NSW Police considering using 'extraordinary' powers at planned Sydney pro-Palestinian rally
www.abc.net.au
Acting Commissioner Dave Hudson said police would be able to search protesters and require identification ahead of the planned gathering in Sydney's CBD.

NSW Police is considering authorising the use of “extraordinary” powers to search and identify protesters ahead of a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney planned for Sunday.

Acting Commissioner Dave Hudson said an event by the Palestinian Action Group Sydney was deemed unauthorised this week due to a form not being submitted within the required time frame.

It followed a protest in front of Sydney Opera House earlier this week where racial epithets were chanted by some attendees.

On Monday night hundreds of people attended a pro-Palestinian rally outside the Sydney Opera House, while the landmark was lit in colours of the Israeli flag.

At the protest flares were lit by some in the crowd and thrown onto the forecourt steps, where rows of police officers were monitoring the situation.

Some protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans like “f… the Jews”, “free Palestine” and “shame Israel”.

No arrests were made and no-one was reported to have been injured.

Acting Commissioner Hudson on Friday said if the powers were used, police would be able to search attendees without reasonable cause and request identification, where failure to provide relevant documents would be deemed an offence.

The wider powers were introduced after the 2005 Cronulla riots and have been used “intermittently” since, the acting commissioner said.

“The powers are extensive, when the authority is granted all those powers will be available to us, however, we would not be looking to exercise the full suite of powers,” Acting Commissioner Hudson said.

“Only the ones bespoke to the situation we’re currently in, and we think those additional powers are required to appropriately and safely manage what is to occur on Sunday.”

He warned protesters planning to attend not to go to the planned gathering, but said police are expecting between 300 and 400 people at the moment.

“We don’t prohibit anyone from the right to protest but there are peaceful manners in which that could happen,” Acting Commissioner Hudson said.

“People do have a right to protest, but there are responsibilities with that.”

  • LineNoise@kbin.social
    17·
    1 year ago

    To repeat a post from a couple of days ago, from the organisers:

    Palestine Action Group statement on last night’s protest:

    On 9 October 2023, Palestine Action Group organised a successful rally in support of Palestine, calling for the end of the occupation and for Australia to cut ties to Israel. Thousands on thousands of diverse attendees marched to the Opera House and demonstrated our opposition to Australia’s support to the State of Israel, a genocidal apartheid regime which has waged war on Palestinians for over 75 years.

    Today, we have woken up to the Premier of NSW, the Prime-Minister, the Foreign Affairs Minister and Independent MP, Allegra Spender condemning our protests and questioning why it went ahead. Let us affirm, we have the right to demonstrate. At a conjuncture where anti-protest laws widen to target anyone who opposes the colonial and capitalist structures of this state from First Nations movements to the Climate Justice movement, the states attack on Pro-Palestinian protestors is no different. Australia as a colonial and imperialist entity will always support Israel and the state is frightened by people in their masses showing that we oppose imperialism and colonialism. At a time where the people of Palestine resist over 75 years of war and massacres and Israel declares intent to commit genocide against the people of Gaza, we will demonstrate, we will continue to demonstrate and we will show this state that we oppose apartheid, we oppose settler-colonialism and we oppose genocide.

    Despite a very successful and peaceful rally, the media has reported on a tiny fringe (we estimate less than 20 people) of vile antisemitic attendees who showed up to the opera house for an event unrelated to the demonstration we organised. Media reports and videos circulating show young boys, mostly in their teens chanting “fuck the Jews”. From our observations this occurred for less than one minute and was not an ongoing chant. They were quickly condemned for their chants and asked to leave. Long-standing Palestinian organisers and activists, Palestinian, Arab and Muslim elders attending the protest were disgusted and deplored by the action. This is not what our movement stands for. We oppose Zionism, an ideology distinct from Judaism. We oppose Israel, a racist state which has waged genocide on Palestinians. We are an anti-racist and anti-colonial movement and we refuse to fight racism with racism.

    PAG has a long-standing history of working with Jewish activists and organisers who oppose Zionism, from Tzedek to Jews against the occupation, we share anti racist and anti colonial values with our anti-Zionist Jewish siblings. We thank them for their ongoing solidarity, including the contingent who attended this very rally. We’ve checked in with as many of those Jewish people in the contingent as we know to ensure they are feeling safe and okay.

    For over a decade we have organised peaceful Palestinian rallies and we have mobilised the Australian community and we will continue to mobilise. If you are an antisemite, you are not welcome at our rallies and are not a part of our movement. As we did today, we will ask you to leave and we will continue to do this. We thank the 99.9% who have continued to show up for Palestine, who have continued to help keep our rallies peaceful and promote anti-racist and anti-colonial values.

    We will be back on the streets at 1pm, Sunday 15 October 2023, at Town Hall to continue to protest both attacks on Palestinian resistance and Israel’s declaration of genocide on Palestinians. We will not bow to pressure from parliamentarians to end our mobilisations. We will demonstrate until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea!

    Free Palestine and f*ck racism.

    https://www.facebook.com/syd.bmbc/posts/pfbid02DQP8J4JCNr42JcbT5cpiWkGPircjjj4iUU9v4xftU37xcFEwXmfjFuH5zGztuEwhl

    • abhibeckert@beehaw.org
      1·
      1 year ago

      Despite a very successful and peaceful rally, the media has reported on a tiny fringe (we estimate less than 20 people) of vile antisemitic attendees who showed up to the opera house for an event unrelated to the demonstration we organised.

      Sorry, but the fact there were “vile antisemitic attendees” means it was not a “successful and peaceful” rally. It’s a miracle nobody was injured and it could easily have been a catastrophe.

      It’s not enough to tell those people they are not welcome at the rally. It’s not enough to “ask them to leave”. They need to be blocked from taking part and by force if necessary… the organisers don’t need to be directly involved in that work, but they do need to collaborate with police.

      • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zoneEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        It was indeed a peaceful rally, In fact, so peaceful that when a small minority resorted to hate speech their fellow protesters and the protest organisers were able to dissuade them of their behaviour peacefully. No violence, no cops.

        Do you often refer to people you oppose politically as ‘these people’ or are you so far down the racist rabbit hole you can’t recognise you’re own hate and hypocrisy?

        • abhibeckert@beehaw.org
          1·
          1 year ago

          Do you often refer to people you oppose politically as ‘these people’

          I don’t oppose them politically, I oppose them because they are antisemitic. And it has nothing to do with race. There are plenty of people of my own race (german, by the way) who are even worse.

          Being antisemitic is not a political position. Just so we are perfectly clear, anyone who commits antisemitic acts is a criminal in Australia. I fully support the right to protest and I’d be happy to sit down and have a conversation over a meal with most of the people at the protest and would gladly do what I can to help them. My own grandfather has described what it was like when he was a teenager and all his relatives and friends were killed in a single night of death and destruction when his home city was bombed, and my heart goes out to the people going through that now and friends and families of those people. But no, I won’t tolerate antisemitism.