Embattled NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley ‘rejects’ she misled parliament over pro-Palestine protest

Embattled NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley says she did not tell Sydney’s Jewish community to ‘stay home’ during Monday’s rally.

A widely condemned pro-Palestine rally on Monday at the Sydney Opera House. NSW Premier Chris Minns has vowed to block future ones. Picture: Getty Images

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has “rejected” reports she misled parliament by saying she did not tell Sydney’s Jewish community to “stay at home” during Monday night’s pro-Palestine rally, or that she had used alleged offensive language.

In a statement late on Thursday, Ms Catley “reiterated” that she refuted misleading par­liament and using offensive ­language.

Reports on Thursday, citing sources from within the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, had alleged Ms Catley had told the group’s president that attending the Opera House for the lighting of its sails in the Israeli flag would be “dangerous”.

Ms Catley told parliament on Thursday she had not instructed the Jewish community to stay at home and was instead relaying advice from police assistant commissioner Tony Cooke, who said earlier this week it was his advice that the Jewish community’s attendance at the Opera House could invoke “safety concerns”.

“I reject the reports I misled parliament,” the Police Minister said.

“I had several conversations with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on Monday … during these conversations, I relayed (that) the police were concerned about the large crowd of demonstrators … and that it was volatile and there were concerns the situation could become dangerous.”

Similarly, she denied suggesting to that same organisation that the Opera House should not be lit up to “protect you people”.

Ms Catley’s spokesman denied the minister made those comments, saying she used the phrase “your people”.

Ms Catley said she did ask the Jewish Board of Deputies “if they had concerns about the lighting of the Opera House … but they confirmed to me that not withstanding the potential for a growing demonstration, they were fully supportive of the decision to light the Opera House”.

This comes as plans for a pro-­Palestine rally on Sunday are forging ahead, with organisers saying they are not deterred by police warnings against it.

The NSW government has slammed those organisers, accusing them of playing with ­“semantics”.

On Thursday, the organisers of both Monday’s pro-Palestine rally and Sunday’s planned event tweaked the location and type of protest in an attempt to avoid the scenes at the Sydney Opera House earlier this week and the need for police authorisation.

Organisers from Palestinian Action Group Sydney said Sunday’s rally would be “stationary”, and in Sydney’s Hyde Park rather than a march from Town Hall.

The pro-Palestine march on Monday ended in what Premier Chris Minns called “abhorrent” scenes after anti-Semitic chants were heard and Israeli flags were burned at the steps of the Opera House.

After Mr Minns earlier this week pledged to block another rally and NSW police said they would not be authorising Sunday’s event, given safety concerns and that the requisite paperwork had not been filed in time, the group said it was undeterred.

Organisers told The Australian a “static” demonstration – as opposed to a march – would not need to file a notice form within a seven-day timeframe to NSW police to receive authorisation.

Josh Lees, a co-organiser from the group, said the demonstration would be going ahead regardless: “We have a right to protest to express our opposition to the war crimes taking place in Gaza.”

He said it would be a “stationary” protest “which we have every legal and moral right to hold”.

He also criticised Peter Dutton’s “shocking” comments that those on temporary visas who attended and engaged in the anti-Semitic incidents on Monday should be deported.

Questioned outside parliament on Thursday about a “stationary” protest, NSW Climate Change Minister Penny Sharpe said that argument was simply “semantics”.

She encouraged people not to attend and slammed the scenes that were witnessed on Monday.

“What happened was abhorrent,” Ms Sharpe said.

“The focus of the government is making sure we don’t see the same. And let’s not get into semantics here, it’s pretty clear they applied for a rally, got rejected, so a gathering would be an unauthorised one.”

Leading Muslim associations have called for mosques to be lit up with the colours of the Palestinian flag in response to the lighting of the Opera House with the colours of the Israeli flag.

In a four-page joint statement, the Lebanese Muslim Association, Australian National Imams Council, the Islamic Council of Victoria and at least 50 other groups, called for an end to “bias and double standards”.