Not all protests have a violent intent or target a group as illegitimate. But there are many Jewish people in Australia who feel that they are being attacked and that violence is being fomented against them. They see it every day when they watch the news, they worry about it when they see security guards at their schools or when at their synagogues, and they hear it when they are told that they have no right to cultural safety if they believe in the right of Jewish people to a homeland.

After the terrorist shootings at Bondi, the New South Wales government has empowered the police commissioner to put limits on protests or to ban them. The problem is that in allowing the banning of all protests, our laws go too far. They treat every protest as the same, without regard to intent, conduct, or risk.

In the context of a terrorist massacre at Bondi beach and violent attacks in Melbourne and Perth, it is not unreasonable to ask what does it mean to have a safe and thriving democracy? What does it mean to protect citizens while safeguarding free speech?

These are precisely the questions we must confront as the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, prepares to visit Australia.

I grew up in a different age. One where Martin Luther King Jr reminded the world that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time. That philosophy has long imbued my work. Last September, I retraced part of the Freedom Riders’ journey through the American south. In seeking to understand the impact of systemic discrimination and the power and meaning of peaceful protest, I was also........

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