Victoria Police have raided the Melbourne home of an Australian nationalist who led a rally against proposed new speech and protest laws where a banner saying “Jews hate freedom” was displayed.
Right-wing activist Joel Davis, 29, was not present when about 20 officers turned up at the property on Monday with a search warrant allowing them to break into his home and seize digital devices, clothing, sunglasses and the banner.
Noticer News understands officers then searched a second home in Melbourne looking for Mr Davis, who presented at a police station after hearing about the raids, which came after a Jewish MP demanded the protesters be jailed.
Victoria Police said Mr Davis was arrested and “interviewed in relation grossly offensive public conduct, Racial and Religious Tolerance Act offences and offensive behaviour” before being released while “a brief of evidence is prepared and the proposed charges are submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for approval”.
Exclusive video obtained by Noticer News shows right-wing activists with a “Jews hate freedom” banner in front of Victorian parliament in Melbourne on Friday.
They were demonstrating against new “hate speech” and protest laws being brought to combat anti-Semitism. pic.twitter.com/FhwKTDxiXB
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) December 20, 2024
Mr Davis addressed the raids on social media, saying on X: “I decided to turn myself in to authorities earlier this evening, I wanted to get it over with so I could go visit my family without the family house getting raided by cops and ruining Christmas. They have released me without charge for now.
“They said I’m being investigated for ‘grossly offensive public conduct’ and ‘racial vilification’ – if and when I get charged I’ll let you guys know.”
Mr Davis also commented on the police statement, referring to a paragraph which reads: “Victoria Police vehemently condemns anti-Semitic or racially motivated behaviour in our society and will not tolerate this kind of activity”.
“So you’re just admitting this was a politically motivated arrest then?” he asked.
The inclusion of such a paragraph in an official police statement is highly unusual.
Prominent nationalist activist and European Australian Movement leader Thomas Sewell, who has led similar National Socialist Network protests in recent months, analysed the wording of the paragraph in a post on Telegram, saying it showed an escalation in the rhetoric used by authorities.
“For years the government, ASIO, police and the courts have been threatening us to not cross over the threshold of ‘racially/politically motivated violence’. Despite being dragged before the courts on a dozen occasions, no member of our organisation has ever been charged with a real terrorism charge (owning books and sparklers doesn’t count) or a racially motivated violent crime,” he wrote.
“Now it seems the police on advisement from the government or Communist university think tanks, have escalated their pseudo-legal rhetoric to no longer mention ‘violence’ – and now simply mention ‘behaviour’.
“Everything we do is ‘racially motivated behaviour’. Our entire political outlook is motivated by race, as opposed to neo-liberal, multicultural behaviour.”
This is Victoria, not Nazi Germany. Where is the Government?
Enough words and empty announcements, Premier—it’s time to take action and put these cowards behind bars where they belong.#Springst https://t.co/mK3pd1b0Yj
— David Southwick MP (@SouthwickMP) December 21, 2024
The arrest of Mr Davis comes two days after Jewish Liberal MP for Caulfield David Southwick called for him to be jailed for the protest against new legislation proposed as a result of lobbying by the Jewish community.
“Enough words and empty announcements, Premier – it’s time to take action and put these cowards behind bars where they belong,” he said, addressing his comments to Jacinta Allan, who is behind the controversial new laws giving police greater powers to stop protests and imposing jail terms of up to five years for so-called hate speech.
The protest was peaceful apart from the actions of a lone left-wing agitator, and no arrests were made.
Mr Southwick, an outspoken supporter of Israel who has made regular calls for tougher laws on anti-Semitism, last week joined the Jewish Community Council of Victoria to demand that Ms Allan recall parliament before Christmas to pass the proposed legislation, which has been criticised by human rights groups.
Ms Allan announced the sweeping new “social cohesion” laws last week, saying they built on already tabled anti-vilification legislation, following the alleged firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, Melbourne, earlier this month. No arrests have been made over the alleged arson attack.
The proposed laws, which are expected to pass parliament early next year, outlaw masks at protests along with flags of banned terrorist organisations and the use of glue or other attachment devices to prevent protesters being moved on.
Ms Allan said on Tuesday that the protest laws were part of a “renewed promise to Jews” and were formulated following consultation with the Jewish community, who have been demanding police be given more powers to stop anti-Semitism.
But David Mejia-Canales, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, told SBS News Australians should be “very, very, very critical” of the proposed laws, and said they were an attack on the right to protest.
“Protest is the purest expression of democracy in many ways … because protest is democracy in action,” he said.
“And any politician who does not like democracy in action, as long as it is peaceful, maybe we should really question their motivations.
“If the premier thinks that these measures criminalising peaceful protest is going to fix antisemitism and other forms of racism, then she’s deluded. This will not do that.”
Professor Luke McNamara, a member of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law and Justice, said the slow accumulation of new anti-protest laws in across Australia was making it “increasingly difficult to be a law-abiding, peaceful protester”.
“Individual instances of restrictions on protests might in and of themselves seem from one particular point of view, acceptable, necessary, tolerable,” he said.
“But when you put them all together and ask the question, ‘what is happening to the shape and resilience of the right to protest in Australia?’ And I do think it’s being chipped away.”
Header image: Left, right Friday’s protest (Noticer News).
