I woke to drink Kopi O kosong, which is / Bahasa Melayu for black coffee with no sugar. The coffee / is thick and rich and sludgy and I like it / best when it is brewed with chicory /root — / earthy and bitter and slightly sour.

On the opening night of the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull in November 2023, three members of the cast wore keffiyehs during curtain call in a gesture of solidarity with Palestinian people under siege in Gaza and the West Bank by the occupying forces of the Israeli state. The controversy that followed will likely be known to readers. What may be less known is that on the same evening, across the world in the US, three young Palestinian men were shot in Burlington, Vermont by a man who noticed them speaking to each other in Arabic, two of them in keffiyehs.

In the face of genocide and apartheid, the Federal Government’s response has not been to impose sanctions on Israel, but rather to open a parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism on campuses that acquiesces to the political pressures of Zionist lobbying and empowers university administrators to repress pro-Palestinian activism under the guise of safety and inclusion.

Hanson’s motion is symbolic, designed to add fuel to a culture war that is already raging. Yet its effects are concrete – they signal a coordinated attack by those who hold public office on principles of anti-racism. This should concern everyone who cares about equality and justice.

We huddle under the eaves while it rains hard and you whisper something in my ear and it feels so good and I want to stay here a little longer but we have to make a run for it. The pavement is cracked and slippery so we take half steps in a bid not to lose control of our own bodies.