A former greens candidate who needed surgery after allegedly being beaten by police at a Pro-Palestine Protest “stated that it was “a clear double standard”.
The New South Wales Police allowed the rally on Saturday in which about 60 men dressed in black called for the elimination of the Jewish lobby. The NSW police decision was slammed as “incomprehensible” on Sunday by a Jewish group.
The NSW Police Commissioner, Mal Lanya said on Saturday afternoon that he was not aware of the rally being allowed under the form 1 process. He blamed a “communication error” for failing to notify the state government in advance.
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The Premier, Chris Minns, said the event should not have been approved and announced a review into why the police did not oppose the Sydney pro-Palestinian protest in Sydney.
Hannah Thomas underwent phases of surgery on her right eye after being hit in a protest outside a Sydney business in June. He was charged with resisting police, failing to obey a direction to move and refusing to obey a direction to disperse. All charges against him were dropped in September.
A police officer has now been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and causing bodily harm. Thomas has flagged a civil claim against the NSW police.
“Senior police said they would show us zero tolerance that morning and that’s what they did,” Thomas said Sunday.
“That’s the approach we’ve got, compared to the Nazis who arranged to do whatever they wanted in front of the NSW Parliament.”
Thomas said he was “sick” to see the protest not stopped and said it showed “a clear double standard”.
Sarah Schwartz, the Chief Executive of the Jewish Council of Australia, said it was “shocking” that the rally was allowed. Like Tomas, it is said that there is a similarity in the Police’s approach to protests and rallies.
“We see disparate police responses when it comes to addressing far-right extremism and when it comes to addressing other forms of political expression,” Schwartz said.
He told ABC TV that there was a difference between peaceful protests and “hateful stunts like we saw yesterday”.
“These Australian Neo-Nazi actors are pulling offensive stunts to get headlines and media attention… these are not hate rallies.”
The Chief Executive of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Alon Casstout, said it was “incomprehensible police approval was given for this center by the NSW Democracy Centre”.
“We expect a full review to be done to find out how this Neo-Nazi was allowed to happen in the first place,” Cassuto said.
The rally was allowed to continue despite the controversy New Lawswhich began in August, made it a crime to be deliberately motivated against people because of their race, nationality or ethnic origin.
Speaking after the Neo-Nazi rally, Mines said he would discuss more police powers to shut down racist demonstrations.
“It’s probably the case that we need to give the powers that be to the powers that be to stop this kind of blatant racism and hatred on Sydney Streets,” the Premier said on Saturday.
The miners also admitted: “If we had time to change, the rally would not have happened.”
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The prospect of more police powers was questioned by a spokesman for the powerful environmental activist group, whose climate action is in the class of 2024.
“The laws and police powers needed to prevent Nazi hatreds, and there must be a full investigation into why they were not used to prevent the spectacular displays of racism and hatred on Sunday.
Arif Hussein, a senior lawyer with a human rights law center, accused the Minns government of “trying to hide his government’s failures to stop hate speech”.
“Before making another knee-jerk law and order should be focused on coming up with a real plan to prevent far and neo-Nazi in his state,” said Hussein.
NSW Greens Mlc Sue Hogginson said she had “deep concerns” about how police are handling the form 1 system, which gives them the power to object.
“How can they justify not provoking a rally for Neo-Nazis to engage in antisemitism, but not stop provoking protests calling for a free Palestine?” Higginson said on Sunday.
Alex Ryvchin, the Chief Executive of the Executive Council of Australia Hatina, said the “Grotesque Specclecle” should not have been allowed to happen on Saturday. But he said an uptick in protest activity was partly to blame.
“[When] The police are flooded with applications for protests by professional protesters every week for two years, these kinds of things happen, but they shouldn’t happen, “they say they don’t happen,” said Ryvchin on ABC TV.
Josh Lees, who organized the Pro-Palestine March across Sydney’s Harur Bird Bridge earlier this year, was joined by protesters outside a major arms expo last week.
Police fired pepper spray against activists who they said were “set up” by officers seeking to set up an excush area. Twelve people were arrested.
“Chris Minns cannot use this rampant Nazi rally to pass more anti-protest laws,” Lees said on Sunday.
“They have more than enough. The real question is why the mines and the police are not using their recently passed laws to hate the Nazis.”
NSW police were contacted.