For those who missed it, there was a peaceful protest outside the Wickham Hotel on Saturday night after a bunch of hospo workers refused to work at a social event organised by the State Zionist Council of Queensland.

The Zionist Council is a political group which supports forcibly removing Palestinians from their land (often referred to as 'ethnic cleansing') and annexing the rest of Palestine into the Israeli nation-state.

I was present for most of the protest on Saturday (I left about 15 minutes before it ended). It largely consisted of people standing on the footpaths outside the Wickham, chanting slogans about freeing Palestine and rising up against oppression etc.

Some media reports suggested there were 150 people participating in the protest. Personally I reckon there would've been 70 or 80 at absolute maximum. Usually the mainstream media grossly underestimates the number of people attending pro-Palestine protests, so it's funny that in this case they've significantly exaggerated the turnout.

Let's look at some of the claims made by the Courier Mail and other conservative media outlets like 4BC radio:

• protesters 'surrounded' the building -- this is false

• protesters blocked entrances/exits to the Wickham Hotel -- this is also false (I think reasonable people could argue that it WOULD have been ethically justifiable to block entrances to prevent the Zionist event from happening, but that's not what happened here in the real world)

• protesters "stormed the venue" -- utter bullshit

• protesters 'hurled objects' at attendees -- I didn't see anyone throwing anything at Zionists, and people on the megaphone were repeatedly emphasising the importance of keeping the protest peaceful. It's worth noting that several police were present at the main entrance and would almost certainly have arrested a protester if they'd thrown something. Channel 7 had a cameraman onsite and lots of other people were filming too.

If a protester had thrown something at another person, there's a very high chance it would've been filmed, and there probably would've been arrests. I'm gonna treat this claim as false too until someone shows me footage to the contrary.

So what we have here is a noisy but strictly non-violent footpath protest, that didn't block roads, driveways or building entrances, during which even the Queensland Police (who love creating bullshit excuses for arresting activists) couldn't find ANY examples of assault, hate speech, trespass or anything else for which they might justify arresting someone.

And yet, if you read the Courier Mail or listen to 4BC radio shock-jocks, you'd be led to believe that a violent anti-Semitic mob attacked a Jewish religious festival.

We've all seen media beat-ups before. But in this case the chasm between reality and how the media are describing it is breathtakingly wide.

I should note that a few commenters have suggested that even though Israel's genocidal invasion and occupation of Palestine is worthy of condemnation, it's wrong to protest outside a social event that's held to coincide with a religious festival. This line of argument falls into the same trap of conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

Remember: this event was organised by a political advocacy group in a bar/nightclub. It's in no way equivalent to a religious ceremony at a church/temple/mosque.

If the Minerals Council of Australia (a political lobby group that advocates for the interests of mining billionaires) held a Christmas Party at the Wickham Hotel, I would protest that too. The fact that the party was connected to a religious event -- Christmas -- doesn't mean that protesting outside would be equivalent to spreading hatred against Christians.

Political groups that wield significant power in society while advocating harmful and destructive policies don't get to claim immunity from protest just because their social events double up as religious festivities.

I know different people have different definitions of what the word 'Zionism' means to them, but as far as I know, the State Zionist Council of Queensland is still actively supporting the Israeli regime and advocating for more Australian government support for Israel's invasion of Palestine.

Until the Zionist Council publicly condemns the brutal murders of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, I will feel very comfortable supporting peaceful protests against such an organisation.

I'll end with a quote from a Jewish-Australian woman, Robin, who was present outside the Wickham Hotel on Saturday night in support of the workers protesting against the event.

"Shame Courier Mail! Disgraceful so-called journalism. I was there - on the outside - and I am Jewish. It was a Zionist event - not a Jewish one. It was literally the Zionist Council of Queensland. We don't know the ethnicity or religion of the people who attended - only that they are Zionists- which is a political ideology. Many Zionists are not Jewish. And many Jewish people - like me - oppose Zionism. No-one on the outside said anything about Jewish people. And no-one stormed the place. The Courier Mail has "limited" who can comment on this story but we need to call out their conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and their referring to Zionists as Jews. Stop the genocide. Free Palestine!"