Sydney pro-Palestinian groups received permission to protest alongside indigenous activists on Australia Day, which marks the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet from Britain and is celebrated Jan. 26, police told local media on Sunday.
The New South Wales Police Force extended protest restrictions under powers granted in response to the deadly Dec. 14 terror shooting at a Sydney Chanukah party, but lifted them from Hyde Park in the city center and parts of southern Sydney, allowing for both indigenous “Invasion Day” protests and nationalist marches on Australia Day.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden told reporters on Sunday that agitators at either rallies would be “arrested …, charged [and] removed from the environment” by the security forces.
The police forces are “very conscious of the fact that there are two large protests scheduled for tomorrow,” McFadden said, The Australian reported. “We have very good engagement with the organizers of those protests.
“We understand and respect the importance of free speech in our constitution, but we also expect that those attending will demonstrate patience tolerance and respect to others that may have a different view on the message that they’re trying to convey,” the police official stated.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon announced the extension of protest restrictions at a press conference on Jan. 20, while noting he decided to “significantly limit” their scope, despite the “heightened tensions in the community” since the antisemitic terrorist attack.
The anti-protest legislation has been challenged by the Palestine Action Group, Jews Against the Occupation and the Blak Caucus group, which organizes the Invasion Day rally. The NSW Supreme Court is set to rule on Thursday whether to send the legal petition to the Court of Appeal.
Blak Caucus previously told The Australian that the Jan. 26 protest was to focus on indigenous mourning rather than global issues.
Despite this, Palestine Action and other anti-Israel protest groups urged their members to join them on Invasion Day, The Australian reported.
“Our movement is an anti-racist movement, and we despise and oppose it in all its forms, whether Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism or anti-Aboriginal racism,” the group wrote in a Facebook post.
The Australian Jewish Association tweeted on Sunday: “Looks like the terror supporters won’t avoid the opportunity to express their hatred of Australia too. This is beyond tedious.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Dec. 18 that he would adopt all 13 recommendations from Jillian Segal, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, in the wake of the terrorist shooting attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 15 dead.
Segal’s recommendations, which were first issued in July, sat on the premier’s desk for six months, according to Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy on Jew-hatred.
Albanese’s announcement, which was praised by the Australian Jewish community’s official representative group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, followed mounting pressure as officials and critics demanded a high‑powered federal inquiry into the attack.
