Flag shagging, free speech and the hypocrisy of Palestine policing

There's a strange kind of patriotism on display when people wrap themselves in the Australian flag while trampling on Australian values. At Coogee this weekend, I came across the end of a peaceful protest - of mostly elderly women and Jewish community members standing for Palestinian human rights - who were bullied by pro-Israel agitators carrying a bizarre hybrid flag: the Australian flag visually overwritten with the Israeli flag.

That matters. The Australian Government’s own flag protocols say our national flag should be used “in a dignified manner”, reproduced “completely and accurately”, and not covered with other words, illustrations or objects. Yet the same right-wing “respect the flag” crowd that loses its mind over Welcome to Country, the Aboriginal flag, or athletes taking a knee seems perfectly comfortable defacing the Australian flag when the foreign state being elevated is Israel.

That's not patriotism. It's selective nationalism. And it sits inside a much bigger hypocrisy. Across Australia, governments have been moving to restrict Palestinian solidarity under the auspices of combating antisemitism. Queensland has banned phrases including “from the river to the sea”, with people already charged under those laws. And NSW has tried to expand police powers on protests and allowed its police to assault peacefully protesting civilians.

So peaceful activists supporting Palestine can be policed, moved on, arrested or charged for words. But pro-Israel protesters can apparently bully grannies on a beach while waving a doctored Australian flag that subordinates our national symbol to the flag of another state.

A state, it should be said, that is not merely “controversial”. A state that a UN Independent Commission of Inquiry has already concluded is committing genocide in Gaza.

This is where “flag shagging” becomes useful language. It describes the performative, possessive, almost erotic obsession that some right-wing nationalists have with flags. They don't treat the flag as a symbol of shared democratic values. They treat it as their property. And as weapon to wave at migrants, First Nations people, climate protesters, students, Muslims, unionists, or anyone else who doesn't fit their narrow idea of Australia.

But the moment Palestine enters the picture, the same people who lecture others about respect for the flag are happy to visually hand it over to Israel.

And the issue is more than the flag itself. It is what people are trying to smuggle in under it. Australia should be a country where people can peacefully protest against war crimes, apartheid, occupation and genocide. It should be a country where Jewish people can stand with Palestinians without being harassed by people claiming to speak for Israel. It should be a country where grannies can hold a banner on a beach without being bullied by Zionists.

And it should be a country where free speech is protected for everyone - not just the powerful, nationalists and the pro-Israel lobby.

Because if the law comes down hardest on those calling for Palestinian freedom, while looking away when Zionists intimidate peaceful protesters and deface the national flag, then this was never really about antisemitism or public order. It was about power.

And the flag shaggers at Coogee this weekend just proved it.

Oh, and just a reminder, calling this out is not anti-Semitic. It's pro-human.

Zionist "Flag shaggers"at Coogee Beach.