Gaza woman living in Sydney detained in pre-dawn raid over ASIO security risk ruling

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Home Affairs Minister’s office on Thursday, hours after a woman from Gaza living in Sydney was detained by police in a pre-dawn raid.

Palestine advocate Mariam Tohamy speaking at a snap rally outside the Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke’s office in Sydney.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside Home Affairs ­Minister Tony Burke’s electorate office on Thursday, after the ­detention of a woman from Gaza who was living in Sydney.

Maha Almassri, a Palestinian refugee, was detained following a pre-dawn raid on her southwest Sydney home, after she was deemed a security risk by ASIO.

A letter related to the detention of Ms Almassri stated that ASIO had found she had failed the “character test” to hold a visa in Australia. According to documents seen by The Daily Telegraph, the 61-year-old’s visa was cancelled by the Immigration ­Department after it was advised that Ms Almassri had been assessed to be ­“directly or indirectly a risk to security”.

It is understood Ms Almassri came to Australia from Gaza last year.

A crowd of about 50 protesters attended the rally outside Mr Burke’s Punchbowl office, wearing keffiyehs and holding Palestinian and Lebanese flags. Some protesters held signs that said “Bloody Burke”.

Members of the protest chanted “Tony Burke you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide” and “Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism”, as they demanded Ms Almassri be released from detention.

Her brother-in-law Soliman Almassri said there had been “no explanation” for her detention.

“All the kids like her, she’s an old lady,” he said.

“There’s no reason … what threat to security are they talking about? A member of her family has been killed, her house (in Gaza) has been destroyed. She’s traumatised, she’s sick and this is the treatment she gets from the Australian government.”

Ms Almassri’s detention came on the day the government’s special envoy Jillian Segal released a report detailing a plan to tackle rising anti-Semitism across the country, including tighter checks on who entered the country.