‘Gas the Jews’ call heard at Opera House protest, new witnesses claim

NSW Police have been provided with testimony from witnesses who heard protesters chant “gas the Jews” at an ugly Opera House protest in October, contradicting claims the anti-Semitic phrase was never uttered.

NSW Police have been provided with testimony from witnesses who heard protesters chant “gas the Jews” at an ugly Opera House protest in October, contradicting claims the anti-Semitic phrase was never uttered.

The Daily Telegraph has sighted four statutory declarations from individuals who were present at the melee which have been offered to police as they continue their investigations into the October 9 protest, which were beamed around the world.

The declarations come as controversy continues over what was and was not said on the night of the protest at the Opera House.

Last week online magazine Crikey! claimed that “police and independent fact-checkers have been unable to verify whether the chants happened”.

On Saturday Radio National’s Patricia Karvelas, in an interview with musician Deborah Conway about the conflict in Gaza and the rise of anti-Semitism, repeated the claim that the phrase “gas the Jews” was used and that organisers of the march have denied it.

Participants of a Free Palestine rally react outside Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Monday, October 9, 2023. Israel has pounded the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, killing hundreds of people in retaliation for one of the bloodiest attacks in its history when Islamist group Hamas killed 700 Israelis and abducted dozens more. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins) NO ARCHIVING

However the four declarations add further weight to claims by Jewish groups that the chants, which evoke the memory of the Holocaust, did occur.

“I saw two separate groups coming in towards the steps and they were chanting different things,” one declaration reads.

“One group was chanting ‘from the river to the sea’ and ‘Allah akbar’ while the second group was chanting ‘gas the Jews’ and ‘f--k the Jews’ and then the two groups merged into one.”

A second declaration stated that both anti-Jewish chants were “repeated over and over”.

“I felt shocked by what I heard and at the change in the energy of the crowd.”

Another said that protesters on the forecourt “started letting off flares and then at approximately 7.45pm they started chanting ‘f--k the Jews’ and ‘gas the Jews’”.

Vision from the night was beamed across the world. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The individual said that after protesters took a camera she was using to document the protesters and “kicked it like a soccer ball,” police refused to intervene “so as ‘not to invite more violence’”.

All the signatories asked that their names not be revealed for reasons of privacy and safety.

The Daily Telegraph has also been provided with additional audio from the night which has had background noise removed in which both “f--k the Jews” and “gas the Jews” can be heard.

Alex Ryvchin, author and co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said “everyone knows that ‘gas the Jews’ was chanted” and that those who claimed otherwise were guilty of “dishonesty and gaslighting”.

“The fact that months have now passed without meaningful action is extremely disappointing and signals to other extremists that they can get away with their incitement and vilification of Jews,” he said.

“The willingness of people to believe the chants were made up despite overwhelming evidence is similar to the denial of the October 7 atrocities themselves.”

At the time Police Minister Yasmin Catley was widely criticised for not doing more to stop the protest, which did not have a permit to move from Town Hall to the Opera House.

While police made no arrests on the night a number of people have been charged since the pro-Palestine protest, which was in response to a decision to light up the Opera House’s sails with the colours of the Israeli flag in solidarity after the October 7 Hamas terror spree, a police spokesman said that 60 people had been arrested and charged for a variety of offences stemming from the incident.