During the week leading up to planned Free Palestine-Free Lebanon rallies on October 6 and 7 in Sydney, both Labor Premier Chris Minns and the NSW Police set out to prevent the protests going ahead.
Premier Minns condemned the planned protests as “grossly insensitive” while the NSW Police initiated court proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court to have the protests banned citing public safety concerns. These attempts to stop the rallies were also supported by PM Anthony Albanese and Coalition leader Peter Dutton.
In his comments, Premier Minns warned that anyone found contravening the laws or “demonising the state’s Jewish community” would be punished, while Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna referred to “police on the ground” expressing concerns about “a more aggressive feeling at the moment” within the protest movement due to the involvement of the Lebanese community.1
Of course, there were no legitimate grounds for any of these “concerns”. Free Palestine protests organised by the Palestine Action Group (PAG) have been occurring on a weekly basis for 51 consecutive weeks. Not only have the organisers, as well as speakers, at these demonstrations condemned anti-Semitism, but these peaceful protests have never entailed “demonising the state’s Jewish community”, to use Premier Minns’ words.
For decades, it has been the case that Jewish lobby groups have regarded criticism of the Israeli state as synonymous with anti-Semitism. However, equating the two practices is nothing more than a cheap attempt to discredit such criticism, even when the critics themselves have been Jewish.2
As for the police’s declared concern about a so-called “different undertone within the protest group” and “a more aggressive feeling” being purportedly caused by the Lebanese community, this too was a beat-up.
In cross examination by barrister Arjun Chhabra who appeared for PAG in the Supreme Court on Thursday October 3, Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna admitted that the Lebanese community had been involved since the protests started a year ago.3
As a result of 11th hour negotiations between the NSW Police and protest organisers, it was agreed that the planned Sydney rally and march would go ahead on Sunday October 6, albeit with a change to the march’s route. Protest organisers also announced that a candlelit vigil would be held at 6:00pm in Sydney Town Hall Square on Monday October 7.
In a media conference on Thursday October 3, Amal Nasser from PAG stated:
Lebanese people have been part of our movement since day 1 and any suggestion that they are infiltrating our movement or causing violence or disruption is absolutely disgusting …
In response to a question from the media, Amal Nasser also stated:
This phase of the genocide started on October 7 (2023). On October 7, Netanyahu called Gaza the city of darkness. On October 7, over 300 civilians were killed in airstrikes coming from Israel.
It is very clear that the call for genocide started on this day. It has led to over 42,000 Palestinians being killed. We have a right to mourn them and we have a right to declare that this is the anniversary of the start of this genocide.
I think it is grossly insensitive for the premier not to allow us to mourn and to continuously push back against us. He has never given space for the Palestinian movement in this country – always coming up with new excuses to delegitimise us.4
Notes
1. Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer and Jessica Wang, ‘NSW Premier Chris Minns accused of being ‘grossly insensitive’ over protest stance’, news.com.au, Oct 4, 2024.
2. Refer to Peter Slezek’s speech to Palestine rally in Sydney on October 15, 2023.
3. Ibid.
4. Embedded video in note 1 above.