NSW Premier Chris Minns says pro-Palestinian protesters determined to rally on Sunday and Monday will be met with the full force of the law if they are found to be making racist chants, anti-Semitic sermons or waving illegal flags and other paraphernalia.
Following an 11th-hour Supreme Court hearing, protest organisers withdrew their application for an October 7 protest on Monday and will instead be holding a vigil at Town Hall and a protest at Sydney’s Hyde Park on Sunday.
While he said the October 7 demonstration was “grossly insensitive”, Mr Minns warned protesters to not to make any “provocative gestures” and said there would be a “massive police presence” on the day.
“I don’t think it is appropriate, that is my personal view. To hold a protest or a rally on a day when people were massacred on the other side of the world is grossly insensitive, in my opinion,” he said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the demonstrations planned for Sunday and Monday were ‘grossly insensitive’. Picture: NewsWire/ Damian Shaw
Mr Minns said anyone found contravening the laws or “demonising the state’s Jewish community” will be punished
“We cannot allow a situation where permissive anti-Semitism creeps into the public dialogue because a certain group in our community believe that kind of racism is OK. It’s not OK,” he said.
“I want to make it clear that if there’s any breaches in protests, in public sermons, in speeches over this weekend, it will be met with very strict laws in Australia and in NSW in relation to hate speech.”
He added efforts to stop the protest were done out of genuine safety concerns and not to prevent free speech.
“It is not an attempt to restrict freedom of speech in Sydney, it is genuine community concern about safety of Sydney streets and an attempt to stop a conflict on the streets,” Mr Minns said.
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