A nation divided: Timeline of pro-Palestinian chaos

Australians have been protesting in solidarity with Gaza on a weekly basis since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, with the rallies becoming increasingly disruptive as hard-left socialist activists take over.

Australians have been protesting in solidarity with Gaza on a weekly basis since Hamas committed an atrocious terrorist attack on October 7 last year, with the rallies becoming increasingly disruptive as hard-left socialist activists take over.

The first major pro-Palestine protest in Australia took place on October 9 in Sydney, starting in Hyde Park before moving to the Sydney Opera House – where hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters chanted vicious anti-Semitic slurs and burned Israeli flags.

That was the beginning of the movement that would go on to divide the nation as a whole.

Hundreds of grassroot pro-Palestinian groups across the country would emerge, drawing thousands of supports in every major state across the country. Major organisers that still exist today include the Palestine Action Group Sydney, Free Palestine Melbourne (FPM), and Justice for Palestine Megan-jin.

The mass protests led to a wave of racist and anti-Semitic backlash against Jews that has seen men, women and children targeted across the spectrum.

It has included physical and verbal abuse on the streets, on public transport, in workplaces, shops, parks and online, at arts, music and literary events, in schools and universities, and on sporting fields among others.

Participants of a Free Palestine rally outside Sydney Opera House. Picture: AAP.

On October 13, a large demonstration was organised in Melbourne’s CBD, where an estimated 5000 people gathered at the State Library of Victoria. Many were draped in Palestinian flags, Keffeyes and held signs that called for an end to the bloodshed. None called for the return of the 251 Israeli and foreign hostages that were abducted by Hamas.

This was followed by similar protests in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Protests began to turn ugly when hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists gathered opposite of a Melbourne synagogue in November last year during a Shabbat service after Burgertory, a popular burger joint was set alight.

The FPM group, which solely organised the rally by its supporters, led to a violent clash with Jewish people and the evacuation of the synagogue near Princes Park.

In May this year, a university-based pro-Palestinian movement that made headlines in the United States was mirrored in Australia. Students at multiple Australian university campuses set up ‘encampments’, which sprung at campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra – with students calling on their teaching institutions to disclose and cut ties with weapons manufacturers said to be supplying arms to Israel.

More than three months later, the encampments were disbanded as the situation became untenable. It led to a Labor Senate inquiry report that labelled the universities’ responses to anti-Jewish sentiment on campus as ‘woefully inadequate’, after receiving hundreds of submissions from students saying they felt unsafe during pro-Palestine encampments.

Unimelb for Palestine Protest camp at Melbourne University. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Fast forward to July this year, Brisbane’s Justice for Palestine Megan-jin organised a rally to coincide with Labor’s True Believers dinner, which was attended by 600 people including senior federal ministers. A police officer was spat on and the alleged offender was bailed.

But one of the worst demonstrations in Australian history occurred outside the Melbourne Exhibition Convention Centre in September, where some 2000 protesters clashed with police and masked demonstrators squirted acid up the nostrils of police horses. They lobbed horse manure at police and harassed journalists and members of the public. It led to dozens of arrests and injuries.

Those actions led to two of Melbourne’s largest organisers becoming divided. Hard left socialist activists became increasingly prevalent in rallies while Arab-speaking demonstrators faded.

The Australian has exposed many of the most prominent figures, with Ihab Al Azhari revealed as a leading businessman in the steel manufacturing industry while praising Hamas as a resistance group.

Last week, pro-Palestinian activists were joined by Hezbollah supporters who waved the terrorist flag and held pictures of the militant group’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah. Two of those activists were identified by The Australian in Melbourne while the AFP launched a special operation to haul them in.

Protesters during a Pro-Palestine rally for Gaza and Lebanon at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Sunday, September 29, 2024. (AAP Image/James Ross)

Religiously, the protests pitted Jews against Muslims and caused a split in Australia politics. The far-left of politics embraced the pro-Palestinian movement and the right embraced the Israeli cause. Labour has since struggled to maintain a balance between the two.

The Greens however, have openly aligned themselves with the pro-Palestinian movement in a way that this nation has never seen before. They’ve been condemned by both major parties for embracing the thuggery which ensued.

In the lead up to the one year anniversary of the October 7 massacre, tens of thousands are expected to rally in the streets of Melbourne and Sydney, coinciding with hostage memorial commemorations by the Jewish communities.

Fears of hostilities and growing tensions have forced NSW police to deploy more than 1000 officers over the next few days – with taxpayers footing the multimillion-dollar bill.