Nationalist activist Joel Davis has been charged with racial vilification over a peaceful police-approved protest against the influence of Jewish lobby groups on Australian politics.
Davis, 31, was arrested by counter-terrorism officers at his home in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon and charged with “publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race to cause fear” in relation to a speech he allegedly made at the rally outside NSW Parliament on November 8 last year.
In his speech at the rally Mr Davis criticised the NSW government for bringing in a series of new “hate speech” and anti-protest laws after a “pressure campaign” from Jewish lobby groups, and said the Anzacs “did not fight for a multicultural police state”.
The charge was laid despite NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon telling parliament on March 26 a review had found the protest, where 67 members of the now-disbanded National Socialist Network stood with a banner saying “abolish the Jewish lobby”, did not breach the state’s racial vilification laws.
Mr Davis was granted police bail to appear in court next month, and is now facing 20 charges over his political activism – nine in Victoria, nine federal, one in South Australia, and one in New South Wales.
Last month he was released on conditional bail following 133 days in solitary confinement in Sydney’s dilapidated and unsafe Long Bay jail after being charged over an alleged Telegram post about federal MP Allegra Spender.
Mr Davis was arrested by the Australian Federal Police at a Bondi café on November 20 and charged with “using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend” for allegedly urging his followers to “rhetorically rape” the MP in response to comments she made on social media calling for him to be jailed over the rally.
While behind bars he was hit with nine Victoria “hate speech” charges over alleged podcast comments and an election stunt, and is also fighting a charge over a belt buckle with an eagle on it that South Australia Police allege is a “Nazi symbol”.
The NSW racial vilification offence, which Mr Davis was protesting against, came into effect in August after being brought in by Premier Chris Minns early last year, and carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment.
In February Sydney man Brandon Koschel, 31, was jailed for one year with a non-parole period of nine months after being convicted of the same charge for an Australia Day speech where he called Jews the “greatest enemy to the nation”.
His sentence was reduced to 10 months with a six-month non-parole period on appeal, and NSW District Court Judge Tanya Smith noted in sentencing that the law was created in response to a spate of anti-Semitic incidences in Sydney and “recognises the harm of hate speech and its potential to escalate into violence”.
Header image: Left, right, Joel Davis at the protest (supplied).
