WORLD WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE - news journal UPDATE - (en) Australia, Melbourne, MACG: Oppose Ban on Hamas and Hezbollah Flags (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 A photo of the Hezbollah flag at a rally but burred out, with the

message "Flag unavailable. This flag is considered a prohibited symbol
in your country." ---- The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group defends
the right of supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah to display those groups'
flags.  They are deeply reactionary organisations and we are their
political opponents, but they are part of the resistance to the ongoing
Zionist genocide in Gaza. ---- In banning the flags of Hamas and
Hezbollah, the Australian Government describes them as terrorist groups
and cites a range of armed actions performed by them over the years.
Some of these actions were, indeed, crimes.  We have previously stated
our opposition to attacks on civilians and will do so again in future.

Terrorism is the use, or credible threat, of violence to create a
climate of fear for personal safety in the civilian population or a
definable part thereof, for a political end.  It is a strategy we reject
and we did so, in fact, in our founding document.  We note, though, that
from the Reign of Terror in France under Robespierre during the French
Revolution, to the Red Terror under the Bolsheviks during the Russian
Civil War that followed the revolution there, to the White Terror regime
of Admiral Horthy in Hungary for an entire twenty years between the
First and Second World Wars, States have been practitioners of terror on
a far larger and more effective scale than any non-State actors could
ever hope to be.

Israeli tanks in Rafah
IDF tanks capturing the main road dividing the eastern and western
halves of Rafah. (AP pic)
It is so, today, too.  Israel has been raining death and terror from the
skies on Gaza for a full year now.  The Gaza Ministry of Health has
names and/or bodies for over 40,000 people murdered in Israel's
genocidal assault on Gaza.  The prestigious medical journal, The Lancet,
earlier this year conservatively estimated a total death toll (direct
and indirect) of 186,000.  There are good reasons to think the real toll
is far higher.  In recent days, Israel has extended its war to Lebanon.
An entire country has been struck by terror, for Israel's political end.
  Thousands have already died - and Israel is just beginning.

Three people clothed in the Israeli flag stand gazing upon the Sydney
Opera House - that has been illuminated with the colours of the Israeli
flag.
Sydney Opera House illuminated with the colours of the Israeli flag.
(Photo by David GRAY / AFP)
What has been the Australian Government's response?  Far from banning
the Israeli flag, it has been projected onto the sails of the Sydney
Opera House.  Ostentatious displays of solidarity with Israel twelve
months ago have given way more recently to mealy-mouthed statements
about "Israel's right to defend itself", but its support remains.  It
still participates in the global program of building the F-35
fighter-bombers which are killing Palestinians and now Lebanese in their
thousands.  The bomb bay doors are produced in Australia, so withholding
them would not only prevent new planes rolling off the production line,
but would also ground planes in need of maintenance.  The Australian
Government actively assists Israel's genocide.  It actively assists
Israel's terror.

In circumstances like this, the Australian Government's ban on the
symbols of Hamas and Hezbollah is not a principled stand against
terrorism, but an attempt to suppress opposition to probably the
greatest crime happening on Earth today.  It is beneath contempt.  We do
not fly the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, because their politics are
lousy, but we strongly defend the right of their supporters to do so.

https://melbacg.au/oppose-ban-on-hamas-and-hezbollah-flags/
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