Police stand accused of vilifying people who want to show solidarity after NSW officials flagged using “extraordinary powers” to target planned pro-Palestine protests.
Organisers from the Palestine Action Group Sydney said Palestinian Australians had essentially been told they had no right to grieve or protest war crimes in Gaza.
“What we have seen in the past week in NSW is a draconian attack on our right to demonstrate in solidarity with the people of Palestine, who are currently facing a genocide in Gaza,” co-organiser Amal Naser said.
Protests are planned for Canberra, Perth and Brisbane on Friday and organisers are pushing ahead with rallies in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide over the weekend.
The rallies erupted after Israel launched retaliatory strikes in Gaza following the deaths of more than 1000 people at the hands of Hamas militants.
Some attendees at a Sydney protest on Monday chanted anti-Jewish slurs and set off flares at the Opera House, sparking condemnation from state and federal politicians and Jewish community groups.
NSW Police urged people not to attend a planned second gathering in Hyde Park on Sunday, despite organisers promising it would be a peaceful gathering.
Acting Commissioner Dave Hudson said police had requested authorisation to use rarely deployed “special powers” to search people and demand their identities at the rally.
Premier Chris Minns said any decision to exercise additional powers would only be taken if officers believed it was in the interests of public safety.
“Police are not considering these powers out of the clear blue sky,” he told reporters on Friday.
“We gave these organisers a go and they failed to control the crowd and it descended into violence and we can’t let that happen again.”
A significant police presence is expected in Sydney’s city centre and the broader metropolitan area on Sunday.
“There is a right to protest in NSW but there’s also a right to be free from intimidation, from incitement to violence, from racial vilification or actual violence,” Mr Minns said.
In Queensland, police were confident a protest in Brisbane’s King George Square on Friday would run smoothly but warned violence would not be tolerated.
The force liaised this week with Islamic groups and the Israeli Jewish community and increased patrols around places of worship.
Queensland Assistant Commissioner Brian Connors asked the several hundred protesters expected to be respectful and to obey police instructions.
“If we believe that people are behaving in a manner that threatens community safety, offends or incites violence, we will be swift and decisive,” he said.
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said he was very disappointed by the planned police response.
“Australians of Palestinian ancestry, who want to show support for Palestine, have somehow all been lumped in with 10 or 15 people who absolutely, unacceptably used some anti-Semitic slurs,” he told Sky News.
“If Palestinians and Australians who support Palestine can’t come out and express a concern about (the events in Israel) without being vilified as being supporters of violence, that’s just outrageous, that’s not the Australia we know.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for calm after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said non-citizens who spouted hate speech at the rallies should be deported.
“This is not a time for certain politicians to be seeking to play into the fear and division in the community, it is time for all of us to say we stand against all hatred, all prejudice,” she said.
Three men were arrested shortly before noon on Friday after police were called to the Sydney Jewish Museum.
“The incident in Darlinghurst today involved three men giving Zieg Heil salutes,” a museum spokesperson told AAP.
Source: AAP
