Australia: Only Arrest at ‘Gas the Jews’ Rally Was Jewish Man Holding Israeli Flag

jewish australia
Lisa Maree Williams/Getty
John Hayward

The New South Wales (NSW) police department announced on Tuesday that it will investigate a pro-Palestinian rally held at the famous Sydney Opera House on Monday evening, during which demonstrators were videotaped chanting slogans like “Gas the Jews!” and “F**k the Jews!” The only person arrested on the scene was an innocent Jewish man carrying an Israeli flag.

In fact, the police – under heavy fire for enabling the vicious protest, warning Jewish citizens to get out of the way, and arresting a Jewish man for holding an Israeli flag that was not on fire – admitted on Tuesday that the entire protest was illegal.

The Monday night rally, which included about a thousand participants, also featured shouts of “Allahu Akbar” – properly translated as “Allah is Supreme,” the victory cry shouted by the Hamas terrorists as they slaughtered men, women, and children in Israel over the weekend.

 

Many of the participants were evidently immigrants from Muslim countries who waved their national flags, while others brandished the Palestinian flag. Some of them wore terrorist-style masks. One eyewitness video of the rally caught demonstrators burning an Israeli flag.

A Palestine supporter holds a burnt Israeli flag into the air during a rally outside the Sydney Opera House on October 09, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty)

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke said the Jewish man arrested on Monday night for carrying an Israeli flag – the only person taken into custody during the appalling rally – was “arrested to prevent a breach of the peace for his safety” and was “removed and released” with his flag, once the police deemed it was safe for a Jew to walk the streets of Sydney again.

 

Cooke’s statement is demonstrably false. Video exists of the Jewish man objecting that he “did nothing wrong” as he was arrested on Monday night and an officer replying, “You’ve been arrested in relation to a breach of the peace.”

Cooke applauded the Jewish community of Sydney for having the “good sense” to stay away while terrorist sympathizers commandeered the opera house.

“This is New South Wales. We do not expect people to bring conflict from other places to the streets of Sydney,” Cooke said, even though his department was just caught allowing a group of Hamas sympathizers to break the law so they could do precisely that.

“The entire rally and footage was covered by CCTV footage and an operation has been established to look into the issues on Monday night. We will attempt to identify people who committed offenses and will take appropriate actions to put them before the courts,” Cooke promised.

Police officials said at a press conference on Tuesday they are reviewing videos of the protest for evidence of hate crimes, and could also bring charges for the illegal use of incendiary devices, such as road flares.

The protest organizer, a group called Palestine Action Group Sydney, insisted that a small group of “vile antisemitic attendees” infiltrated the protest to cause trouble.

“We are an anti-racist and anti-colonial movement and we refuse to fight racism with racism. 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,” the group said. There is no evidence that anyone was asked to leave the demonstration on Monday night.

The New South Wales (NSW) Police Commissioner’s office told the Daily Mail Australia that the organizers did not submit an application to hold their march, confirming an allegation first leveled by a local radio station. 

“So last night’s protest was illegal from start to finish. There was no application for the protest to go ahead,” radio host Ray Hadley said when suspicions the marchers did not obtain permits were confirmed.

Hadley castigated NSW police officials for either hiding from the media or claiming they did not know the “Gas the Jews” march was illegal.

Rod Roberts, an independent member of parliament from NSW and a former police detective, said his “contacts inside the organization” tipped him off that the protest was illegal, but was still not only allowed but protected by the police. Like Hadley, he jeered at NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley for being “missing in action” as controversy over the protest erupted.

Catley did actually surface later on Tuesday, apologizing to the Jewish community because the vicious pro-terrorist rally prevented Jewish citizens from paying their respects at the Sydney Opera House, which had been illuminated with Israeli blue and white in tribute to the victims of Hamas on Monday night.

“Police have to make these decisions as situations escalate, their decision was to ensure they were managing the crowd so that it didn’t escalate into further conflict with people on the streets,” she said in a radio interview.

“As the minister I have zero role in the police operation, those decisions are for the police on the ground,” she insisted.

The ugly Monday night rally in Sydney quickly became a hot potato at the highest levels of Australian politics. Opposition leader Peter Dutton blasted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not stepping in to prevent the rally, which he called “despicable,” an “outrage,” and “unimaginable in modern Australia.”

“For people to somehow provide moral support to those actions is an absolutely appalling act,” Dutton said, slamming the demonstrators for supporting the Hamas atrocities.

“It should be condemned in the strongest possible terms if people who are out celebrating the rape, the abduction, the slaughter of women and children,” Dutton told Sky News Australia on Monday. He said he expected the rally to be thoroughly investigated by the Australian Federal Police. 

Albanese defended himself on Tuesday, denouncing the anti-Semitic chants at the Sydney Opera House rally as “horrific” and accusing Dutton of trying to “politicize” the issue.

“We are a tolerant multicultural nation. I understand that people have deep views about issues relating to the Middle East conflict but here in Australia we have to deal with political discourse in a respectful way,” he said.

Albanese’s political situation took a turn for the worse on Monday when the Daily Mail revealed that one of the most toxic revelers at the “Gas the Jews” rally, Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun, was a featured speaker at a recent Ramadan dinner that Albanese also addressed.

At the Monday night rally, Dadoun celebrated the murder of Israeli women and children as “a day of courage, a day of pride, a day of victory.”

“I’m smiling and I’m happy! I’m elated!” he proclaimed to the crowd.

Dadoun scrambled for cover on Tuesday as controversy swelled, insisting in a panicked Facebook post that he never expressed support for “the loss of lives on any side,” even though he is on video doing exactly that.

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