Eleven arrested after Opera House fiasco, other incidents

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb revealed last Friday that 11 arrests have been made since an anti-Israel protest at the Sydney Opera House on October 9 at which protesters burned Israeli flags and chanted “gas the Jews”.

“Today we have arrested 11 people for 22 charges relating to not just events at the Opera House but also other incidents reported to police throughout the week. And those investigations will remain ongoing,” Webb told reporters.

Three men were charged last Wednesday over an alleged assault near the Opera House on the evening of the protest. Last Monday, police charged a man over alleged offensive comments made during a protest in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Sunday, October 15.

Meanwhile, an estimated 15,000 people attended a protest in the Sydney CBD last Saturday.

Two thousand people attended a protest in Perth, while 500 demonstrated in Brisbane. A rally was also held in Hobart.

On Sunday, 15,000 turned out in Melbourne and more than a thousand gathered in Adelaide.

One sign at the Sydney protest read “Israel is taking its final breathes [sic]”.

“The degree of enthusiasm and relish some of our fellow Australians feel about atrocities committed against women, children and the elderly is deeply confronting. They no longer deny their desire to see a sovereign nation and its population destroyed,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said.

“The Jewish people survived the final solution, they will survive racists and jihadists warning about our final breaths.”

He added, “After the horrific scenes from earlier protests, the organisers are desperately trying to keep protesters to chanting in euphemisms and dog whistles. Their calls for the ‘liberation’ of Palestine ‘from the river to the sea’ is an unambiguous call for Israel’s destruction and the support for a new intifada is a call for the murder of more civilians. Their actions are inciting more hatred in Australia and further fracturing our fragile social cohesion.”

A motion passed the NSW Upper House last Wednesday condemning the “from the river to the sea” chant.

As part of the ongoing Operation Shelter, more than 800 police were deployed across the Sydney CBD on Sunday to manage crowds and ensure the safety of participants as well as the community and local businesses. No arrests were made.

Webb said up to 17 public protest assembly events were expected this week across the Sydney metropolitan area.

“It is a dynamic situation and we will be dealing with those matters as they become known to us,” she said.

Also related to Operation Shelter, a man has faced court after being charged by police for allegedly making offensive posts online. The 52-year-old was arrested on Saturday and charged with using a carriage service to menace/harass/offend.

Meanwhile, beachgoers at Sydney’s Camp Cove had their calm shattered on Sunday when a man described as being of Middle Eastern appearance began shouting “Jews, get off the beach”, Ryvchin told 2GB’s Ray Hadley on Monday.

“He was then confronted by one Jewish man, at which point the perpetrator threatened to rape his wife in front of him,” Ryvchin said.

“We can’t have this on our beaches. We can’t have this on our streets. We can’t have this in our society. It’s just absolutely deplorable.”