 "Australia embarrassed as Sydney man arrested for waving Israeli flag at pro-Palestine rally; Opera House under siege")
Australia was hit by a controversy when a Sydney man was arrested by the New South Wales (NSW) police during a pro-Hamas rally in for waving Israeli flags at the march. The video of the incident that has now gone viral shows a man clutching a folded Israeli flag being ushered away by police at Town Hall for allegedly “disrupting peace”. The man can be heard saying, “I have done nothing wrong”.
A pro-Palestinian rally was organised in Sydney Monday at Town Hall in Sydney’s CBD. The NSW Police were in attendance, monitoring the situation, but did not disperse the protesters even as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for cancellations. Cops said the crowd were “generally well behaved” and complied with police direction. Meanwhile, police formed a ring of steel around Sydney Opera House as pro-Palestine protesters converged in large number outside to demonstrate against the iconic building being lit up blue and white in support of Israel. Earlier, the UK and Germany too had showed solidarity by projecting the Israeli flag on prominent buildings.
According to Australian Jewish Association, hundreds of Muslims in Sydney celebrated the atrocities of Hamas on Israel. They gathered at Lakemba Station on Sunday night, just a day after at least 700 people were killed in Israel and another 2,000 were reportedly injured. Crowds were heard chanting “Palestine will be free” and “Allahu Akbar” throughout the gathering. The numerous signs held by women and children in the crowd read: “The Khilafah will be the true response", “Stop prosecuting Muslims.”
People were seen wearing T-shirt reading: “Free Palestine”. Albanese called pro-Palestinian protesters to abandon the rally Albanese earlier called on pro-Palestinian protesters to abandon the rally. The Australian PM called on people to respect the “loss of life” that occurred on the weekend after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, leading to the death of more than 1,100 civilians. “I think people need to really take a step back,” he said, adding, “What has occurred here is completely indefensible.” “You can’t target civilians like what occurred over the weekend where you had thousands attending a music festival. The idea that you would have people launching essentially indiscriminate shooting at random, just trying to cause as much harm and bloodshed as possible, is just an atrocity that deserves condemnation of all,” the Australian PM said.