Police review finds no evidence ‘gas the Jews’ phrase chanted at Sydney Opera House protest

Forensic analysis of video and audio from a pro-Palestine Opera House protest in October has found no evidence a potentially criminal antisemitic phrase was used, police say, but the Minns government has stood by its response to the rally, calling it “violent and racist”.

A video of the protest purported to show a small group of protesters chanting “gas the Jews” while outside Sydney’s most iconic building. However, police said an expert review had concluded the phrase uttered was “where’s the Jews”, although other antisemitic phrases had been chanted.

Three demonstrators were arrested after a pro-Palestine rally outside the Opera House on October 9.Credit: AP

An expert in biometric science commissioned to analyse “significant volumes” of footage from the protest had concluded with “overwhelming certainty” the phrase actually chanted was “where’s the Jews”, Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon said on Friday. There was evidence other offensive phrases were also spoken, including “f--- the Jews”.

Footage purporting to show the phrase “gas the Jews” being chanted was widely reported in Australia and globally. It prompted the Minns government to introduce a bill on November 21 that it said would “improve the prosecution process” for the offence of publicly threatening or inciting violence against a person or group based on attributes including race and religion.

Chanting “gas the Jews”, Lanyon said, “certainly could have” met the threshold for criminal prosecution.

NSW barrister and former police officer Mahmud Hawila, who has acted for a number of pro-Palestinian protest organisers, including Palestine Action Group Sydney, said “protest organisers and witnesses called into question the veracity of the allegations in the immediate aftermath of the Opera House protest”.

Deputy Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon on Friday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“Instead of the public record being corrected immediately, we had Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians, and protesters more generally, being demonised in national and international media for more than 100 days,” he said.

“I call upon the premier to immediately apologise for threatening to ban pro-Palestinian protests, for slamming down the truth-seekers and for changing hate speech laws over nothing more than allegations that were unverified [and] unsubstantiated.”

NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Lydia Shelly said the premier “did not wait for the review of the evidence prior to changing the law”.

The expert report by Michael Wagner, honorary professor at the Australian National University and emeritus professor at Canberra University, said his analysis of 11 chants “has resulted in overwhelming certainty that all 11 instances of the disputed chant consist of the phrase ‘Where’s the Jews’.”

Following the protest at the Opera House, police threatened to invoke rarely used special powers introduced after the Cronulla riots in 2005 to hamper repeated demonstrations by pro-Palestinian groups. But Lanyon insisted on Friday that the reportage of the phrase was not the motivator.

The footage purporting to show the “gas the Jews” chant was first posted online by the Australian Jewish Association. However, Lanyon clarified police did not believe the footage was doctored, but had been incorrectly captioned. Lanyon said some witnesses had reported hearing the offensive chant, but they had “not been able to ascribe those words to any individual”.

Felicity Graham, a NSW barrister and member of The Wigs podcasting team who has also acted for Palestine Action Group Sydney and Black Lives Matter protesters, said: “People will now say the exact words do not matter. That is wrong and disingenuous.

“These fake words travelled the world, changed the law which did not need changing, and delegitimised and demonised the Palestinians.”

Premier Chris Minns said his views had not changed and the protest “was violent and racist”.

“Hate speech and racist language have no place in NSW. If those comments were made about any other group my reaction would be the same.”

The Opera House protest came just days after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants, killing at least 1200 people.

Despite the findings, the head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said “we know what we heard, and the world knows what was said”.

“However, the exact words used in these chants is not the core issue. The core issue is that on October 9, before Israel had even commenced its military response, just two days after the greatest atrocity inflicted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, a mob of thugs gathered at one of our nation’s most cherished sites to celebrate the mass slaughter and rape of Israelis, to burn Israeli flags and to chant threateningly towards fellow Australians,” he said.

Police said in a statement that detectives “continue to investigate the incident”.

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