Palestinians are not known for their prowess in the construction business. They have proved a dab hand at digging tunnels for shifting arms and holding hostages, but they squandered whatever expertise they could claim in this department by placing the tunnel entrances near schools and hospitals, making horrific civilian casualties an inevitable byproduct of the Israel Defence Force targeting the tunnels in the event of a war. Talk about amateurs.
But even this meagre claim to construction expertise is positively monumental in comparison to the Palestinians’ experience in building bridges. This is partly because there are few rivers in their part of the world, and therefore little need for bridges. But even if there were, the symbolism of these beautiful structures would probably preclude even the most dedicated Palestinian engineer from developing an interest. Build something that unites two separated communities? What’s the point of that?
So it would have been novel indeed for Australia’s burgeoning Palestinian population and their supporters to be given licence to walk en masse across one of the most famous bridges in the world, the beautiful Sydney Harbour Bridge, today.
Their sense of wonder must have been overwhelming. The people who use the bridge under normal circumstances — for driving to work and other practical purposes — are usually too focused on traffic to take in the view. But not today’s hordes of users. Strolling 59 metres above the harbour, they were afforded a leisurely panorama of what the descendants of the convicts who disembarked virtually at the foot of the bridge in 1788 have achieved in the mere 237 years since then — the Opera House, the brilliant Sydney skyline, the houses nestled within the bush that in parts remains wonderfully unchanged, the pretty ferries taking people to and fro. What a wonderful sight! And to think, one day soon it will all be under Islamic control!
Because, let’s be honest, that’s what today’s march was really about.
Israel, the focus of the protest, is merely the conduit through which the Palestinians and their useful-idiot western supporters channel their hatred of our Christian civilisation. They were explicit about it. There was no shortage of flags declaring Allah as the one and only god, and signs declaring Islam as the one true faith. There were calls for the destruction of Israel, and chants about our staunchest ally the United States being a terror state. Plus, of course, an abundance of Palestinian flags. Nothing declaring loyalty, allegiance, or even gratitude to Australia. The optics were obvious. This is our bridge now.
One of the few Australian flags on the entire march, as far as I know, was briefly and meekly waved by Libertarian Member of the NSW Legislative Council John Ruddick, seemingly in response to a dare from Melbourne journalist Avi Yemini.
I like Ruddick, and have in the past had enormous admiration for his dedication to freedom, a rare quality in Australian politics. I even attended his maiden speech in the Legislative Council in June 2023, which I still regard as one of the best speeches ever delivered in any Australian parliament since Federation. He certainly exposed, at the time, the illiberality of the majority of Australian politicians, including those in the “Liberal” Party.
But when he posted on X today that he intended to proudly join the march across the bridge, he provoked, to say the least, a shocked response from Libertarian supporters.
Ruddick and others of the libertarian mindset were adamant that today’s march was all about free speech. It was nothing of a kind. Palestinian protesters have shut down Sydney every Sunday since their friends in Gaza raped, tortured and murdered more than a thousand Jews on 7 October 2023. I, like many Sydney residents, have avoided the city every Sunday since then. Call me fussy, but I’d prefer not to shop at Myer while recent immigrants march past chanting for the destruction of the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. One’s thoughts turn disturbingly to the prospect of them one day applying their genocidal anti-western focus closer to home, which can spoil your day if you let it.
We all know that the devotion these newcomers to western civilisation have to free speech comes with a caveat: we will say whatever we like but you will criticise Islam at your peril. They won’t applaud anybody wishing to demonstrate a dislike for the Koran. Heck, they would not have even tolerated an Israeli flag coming within coo-ee of the march yesterday. Jews in Australia have known ever since a gang of thugs chanted “Gas the Jews” on the steps of the Opera House two years ago that there are some parts of Australia where they are not safe, and the police will refuse to protect them.
I’ve been to a few of these marches now, in London and Australia, and find them curiously generic. The passive-aggressive calls for genocide of the Jews, the arrogant assumption that Islam can blend seamlessly into societies developed by Christians, and the nauseating claim that the people who started this war are victims are as consistent and bland everywhere you go as Starbucks coffees.
When they reached the northern end of the bridge, today’s protesters were told by police it was unsafe for them to keep going because the public transport on that side was not adequate to take them all home (mostly to Sydney’s western suburbs, which have been transformed from working-class areas to migrant ghettos). So, fittingly, they turned around and went back to the city. The bridge went nowhere.
