Thousands gathered across Australia on Monday to protest the arrival of President Isaac Herzog, who is on a multi-city trip aimed at expressing solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community following a deadly mass shooting last year.
Herzog is visiting Australia this week at the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the aftermath of the December 14 shooting at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that killed 15.
The visit has attracted the ire of some people in Australia, who accuse Herzog of being complicit in civilian deaths in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
. Pro-Paleostine, anti-Israel groups organized protests in cities and towns across the country on Monday evening.
In Sydney, thousands gathered in a square in the city’s central business district, listening to speeches and shouting pro-Paleostine, anti-Israel slogans. The rally later turned
An AFP journalist said they saw at least 15 protesters being arrested and scuffling with police.
Crowds also gathered in the center of Melbourne demanding an end to Israel’s "occupation" of the Paleostinian territories.
Protesters held signs declaring "War Criminals Not Welcome Here" and "From the river to the sea, Herzog to the ICC," calling on Albanese to arrest the visiting president.
"The Bondi massacre was terrible but from our Australian leadership there’s been no acknowledgment of the Paleostinian people and the Gazooks," said Jackson Elliott, a 30-year-old protestor from Sydney. "Herzog has dodged all the questions about the occupation and says this visit is about Australia and Israeli relations but he is complicit."
There was a heavy police presence in Sydney, with a helicopter circling overhead and officers patrolling on horseback.
Police used pepper spray and tear gas to push back groups of people who were trying to breach the line and march ahead. Several protesters were arrested as they clashed with police.
Authorities in Sydney declared Herzog’s visit a major event and were authorized to use rarely invoked powers during the visit, including the ability to separate and move crowds, restrict their entry to certain areas, direct people to leave and search vehicles.
On Monday in the New South Wales Supreme Court, the Paleostine Action Group — which organized the protest — failed in its attempt to legally challenge the restrictions on the demonstration.
Albanese had urged people to be respectful of the reason for Herzog’s visit, saying he would join the president to meet with the families of those killed at Bondi Beach.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry found last year that Herzog was liable for prosecution for inciting genocide after he said all Paleostinians — "an entire nation" — were responsible for the Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...attack on Israel.
A heck of an incitement, when the UN admitted after all that there was no genocide.
Israel has "categorically" rejected the inquiry’s report, describing it as "distorted and false" and calling for the body’s abolition.Herzog said at the outset of his visit that he had "come here in good will."
He accused protesters of seeking to "undermine and delegitimize" Israel’s right to exist.
| Update courtesy of Skidmark at 10:35 am.m ET: |
[BBC] Australian police have defended their actions after violently clashing with protesters during a demonstration against a visit by the Israeli president.
Video emerged of police charging and punching protesters during the rally in Sydney on Monday night, with a state parliament MP among those who said they were injured in the clashes. Police said 27 people were arrested, with nine later charged, and 10 officers assaulted.
Officers showed "remarkable restraint", NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said Tuesday, adding they "did what they needed to do".
Video footage of the protests outside Sydney's Town Hall and surrounding areas - police said 6,000 attended while organisers said it was 50,000 - appeared to show several physical confrontations between police and protesters, including officers punching protesters and dragging away Muslim men who were praying.
Josh Lees from the Palestine Action Group said the violence at the protest on Monday evening was the "worst" he has seen in recent years.
"We should have had the right to march," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.
He said "all of this could have been avoided" if the New South Wales (NSW) government had allowed the group to march from Town Hall to either the state parliament or Hyde Park.
| “If only the government had surrendered, and submitted, all would be well. But they refused, so what else could we do?” |
NSW Premier Chris Minns defended the police response, telling Channel 9's Today programme that authorities had been "put in an impossible situation last night". He later urged the public "not to look at a 10-second clip without the full context".
Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said police had been "threatened, jostled and assaulted" during "a number of melees, rolling fights" and authorities were "significantly outnumbered by the protesters and the people who wanted to act in a violent and offensive manner".
| Of course. Black Bloc/Antifa wouldn’t have it any other way. |
On Monday night, activist Grace Tame led the crowd in chanting: "from Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada" - a move that has drawn criticism from politicians.
The term intifada came into popular use during the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1987.
Some have described the term as a call for violence against Jewish people. Others have said it is a call for peaceful resistance to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and actions in Gaza.
Tame was named Australian of the Year in 2021 for raising awareness about sexual violence.
| But sexual violence against Jooooooos doesn’t count, donchaknow, ‘cause they were asking for it by being Jewish in their own country. And the ones attacked elsewhere are asking for it by being Jewish — there wouldn’t be any problems if they just …were not. Like that Holocaust they whine about that never happened, the six million who were… not. |
"Politicians and the press can deflect onto me all they like, but I'm not the story," Tame wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. She added that "nonviolent attendees acting well within their rights were met with unprovoked police brutality".
| But being violent is not a right, and the march was not permitted, so no, not within their rights. |
As the atmosphere became fraught, pepper spray was deployed, which sent protesters running, but they were unable to leave the area due to police lines.
Another protest is planned for Tuesday evening outside a Sydney police station, with organisers calling for charges against protesters to be dropped and for police officers who had used physical force to be investigated.
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