Defining the intifada and testing Australia’s racial hate laws

What the word intifada means to Australian Jews and whether it offends will determine the outcome of a landmark case against two Sydney academics for their social media posts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Federal Court heard on Tuesday.

Dr Nick Riemer, a linguistics expert, and Professor John Keane, a political scientist, are being sued over a series of posts to X, formerly Twitter, in a case that will test the nation’s hate speech laws.

The duo maintain that they were criticising Zionism, which they purport is not antisemitic.

The group of Jewish academics suing the pair is also taking action against their employer, The University of Sydney, saying it is vicariously responsible for the statements.

In the Keane matter, the applicants claim the presence of Hamas flags on his X page on October 8, 2023, suggested Keane “celebrated, endorsed, supported and approved” the organisation’s terror attack on Israel the day before.

In the Riemer matter, the applicants claim posts on X, speeches and Riemer’s participation in a chant “Israel out of Gaza, Israel out of Palestine, long live the intifada” imputes “intifadas should extend to a violent global uprising against Jews and Israelis in Australia and other parts of the world in support of the Palestinian resistance” and the events of October 7, 2023, should be celebrated.

A packed courtroom inside Sydney’s Federal Court booed, jeered and cheered at various points throughout the day-long hearing about the case’s scope on Tuesday at which the Federal Court’s Justice Geoffrey Kennett said he has a “fear of this case becoming another royal commission into antisemitism”.

Barrister Jessie Taylor, appearing for Riemer and Keane, said the hearing would not become another royal commission and the case was limited to whether a reasonable person would be offended by the posts.

Adam Butt, appearing for the Jewish academics, said it is “entirely irrelevant” what Riemer and Keane believe is meant by the term intifada.

“The only fight about what intifada means is what it means to Jewish people or Israeli people in Australia. The other side of the history and this conflict is entirely irrelevant. My clients are not being sued for vilifying Palestinians or any other people. The substantial Jewish perspective is what matters,” he said.

Keane and Riemer have raised more than $173,000 for legal fees in what they say is a critical moment for free speech.

In court on Tuesday, Butt said: “This is not about what Hamas intended, this is about what Jews and Israelis believe.”

Riemer will organise a symposium next month on what he calls the national crisis of repression at universities that “will explore the authoritarian institutional responses to Israel’s genocide from Australia’s universities”.

The case continues.

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