Yesterday, the NSW police rioted in Sydney, savagely attacking pro-Palestine protesters. Footage shows police repeatedly punching a man with his hands in the air. Another video shows dozens of police surrounding a group of praying Muslims and then throwing them to the ground. In yet another video, a young man is restrained on the ground as two officers take turns punching him and slamming his face against the concrete. More footage shows dozens of police chasing down fleeing protesters and flinging them into cars and shop fronts.
Hundreds of police surrounded 20,000 pro-Palestine protesters as they tried to march out of Town Hall Square. The rally had been called in opposition to the arrival of Israeli President Issac Herzog, whom a United Nations commission of inquiry last year found guilty of “direct and public incitement to commit genocide”.
The police trapped the protesters in the square and ordered them to disperse. But there was nowhere to disperse to. Lines of riot cops and police officers surrounded the entire rally. When protesters failed to comply with the impossible, the police doused them with pepper spray and assaulted them with batons and fists. If people stood their ground, the police smacked them down; if people retreated, the cops chased them down.
One group of protesters fell back to a convenience store. The clerk behind the counter let them in and locked the doors to protect them, helping them with the pepper spray that burned their eyes. But the police started banging on the shop doors, demanding to be let in.
Much of the assault was led by the Public Order and Riot Squad, a specialist unit composed solely of officers who volunteer for its ranks. Just like ICE in the US, it attracts the vilest reactionary thugs imaginable.
Tens of thousands witnessed this police violence; there are hundreds of videos and personal accounts. Faced with this evidence, the response of the police and political establishment is blood-boiling. “Remarkable restraint” is how commissioner Mal Lanyon described police actions on the night. Premier Chris Minns defended the cops, saying they were put in an “impossible situation”.
But the situation was orchestrated by the police and the premier. They spent months demonising pro-Palestine protesters as violent antisemites. They said that protests in solidarity with the people of Gaza had to end no matter what. They introduced the restrictions on the right to march and decided on the exclusion zone in Sydney. They whipped up the media into a frenzy. They let the police off the leash and then defended the indefensible.
For all of this, the supporters of Palestine haven’t been cowed. The 20,000 who gathered at Town Hall in the face of a united political and media assault is proof enough of that. As are the tens of thousands who protested throughout the rest of the country. In the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack, the political establishment has tried to discredit and crush the Palestine solidarity movement. They have failed.
Millions of Australians outraged by Israel’s atrocities and the federal government’s support for the far-right government in Tel Aviv have not changed their mind. The outrage pouring out on social media after last night is red-hot. The anger at the police and the NSW government is palpable. The prime minister should hang his head in shame for inviting Herzog to this country.
The Palestine Action Group has called a rally against police brutality for 5.30pm tonight outside the Surry Hills police station.
