A series of pro-Palestine rallies are set to go ahead across Australia as tensions continue to escalate after the Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel almost a week ago.
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.
Pro-Palestine protests erupted after Israel launched retaliatory strikes following the deaths of more than 1000 people at the hands of Hamas militants. Some Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage.
A rally in Sydney on Monday night saw some attendees chanted anti-Jewish slurs and participants set off flares at the Opera House, prompting condemnation from state and federal politicians and Jewish community groups.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said what was chanted in Sydney was completely unacceptable.
“Anti-Semitism has no place in this country, nor does Islamophobia, nor does racism,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program on Friday.
“When people break the law, police should take action.”
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner doesn’t want to see similar scenes at a rally due to take place at King George Square on Friday from 6pm.
Mr Schrinner is concerned about rising anti-Semitism in the community, adding there was no justification for the type of terrorism being driven by Hamas in Israel.
“To think that some people are trying to justify this at the moment is sickening to me,” he said on Thursday.
Also on Friday evening, a few hundred people are expected at a rally in Canberra’s Garema Place and another protest is set to go ahead in Perth’s Murray St Mall.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said any incitement to violence should be met with a “very, very heavy hand” and called for non-citizens who preached anti-Semitic speech at the rallies to be deported.
“People with that hate in their minds, in their hearts, don’t have any place in our society,” he said.
The Palestinian Action Group described Mr Dutton’s comments as “a shocking attack on democratic rights”.
“People have a right to protest against the war crimes and apartheid policies of the Israeli state,” the group said.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess said people making public statements must “consider the implications for social cohesion”.
“As I have said previously, words matter,” he said on Thursday.
“ASIO has seen direct connections between inflamed language and inflamed community tensions.”
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has urged Australians to consider the optics of the rallies, which could further hurt an already reeling Jewish community, adding it wasn’t about political views on Israel and Palestine.
Meanwhile, organisers will push ahead with a second Sydney rally on Sunday despite police not giving official approval for a march, after moving the venue to Hyde Park from the Sydney Town Hall.
