The Real Crime Is Genocide, Not Sitting On The Footpath. So I Went Back.

Today I returned to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra to sit silently on the public footpath outside. Just as I did last week. I didn’t speak. I didn’t obstruct anyone or anything. I just held a sign that read:“Stop the Genocide.” Oh, and I brought my dog Fred with me. He sat calmly beside me, like he did during my hunger strike in 2023.

Israel is using famine as a weapon of genocide in Gaza. The United Nations has said it. Human Rights Watch has documented it. The World Food Programme has warned that children are already dying. And our Australian Government, one that claims to stand for human rights, does nothing except offer a few carefully worded concerns. And it’s still trading weapons with Israel.

DFAT set its security people onto me straight away. They tried to intimidate me. They tried to intimidate my friend who was filming. But we stood our ground.

I handed them a government cadastral map proving that I wasn’t trespassing. The footpath outside DFAT is public land. I was exercising my legal and democratic right to protest peacefully in a public place.

And this time, the police didn’t come. Maybe they were called. Maybe they told DFAT to back off. But either way, no one removed me. No one stopped me.

This was a win - for Gaza and also for peaceful freedom of expression in Australia.

Still, the fact that I was bullied and moved on last time, and that I had to bring printed maps and legal references just to sit silently with a sign tells you something. In Australia, we’re not as free as we like to think we are.

Our right to protest is under pressure. Public servants may feel embarrassed. Security officers may feel obligated. But none of that justifies trying to move someone on simply because their presence is inconvenient or uncomfortable.

Embarrassment is not harm. Inconvenience isn’t violence. And a silent protester on a footpath isn’t a threat to national security.

If my quiet presence outside DFAT was too confronting for our foreign policy establishment, then imagine what it’s like for the people of Palestine, or Tibet, or the Uyghur population in China. They're not just being silenced, they're being starved, imprisoned, and erased.

We must not allow privilege and power to muffle dissent just because it’s confronting. That’s not democracy. That’s bullying. And it’s a step toward a Handmaid’s Tale.

Please remember: You don’t need to wait for a movement. You don’t need a permit to sit on a footpath and hold a sign. You don’t need a microphone to speak the truth. And you don’t need to shout to make noise.

Spontaneous, peaceful, individual actions add up. They break the silence. They give courage to others. And they say, “we Aussies care, even if our government doesn’t.”

If you feel helpless watching the genocide in Gaza unfold, then please do something. Anything. Sit on the footpath. Stand in your street. Write a letter. Speak. Or stay silent with purpose.

But whatever you do, don’t be complicit.