NSWCCL condemns police scare tactics preceding the protest 

by GRACE JOHNSON

The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) has condemned the police’s “scare tactics” in the days leading up to the pro-Palestine rally. 

Palestine Action Group had organised a peaceful rally which saw six thousand protestors assemble in Hyde Park this past Sunday. Roughly 1,000 officers were deployed around the city, including members of the riot, mounted and canine units. 

President of NSWCCL Josh Pallas said, “It was outrageous that the primary threat to crowd safety was from the NSW police, who threatened to use extraordinary powers under s 87D of LEPRA, which are available when there is a threat of wide-spread public disorder.  So-called police intelligence turned out to be completely unfounded. NSW Police and the Police Minister must explain how they got it so wrong.” 

“The police claims that there was such a threat can only be seen as a scare and intimidation tactic in the lead up to the protest. The emergency powers should not be available to prevent a political protest,” he continued. 

“The intense and large police mobilisation on the ground was another scare tactic aimed at intimidating overpoliced people who were demonised over the past week as posing a risk of violence by police and politicians.” 

Before the event, NSW Premier Chris Minns had vowed that the march would not go forward after anti-semitic videos were distributed online after the protest last weekend, when the Sydney Opera House was illuminated with the colours of the Israeli flag. 

NSW Police then launched ‘Operation Shelter‘ and considered using “extraordinary” powers to search and identify those participating in the protest ahead of time. Although that force wasn’t used during the protest, which ended up being a ‘static demonstration’ as Palestine Action Group’s form for the march was not lodged seven days in advance, there was a strong police presence around Hyde Park. 

Activist from Palestine Action Group Dalia Al-Haj Qasem told City Hub, “We have seen an outrageous infringement on the right to free speech. We affirm our right to gather and protest in defense of Palestine. This is as an inalienable moral right as much as it is a legal and democratic one.”

“The response in New South Wales to our right to demonstrate is draconian to say the least. We will not stand for our civil liberties being eroded, especially for simply standing up for human rights,” she reiterated.

Speaking to City Hub, Mr Pallas from NSWCCL affirmed the right to protest, which sees an overlap of three components: freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of assembly. 

On NSW Police’s response ahead of the protest, Mr Pallas said, “We don’t think it’s helpful when police respond in that way to protest because it’s a legitimate exercise of democratic rights and freedoms. And we think that a lot of the policing around protest is what we’ve called over-policing. It’s often pre-emptive policing.”

Mr Pallas discussed the police methods aimed at mitigating risk but also said “it’s becoming increasingly evident that perhaps we don’t do a good job of disagreeing, or disagreeing well, in society anymore. Or we have difficulty with feeling discomfort.”

“Protest is meant to be disruptive. Protest is meant to make people feel uncomfortable. Protest may at times be confronting for people.”

“If we want to live in a society where we have democratic rights and freedoms, we need to lean into that discomfort and accept that discomfort as legitimate speech act, so long as the protest remains non-violent, and there’s no hate speech.” 

Ahead of the pro-Palestine rally, Members from the Greens Party Mehreen Faruqi, Jenny Leong and Sue Higginson also issued a statement saying, “We reject the attempts by NSW Police and the NSW Government to prevent the Palestinian community and their supporters from exercising the right to engage in peaceful protest. These shameful attempts to silence those calling attention to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza set a chilling precedent for freedom of speech and threaten the right to protest in this State.”

Emphasising the need for peaceful protest against Israel’s continuous attack on Gaza this past week, which now amounts to war crimes, the statement stresses that “already, too many lives, so many of them civilians, have been lost. With UN experts condemning the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza as ‘collective punishment’ in breach of international law and food, water, and electricity supplies in Gaza running dangerously low, we know the suffering will only continue.”

Ms Al-Haj Qasam from the Palestine Action Group confirmed that they will be rallying again this coming Saturday, but that this time, they will be marching.

The group has already filed their Form One for the rally. If it is rejected, NSW Police will have to take the protestors to the supreme court.