New South Wales police have pepper-sprayed protesters at a Sydney rally opposing Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit, with a state Labor MP claiming their actions were “totally over-the-top” and a Greens MP alleging she was assaulted.
The violent and chaotic scenes came after thousands gathered lawfully near Sydney’s Town Hall on Monday evening, before attempting to march to state parliament in defiance of a NSW law passed after the Bondi antisemitic terror attack that effectively bans protesters from marching in designated areas.
It also followed a NSW supreme court case in which the Palestine Action Group failed to overturn sweeping powers handed to police for the duration of Herzog’s visit.
Police said 27 people were arrested and a number of protesters were treated after being pepper-sprayed. According to police, 10 officers were “assaulted” but none of those assaults were serious.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, and Labor backbencher Sarah Kaine were among the high-profile people who addressed the crowd. Four NSW Labor backbenchers defied the premier to attend the protest.
But more than an hour after the protest started, organisers and police held tense conversations, with demonstrators attempting to negotiate with officers to allow protesters to march.
Police refused to let people march, telling organisers that protesters had to disperse and could not legally march.
“You need to tell these people to disperse in an orderly manner,” senior police officer Paul Dunstan was overheard telling an organiser. “You do not have the right to go on the roadway under the [public assembly restriction designation], you know that.”
Police also said over a megaphone that protesters had to move on due to a “major event” declaration, which the Palestine Action Group had failed to overturn in the supreme court just hours before.
Protesters began beating drums and yelling “let us march”. As protesters attempted to march, police pepper-sprayed the crowd. People near the front ran back, coughing and spluttering, while those who were sprayed poured water over their eyes.
Various scuffles broke out, with a number of people detained by police.
NSW Labor backbencher Anthony D’Adam alleged he saw police punching and throwing someone to the ground, as tensions heated up.
He alleged an officer pushed his bike into a woman and “clearly hurt her”. When she got angry, he claims another officer pushed her into the crowd and other bystanders, who fell over, were shocked and angry and started yelling.
“That then resulted in a number of other officers joining the fray,” D’Adam told Guardian Australia.
“They grabbed someone and threw them on to the ground,” he said, alleging punches were thrown.
“It just seemed totally over-the-top in terms of the police reaction.”
D’Adam said if the government, which he is a member of, had allowed the protesters to march up George Street, it would not have happened.
NSW police were contacted for comment. A spokesperson said that, as a matter of practice, the force did not comment on remarks made by other individuals.
Numerous protesters echoed D’Adam’s sentiment, telling Guardian Australia it would have been safer for police to let protesters march as they attempted to move past the containment lines created by police.
Guardian Australia saw police on multiple occasions confining protesters to an area in a controversial tactic known as kettling, and also dragging protesters away. Dozens of police charged at protesters down Elizabeth Street, pushing people over in the process.
One person, who approached Guardian Australia for water after he had been pepper-sprayed, said he had been attempting to get away when police deployed the spray.
“I wasn’t sure which way to go,” he said.
Footage showed a number of men kneeling to pray before some were dragged away by police. Greens MP Abigail Boyd was watching as the scene unfolded, and alleged she was then pushed by police, injuring her wrist and chin.
“I just kept repeating ‘I’m an MP, please give me my space’ and then they just rushed into the back of me,” she told Guardian Australia.
“This is completely unnecessary violence from police empowered by a premier who is intent on quashing dissent at every turn.”
‘Contagion of groupthink’
After the protest, assistant police commissioner Peter McKenna accused the speakers at the rally of “inciting the crowd to march”.
“It was really something that was quite inflammatory,” he said. “In fact, it got to the point that I believe the crowd really took part in some type of contagion of groupthink.
“It took hours and hours to clear the CBD tonight, and was really quite precarious at times for our officers who were significantly outnumbered by the protesters and the people who wanted to act in a violent and offensive manner.”
Asked if the protest would have been less violent had the police allowed protesters to march, he said: “It wasn’t a matter of us letting protesters march. There was legislation in place to say they couldn’t march.
“Don’t forget, we also had an internationally protected person, [a] guest of government in town … so we’ve got an obligation to protect that person, and that was part of the operation tonight.”
McKenna said police had tried to negotiate with protesters ahead of time to march south from Hyde Park, which does not fall within the protest restriction zone.
Earlier, before the scuffles broke out, Kaine had addressed the crowd.
“Protest is legal. Protest is legitimate. Protest is necessary, and protests will continue in the name of peace, compassion and justice,” she said.
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame also addressed the Town Hall crowd.
“What a backwards world is it when a so-called democracy silences and surveils academic research, art, music and sports and funds genocide,” she said.
“We have to continue to mobilise, and we have to continue to globalise. Say it with me, from Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada.”
The Minns government is looking to ban that phrase when it is used to incite hatred, harassment, intimidation or violence.
The protests in Sydney and Melbourne took place as Herzog addressed a major event about 650 metres away at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICC) in Sydney honouring the victims of the Bondi massacre.
Minns attended along with the former prime minister Scott Morrison.
According to Nine newspapers, Herzog told the crowd: “The hatred that triggered the shooting at Bondi is the very same scourge of antisemitism that began … generations before the state of Israel was born. This is what it means to globalise the intifada.”
Thousands of people also protested in Melbourne against Herzog’s visit, with some clashing with police. Victoria police appeared to use pepper spray on at least one protester.
Senator Lidia Thorpe addressed the crowd at the event, saying: “As I said before, I stand against violence of all forms, particularly genocide. I stand in solidarity [with] the victims in Bondi … But I also stand with my Palestinian brothers and sisters.”
Herzog was speaking on Monday night at an Evening of Light and Solidarity event, organised by the Zionist Federation of Australia and the Jewish Board of Deputies, one of a series of planned Jewish community events around the country this week.
A portion of the proceeds from the ticketed event was to be donated to the Bondi beach terror attack community relief appeal, according to its Ticketek description.
Attendees entered the venue in the hours before the event, some draped in Israeli flags, while a police helicopter hovered overhead.
Entrances to the convention centre and Darling Harbour precinct were blocked by hundreds of police, some on horseback and others from the riot squad carrying assault rifles.
Albanese invited Herzog after the 14 December antisemitic shooting in which 15 people were killed, saying his visit was intended to foster a greater sense of unity.
Some have called for Herzog’s arrest after a finding by a UN commission, which does not speak on behalf of the UN, that Herzog, along with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, “have incited the commission of genocide”.
Herzog has called the genocide case against Israel in the international court of justice a “form of blood libel” and pushed back on criticism of his 2023 statement that “it is an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the 7 October attacks on Israel.
Asked earlier on Monday what his message was to protesters, Herzog said: “It is important for me to say that I’ve come here in goodwill.
“These demonstrations, in most cases, what you hear and see comes to undermine and delegitimise our right, my nation’s right, the nation which I am the head of state of, of its mere existence.”
Do you have video from the Sydney protest? Email guardian.australia.video@guardian.co.uk
