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way, or other lifestyle choices. In activist circles, there is a dominant culture. Although its progressive, it still operates in the way that dominant culture in general operates, which is to normalise certain ways of being, and abnormalise cer- tain other ways of being. I find that problematic, and pretty prevalent in activist groups in general - feminists, anarchist etc. It’s a surface politics. Ultimately, if we were to simplify
it, our politics is the way we view the world and the way in which we view relations between people. That’s what should be important in terms of including and excluding people. Of course a person who has a paternalistic or racist view of mi- grants or refugees or asylum seekers, someone with those views, should be excluded from working in progressive circles because that could be damaging, but that doesn’t limit engagement where possible.
I guess though, I am talking about racism and paternalism in progressive circles. That approach
of “We need to open our arms out, and look after these people that can’t speak for themselves”. Absolutely. It’s like the asylum seeker issue which is gain- ing momentum now, because of the Manus Island tragedy that happened recently, where a young fella was brutally murdered. So people are rising up. I went to a candlelight vigil where thousands of people were there, it was great to see thousands of people, there should be more considering what has happened. Even then, a lot of the language and framing was very paternalistic. So it’s very frustrating to feel hopeful that so many people are out, but at the same time, feel frustrated by the way in which that support is framed.
I don’t know if you are familiar with Ghassan Hage’s thesis ‘White Nation”? The subtitle is: “Fantasies of White Su- premacy in a Multicultural Society”. What he argues is that ‘white racists’ as well as ‘tolerant multiculturalists’ - which you could describe the people at the vigil as such - ‘both
see their nation structured around a white culture that
they control, with aboriginal people and migrants as exotic objects.’ [from book description] He uses the issue of the refugee slogan “Refugees are welcome here”, which main- tains the white person’s role as the people who decide what should or shouldn’t happen. So even though their decision is a good one, it still does nothing to shift the status quo. So that language, when we have a closer look, still maintains that power imbalance. It keeps them in the position of: ‘Look how good we are, we welcome these refugees’. Well, actu- ally, who are you?!?! Settler society was established here through a very illegitimate process. If there is anybody that should say whether or not refugees are welcome here, it’s indigenous people. Their voice is absent, they have been made absent in the refugee movement.
Another thing that really bothered me, every person that spoke at this candlelight vigil, a lot of them are saying that “This is not the Australian Way”. I’m like, hang on a minute. It’s not as though Australia started off in a peaceful way and then became violent; it actually started that way. Australia is the result, literally, literally, of genocide. This is not a term I’m using to exaggerate or whatever, people were massacred, en masse. So when people say that ‘This is not the Australian Way’, I’m thinking what kind of fantasy world do they live in, where Australia isn’t violent and racist? What kind of fantasy world do you live in where Aboriginal people aren’t killed
Pictured: Aboriginal flying at Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut
regularly by authorities, and nobody is held accountable? Not one white racist police officer that has murdered blackfellas in this country has been found responsible. Which goes to show that disregard for indigenous life... People were saying that the Australian Way is about mateship and comraderie. For white people perhaps that’s been the experience. But for indigenous people, that hasn’t been their experience, ever. Since Australia was created.
Compared to Scott Morrison, who justifies the murder of this young kid on Manus Island, I still prefer that voice. But that voice is still racist, it still excludes and maintains white supremacy in one way or another. That’s the prob- lem really. That’s the problem with activism in Australia.
So my next question is related to solidarity with pro-Palestinian groups. How do we navigate anti- Semitic rhetoric in pro-Palestinian settings or support?
I guess to contextualise it historically, there has never been a history of anti-Semitism in the Middle East. Never. Until today, there are Jewish minority groups that live in every Arab country and every Middle Eastern country. And they are not discriminated against. They still hold positions of power, and they are still included in society
in every single way. Judaism grew out of the Middle East, and it’s always existed there, and co-existed peacefully with other religions and other minority groups. In fact, I can name a lot of minority groups that are much more targeted, such as the Kurds, Assyrians, the list goes on. Jews, there’s no history of them being targeted. So, when a Palestinian uses the term ‘Jewish’, it’s not a politically correct term, they should use the term ‘Zionist”, I agree with that. But for them, they are people that have come from all around the world, kicked them out of their homeland, subjugated the rest to bombings, or at best, second class citizenship. That’s the experience of Palestinians - either exile, brutal military occupation, or second class citizens. Palestinians fall into one of those three groups, basically. And who caused that? What is the common denominator of the people who have caused that? Jewishness. So they are speaking to their specific experience of colonisation. It’s not the same thing as European anti-Semitism.