Kill 'social cohesion' with a baseball bat

As Israel invades Lebanon, bombs Yemen and Syria, continues the genocide in Gaza, steps up its assault on the West Bank and gets ready for World War III with Iran, Australia’s political, security and media establishments are focused on what really matters — stopping people at protests from waving flags.

Yesterday NSW Police applied to the NSW Supreme Court to stop this weekend’s planned protests in the Sydney CBD, apparently due to “not [being] satisfied that the protest can proceed safely”. The cops cited the presence of Hezbollah flags at Monday’s rally protesting Israel’s carpet-bombing of Beirut (including a Palestinian refugee camp in the city’s south) and attendees’ supposed refusal to stop displaying “a symbol that is prohibited” as reason enough to decide that protesters this weekend pose a threat to public safety, as well as the recent addition of some planter boxes outside Town Hall.