Meet Nick Hanna:
An Australian criminal defence lawyer, his firm’s website refers to him as “widely recognised as one of the leading criminal defence lawyers in New South Wales, having appeared in many of the State’s most high-profile and complex matters.”
I am not familiar with Nick Hanna’s lawyering, but based on a recent video of his titled The Israel Lobby’s War on Aussie Doctors, I’m not impressed by his ability to argue his case.
In the video, Hanna claims the Zionist lobby seeks to punish doctors and other healthcare workers who criticize Israel and deter others from doing the same.
At one point in the video, he turns his attention to a few of my posts (although he attributes them to fellow Israel activist Sharon Stoliar because they also appear on her Instagram feed).
These are the posts concerning doctors Akil Islam and Zewlan Moor. As you can see by scrolling through the posts, my issue with them was not about “criticism of Israel.” It was about blatant terror support and – at least in the case of Akil Islam – blatant antisemitism:
To be clear: I don’t go after people for merely criticizing Israel. They need to be doing something way worse, and disseminating Jew-hatred and supporting terrorism fit the bill.
Granted, Nick Hanna mentioning my posts – albeit misrepresenting them – does please me because it is futher affirmation I helped make life hell for these terror-supporting doctors. (Although in the case of Akil Islam, I was already aware, given his unsuccessful efforts to get me to remove my post).
Ultimately, Nick Hanna’s failure to accurately present the evidence – by conflating legitimate concerns over terror support and antisemitism with mere “criticism of Israel” – does more than just undermine his video’s premise. It seriously calls into question the diligence, intellectual honesty, or even critical thinking skills of a lawyer who touts his success in complex matters.
