Yesterday I took this sign to King George Square in Brisbane and displayed it near City Hall. A woman asked if she could take a photo of it to which I replied yes. A security guard from City Hall approached me and told me that I was not permitted to display the sign or to affix it to railings or objects in the square. I was holding up one end and the other end was held up by a pole. She told me that she would ring a council officer to come and to decide what to do about the sign. After making the call, the security guard spoke to me about the Voice referendum that was going on inside City Hall. She said she was from a country town and that her aboriginal friends had told her to vote no. She told me that she did not think there was a solution in Palestine because people hated each other.
While the council officer was coming, another woman came up and asked why it was that the United Nations had partitioned Palestine in the way it did in 1947. I tried to explain that this was part of the so-called ‘two state solution’ and that the Israeli militia had driven Palestinians people out of their towns and villages by massacring people at places like Deir Yassin.
She asked me if it was like what happened in Korea, where the United States divided North and South Korea with the 38th parallel as the dividing line. I tried to explain how the two state solution was different and had failed because Israel had all the guns and all the money and that China supported North Korea. She explained that China was forced to do that and provided North Korea with food and essential goods.
The Brisbane City council officer (Cameron?) then arrived and asked me to remove the Disappearing Palestine sign because I had no permission from council. The square was full of signs: advertising, displaying art, and advertising early polling for the voice referendum. The woman who was speaking to me told the council officer that I was doing no harm, and that were just chatting about what has been going on in Palestine.
The council officer then issued me with a direction to remove the sign. He told me that I could apply in writing under the peaceful assembly act but I had to do so five days before I came to display the disappearing Palestine sign. People nearby were listening and I said if council has its way Palestine will be disappeared.
I then went around to the voice referendum polling booth and spoke to some of the people handing out yes voting cards. I asked them why they were standing outside the building quite a fair way from where the polling was actually can being conducted. An aboriginal woman explained to me that Council had been very bureaucratic and would not allow campaigning to occur anywhere near the actual polling booth. I discovered later that a person wearing a yes T-shirt was not even permitted to go in and cast her vote because that was regarded as campaigning. The aboriginal woman for Yes to the Voice explained to me that the two issues were very similar because both involved occupation and that the security guard had really made up the line that aboriginal people are in favour of the no vote. She said it said that in any community there is going to be disagreement but polls show that 80% of aboriginal people support the ‘Yes’ vote. She added that that was a pretty resounding indication of what aborigial people think.
Ian Curr
13 October 2023
