, as the words “River to the Sea” appear in the chorus of his 1990s hit Two Strong Hearts.
Despite the heavy police presence, the march was peaceful and concluded without major incidents.
