Victoria Police drop intervention order against Israel advocate
Victoria Police have withdrawn their case against Zara Cooper after telling the magistrate there was no prospect of success.
After conceding they had no prospect of success, Victoria Police have withdrawn their application for a controversial intervention order against Israel activist Zara Cooper.
According to The Australian, when asked by Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge to explain, police said the decision followed legal advice that there was no prospect of success. The matter was therefore formally abandoned on Friday.
In March, police applied for a personal safety intervention order (PSIO) on behalf of Sarah Schwartz, the leader of far-left group Jewish Council of Australia, alleging Cooper’s online commentary was severely affecting her mental health. Cooper posts under the name Clammy Fraud on social media and has been critical of Schwartz and her Council.
Police had been granted more time to collect evidence on Cooper’s alleged harmful social media posts against Schwartz, despite providing 26 pages of social media content to the court.
But last month Schwartz asked Victoria Police to withdraw the PSIO against Cooper and advised she will not be providing them with a statement. Schwartz accused Cooper of intending to use court proceedings, “to further her disgusting and racist social media commentary”.
In a lengthy social media post, Schwartz said that while some of Cooper’s posts about the Jewish Council “constitute legitimate political commentary”, the quantity of them “demonstrate a level of fixation on me as an individual rather than my politics”.
“Ms Cooper is clearly fixated, having made at least 671 social media posts about myself and the Jewish Council,” said Schwartz.
“Most of these posts reference me by name, and not, for example, my male co-Executive Officer. They are clearly racist and sexist in nature.”
Cooper has never met Schwartz in person, nor has she spoken with her or threatened her. Her small Instagram account is dedicated to calling out antisemitism and fighting for improved online safety. Yet police have still targeted her despite multiple online activists with far larger platforms continuing to menace the Jewish community and cause tangible harm.
comments