Refusing to be silenced

I first became aware of Lucy Rogers in November 2023 when she made the news by being arrested while counter-protesting at an anti-Israel rally in Auckland.

I remember being hugely impressed. It was just a few weeks after the obscene Hamas attack of October 2023 and here was a young woman, a criminal defence lawyer, standing alone with a sign. She wasn’t part of any organised advocacy – she was just standing up for what was right at a time when most people were choosing silence, safety, or slogans – pushing back against a narrative that had already hardened into something ugly and aggressive. The images were confronting – not because of what Lucy was doing, but because of how quickly dissent was being shut down.

But Lucy didn’t retreat after the arrest – she doubled down. Since then, I’ve watched her rise – not in profile-chasing fashion, but through persistence. She has become one of New Zealand’s most consistent and visible voices of pro-Israel solidarity, and one of the very few willing to physically show up when it would be far easier not to.

She continued counter-protesting. She continued speaking out. She helped organise rallies against antisemitism. She became associated with NZ Against Hamas, a group that has forced uncomfortable conversations into the open – about Hamas, about October 7, about sexual violence, and about why some causes seem immune from moral scrutiny and media balance.

Lucy and I have never met in person but we’ve had a couple of online conversations – in fact she recently invited me to speak at her Auckland ‘March Against Antisemitism’ and, had circumstances aligned, I’d have willingly made the trip north to support her work. Obviously I share her passion for this particular cause – but I’m also particularly impressed at her refusal to slide into hatred. She repeatedly stresses, through her work and through her online forums, that opposition to Hamas is not opposition to Muslims – a distinction that, unfortunately, too many activists have deliberately blurred.

Which brings me to the point of this article.

At a recent counter-protest in Auckland, Lucy once again stood holding a sign. This time it read:

“Romi Gonen was raped by Hamas.”

That statement refers to revelations that have emerged following the October 7 attacks, in which Romi Gonen was taken captive by Hamas. In the months since, accounts from released hostages, forensic evidence, and investigations by journalists and human rights bodies have documented the use of sexual violence by Hamas terrorists during the attacks and in captivity. Gonen’s name has become associated with those allegations in public reporting – part of a broader and deeply disturbing pattern that many activists prefer not to acknowledge, let alone confront.

Lucy’s sign was drawing attention to this. No profanity. No slur. No threat. Just a fact.

And yet that message was deemed so dangerous that it had to be physically blocked. Protesters used a large keffiyeh to obscure the sign from public view – not accidentally, but deliberately. Review what happened here and here. The aim was obvious: you may not see this; you may not hear this; you may not be reminded of what Hamas did.

This instinct – to shut down opposing views rather than confront them – has become a defining feature of the pro-Hamas and wider pro-Palestinian movement, not just overseas but here at home. We’ve seen it on university campuses, in city streets, and in the media. Silence the sign. Drown out the speaker. Intimidate until only one narrative remains.

It’s a form of extreme censorship that was unheard of in our country until just a few years ago – and there’s only one way to fight it. Push back. Do what Lucy does – alone if you have to. Stand against evil, reject intimidation and refuse to be silenced.

The image above has obviously been altered for effect. But the handwritten words on the sign – those are Lucy’s, in her writing, taken from the actual sign that the voices of darkness didn’t want you to see. I’m posting it – clearly, visibly, and unimpeded – for my tens of thousands of followers to see. No keffiyeh blocking the message. No thugs deciding what the public is allowed to read. Just the statement, and the uncomfortable truth it represents.

If that makes some people angry, so be it.

Sadly, use of that image on social media will trip moderation filters – but I encourage you to link back to this article and get this out to as many people as possible – so that Lucy’s silent protest receives the profile that it deserves.

Lucy’s message draws our attention to a hero: Romi Gonen. Romi is an extraordinary woman with the extraordinary courage that it takes to speak publicly about sexual violence after horrific personal trauma, knowing that your story will be doubted, minimised, or attacked by people who find the truth inconvenient. She deserves our unwavering support and our prayers.

And Lucy – she’s a hero too. For standing up, for holding the sign (both metaphorically and literally), and for refusing to look away when many others choose comfort, career safety, or silence.

Just a few weeks ago the Bondi Beach attack in Australia showed us, yet again, that extreme rhetoric leads to extreme actions. That, left unchecked, the voices of evil that call to ‘globalise the intifada’ will inevitably mobilise the weak minded and the ideologically unhinged. When violence is excused, sanitised, or selectively condemned, the consequences eventually arrive at street level.

All that stands between against the same thing happening here is the Lucy Rogers of this world – so if you believe that standing against Hamas, against antisemitism, and against the intimidation of free speech matters – then I encourage you to join Lucy’s Facebook group, NZ Against Hamas. Here’s the link.

Oh, and if you’re an apologist for Hamas despite the atrocities that they continue to commit – I encourage you to review your position – because history doesn’t tend to look kindly on those who try to cover the truth with a scarf and hope that nobody will notice….