Fearing it would cause hostility, Sydney cancels controversial ‘Globalize the intifada’ forum

The mayor of Sydney said Monday that she had canceled a controversial forum promoting the slogan “Globalize the intifada.”

The event, organized by the activist group Stop the War on Palestine, was set to take place on Tuesday as the Royal Commission holds an inquiry into the country’s growing antisemitism problem. It was to be held as the state of New South Wales considers banning public use of the phrase and had drawn sharp condemnation from political and Jewish leaders.

On Monday evening, Mayor Clover Moore posted on social media that she had asked the city’s CEO to cancel the event out of concern that it would “contribute to hostility and fear.”

“I have long supported the principles of peaceful assembly, protest and freedom of speech,” she wrote on Facebook. “However, these rights must always be balanced with a responsibility to ensure public safety and respect for all members of our diverse community.”

Moore blamed local media owned by news magnate Rupert Murdoch for amplifying tensions over the event. News outlets have “exploited trauma, painting complex issues in black and white and, in bad faith, demanded our communities take sides,” she said. “I am extremely concerned that in this case, some outlets are driving a discourse of division that has heightened tensions more than any small community event could.”

The event was scheduled to be held in the East Sydney Community and Arts Centre, after it had been moved from a state council-owned community center in response to public backlash. NSW council members had previously rebuffed calls to cancel the event, saying they supported freedom of assembly, provided no laws are broken.

Sydney Mayor Clover Moore has decided to cancel an event supporting the phrase “Globalise the Intifada” that was set to take place on Tuesday, while sensationally blaming the media for spreading "division".https://t.co/DOwJjQSdJd

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 4, 2026

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies welcomed the decision.

“We have been engaging intensively with the council to explain why this event would endanger public safety and grievously undermine social cohesion,” the organization posted on Facebook. “We are pleased that this toxic event will no longer take place at a council venue and reiterate our calls for this phrase to be proscribed as swiftly as possible.”

The phrase “Globalize the intifada” has become a flashpoint in public debate, particularly in the aftermath of the December 14 terror attack on a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach that killed 15. Jewish organizations have warned that the language carries connotations of violence, with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) noting that the term “intifada” is associated with bloody, violent campaigns involving attacks on civilians.

The event’s organizers, the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activist group Stop the War on Palestine, have argued that the term “intifada” — Arabic for uprising — represents a legitimate call for political resistance and free speech. A flyer promoting the forum said efforts to ban the phrase were designed to “smear and repress the Palestine movement.” The second Palestinian intifada, from 2000-2005, was marked by a strategic onslaught of Palestinian suicide bombers against Israeli targets, primarily killing civilians.

After the Bondi Beach attack, Australian lawmakers proposed tougher laws against hate speech, including a proposed ban on the slogan in NSW. The state of Queensland formally proscribed the use of the phrase in March, and NSW Premier Chris Minns has sought to do the same, calling the slogan “hateful, violent rhetoric.”

However, that effort was complicated last month when the NSW Court of Appeal struck down a set of anti-protest laws that had been proposed by the government, ruling that protecting people from “upsetting or inflammatory” speech was not a sufficient legal reason to burden constitutional rights.

“Suppressing public debate of certain kinds may be a means to a legitimate end, but it cannot be a legitimate end in itself,” the justices wrote in their ruling. Analysts believe that the ruling may have stymied future efforts to ban political slogans unless there is a clear call to incite hatred, harassment or violence.

Germany and Austria have both legislated severe restrictions on the use of the phrase, along with other inciteful slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for police to prosecute people chanting it after two Jewish men were stabbed in London in a terror attack.

The Sydney event was scheduled to take place as members of Australia’s Jewish community are offering personal testimony at a public hearing investigating the factors that led to the Bondi Beach attack, in which a father and son massacred 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah event on Australia’s most famous beach in December in an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack. Thousands of Jews have submitted applications to bear witness to the effects of antisemitism on their lives since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the Gaza war, according to reports.