‘I’m not scared of cops’, says pro-Hezbollah marcher

A pro-Hezbollah activist who waved the terrorists’ flag during a protest in Melbourne has declared he is not scared of police or prosecution, and has celebrated the group as a ‘resistance organisation’ | WATCH THE VIDEO

Pro-Hezbollah protester Yousef Tiba, left, and carrying an image of Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday.

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A pro-Hezbollah activist who waved the terrorists’ flag during a protest in Melbourne on Sunday has declared he is not scared of police or prosecution, and has celebrated the group as a “resistance organisation”, despite its decades-long reign of terror in the Middle East.

Yousef Tiba, a Lebanese-Australian and creative arts student at Griffith University, attended a weekend rally where he was seen carrying Hezbollah’s yellow flag and a portrait of the group’s slain leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Mr Tiba and others who paraded through Melbourne and Sydney streets have provoked widespread outrage.

Peter Dutton and Coalition MPs on Tuesday called on state Labor governments to ban planned anti-Israel marches on the anniversary of the October 7 massacre, and demanded groups with Hezbollah sympathisers among them be barred from obtaining protest permits.

The 30-year-old Shia Muslim studies creative arts at Griffith University in Melbourne and was born in Australia after his family migrated from Lebanon three decades ago.

Mr Tiba was pictured at the pro-Hezbollah rally holding a black-and-white portrait of Nasrallah captioned “we belong to Allah and to him we shall return” in English.

With his Palestinian keffiyeh around his neck, Mr Tiba spoke openly with The Australian on Tuesday about why he supports an organisation listed in Australia as a terrorist.

“It’s ironic, isn’t it, how they say that those carrying Hezbollah flags should have their visas revoked, or if they’re dual citizens, they should have their citizenships cancelled,” Mr Tiba said. “What I find funny with that is, Hezbollah is a resistance group.”

It is understood Hezbollah flags and framed pictures of Nasrallah were being handed out to protesters attending the rally at the weekend.

Flaunting Hezbollah’s symbols is illegal under section 80.2 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, but the aspiring artist seemed not to care. “No, I’m not worried because I don’t think I broke the law in any way. The police don’t scare me,” Mr Tiba said. “There’s only one terrorist organisation in this story, and it’s not Hezbollah, it’s the IDF.”

Hezbollah is recognised around the world as a terrorist organisation and has been firing rockets at Israel since Hamas launched its deadly wave of attacks on October 7 last year. The Iran-backed group laid siege to cities across Syria on behalf of Bashar al-Assad’s government and was suspected of appointing members of Islamic Jihad responsible for the 1983 US embassy bombing in Beirut.

The symbols and words on the Hezbollah flag express its ideology and goals, including a verse from the Koran that indicates Hezbollah considers itself the “party of God”.

The globe sitting under a rifle refers to the party’s ambitions, which may include the idea of establishing control over the world through the use of force.

On Sunday, pro-Palestinian and pro-Hezbollah protesters where filmed marching in the streets of Melbourne and Sydney, chanting the slogan “Labayka ya Nasrallah”.

The slogan is often used by Shi’ite Muslims, one of the two major groups in Islam. It expresses the willingness to dedicate the life of the individual and the community to defend its leader – who must be obeyed, even to the point of death.

Mr Tiba said there was no problem in carrying Hezbollah flags and framed pictures of Nasrallah.

“I want to make this clear, in general: I’m a left-wing socialist so I do not give a rat’s butt about Hezbollah in general, in the grand scheme of things. But in their war against Israel, I definitely support them,” he said.

Asked by The Australian if he waved a Hezbollah flag at the protest, Mr Tiba said: “Of course I did. I don’t own one, but when one was passed to me, I did carry it. I am not a diehard Hezbollah supporter. I’m a leftist, so I do not really support right-wing religious organisations in general. But what I will say is Hezbollah as a resistance group against Israel has my support.”

Mr Tiba told The Australian he began to attend weekly pro-Palestinian protests after the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel launched by Hamas.

He acknowledged the tragedy of the deaths on October 7, but had placed the blame on Israeli actions.

“You keep poking a bear, it will fight back. Then you can’t play the victim, Habibi – that’s not how it works,” he said.

State police were ordered to check the visa status of protesters who displayed Hezbollah flags, but the Coalition has condemned the sluggish police response after suggesting the actions were glorifying terror groups.

The Australian Federal Police issued a call-out for video of the protests on Sunday, at which multiple people were seen carrying Hezbollah insignia, while Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said protesters here on visas, who police are concerned about, will be referred to the federal government, but warned he could not “prejudge” whether carrying a Hezbollah flag was grounds for cancellation.

“So we’ve sent the message … to the different police forces, in this case NSW and Victoria, and just said that if anybody who they’re concerned about, if they can check their visa status as well, and if someone is on a visa, then that’ll come to us,” Mr Burke said on Tuesday.

But in the case of Mr Tiba, an Australian citizen, the threat of visa cancellations was not relevant.

Peter Dutton wrote to AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw after the protests, seeking “urgent action” in response to the “shocking and disgraceful scenes” in Melbourne and Sydney where “racist and genocidal phrases and slogans were chanted”.

“I am shocked that in Australia we have seen open support for the listed terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah in our two largest cities,” Mr Dutton said in the letter.

“In the interests of social cohesion and public safety, I am particularly concerned that individuals who openly support listed terrorist organisations, including for example through the flying of flags, remain at large.”

Mr Dutton told The Australian it was “completely unacceptable” that as of Monday afternoon people accused of “glorifying Hezbollah and Hamas” by flying their flags had not already been arrested by police or had their visa cancelled by the government.

The latest unrest in Australia came as Israeli forces carried out targeted raids into southern Lebanon ahead of an imminent ground invasion.