A Sydney barrister who has acted for the pro-Palestine group responsible for storming the Opera House on October 9 has sued a Jewish charities and construction lawyer and reported her to the legal watchdog, after she accused him of “supporting terrorism”.
Former police officer Mahmud Hawila and Melbourne lawyer Harriet Warlow-Shill have been embroiled in a bitter LinkedIn dispute over their differing views on the evolving conflict in the Middle East. While Mr Hawila condemns the “genocide” of Palestinians at the hands of Israel, Ms Warlow-Shill has called out his allegations as “nonsense”.
Among his frequent LinkedIn posts, Mr Hawila has referred to Gaza as “the world’s largest and most inhumane open-air prison”, and accused mainstream media organisations of refusing to “hear about 75 years of occupation and ethnic cleansing”.
He has supported the work of former ABC radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf, who is currently in a Fair Work dispute with the public broadcaster after she was taken off air last year.
He has also praised Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi’s “sheer courage” for referring to Israel as a “genocidal state” in parliament.
Mr Hawila has previously represented the Palestine Action Group, which was responsible for the protests outside the Opera House in early October.
Late last year, Mr Hawila praised the “bravery” of former United Nations official Craig Mokhiber, who, after his resignation, accused the body of failing to address “a textbook case of genocide.”
“Well done, mate,” Mr Hawila, who also lectures legal ethics at the University of Sydney, wrote on LinkedIn.
In reply to the post, Ms Warlow-Shill accused Mr Hawila of “hiding behind his ‘no comment’ wall”, citing a “nonsense allegation of genocide” and failing to address “Hamas launching rockets from kids play areas and hospitals”.
Ms Warlow-Shill also claimed Mr Hawila’s post was “Lies. Distortion. Supporting terrorism.”
Mr Hawila served Ms Warlow-Shill with a defamation concerns notice in November, urging her to remove the “completely false … indefensible” post, issue an online apology, and pay his legal fees.
“You continue to publish the defamatory imputations of our client on your LinkedIn page, in circumstances where you (at the very least) now know that the claim that he supports terrorism, either through the entirely innocuous post which you have referenced or otherwise, is completely false,” the concerns notice, obtained by The Australian, reads. “Such conduct will entitle our client to aggravated damages.”
In the concerns notice, Mr Hawila claims Ms Warlow-Shill’s post caused “serious harm” to him, because it was made “in a highly charged international political climate and the charge of terrorism support at such a time will lead to greater reputational damage to an individual with a common Muslim name”.
“The imputations link our client to serious criminal conduct, which is completely antithetical to the values and good standing of an Australian legal practitioner,” the concerns notice reads.
Mr Hawila, who volunteers at the Australian Hate Crime Network, has also reported Ms Warlow-Shill to the Victorian Legal Services Board for her conduct on social media.
Ms Warlow-Shill earlier this year reported Mr Hawila to the NSW Legal Services Commissioner, telling The Australian it was “completely unacceptable and inappropriate for a barrister to condone calls for the genocide of the people of Israel”.
“Although of course democracy requires free speech, as an officer of the court, a lawyer must comply with all laws of the country,” she said.
“By sharing video footage of people shouting ‘from the river to the sea’ with approval, Mr Hawila condoned the call for the genocide of the Jewish people that reside in Israel.”
Mr Hawila, however, said Ms Warlow-Shill’s allegations were “baseless”. Through a statement from his lawyer, Moustafa Kheir, he said Ms Warlow-Shill’s comments aim “to distract from Israel’s actual genocide of Palestinians”.
He also defended his support of the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” “It is literally a call to free the most oppressed indigenous peoples on Earth, and demands that they be allowed the most basic human rights and dignity we enjoy every day here in Australia,” Mr Hawila’s statement reads. “It is no different to the iconic phrase, ‘Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land’ which emerged in the Aboriginal land rights movement. Both Palestinians and Aboriginals are First Nations peoples.”
The Australian
https://warlowslegal.com.au/about-harriet-warlow-shill-our-fearless-leader
Sources
Australia: Pro-Palestine lawyer sues lawyer over ‘terrorism’ claim
