Sydney businessman reclaims confiscated Israeli flag after arrest

Jewish businessman Mark Spiro was dragged away by police moments after he arrived to ‘bear witness’ at a pro-Hamas rally but police claim he was arrested for his own protection.

Mark Spiro with his Israeli flag. Picture: Adam Yip

Mark Spiro stepped out of Day Street Police Station in central Sydney gripping the Israeli flag confiscated from him when he was arrested and pulled away from the pro-Palestine protest at Town Hall on Monday.

“My intention was to bear witness to a group of people … celebrating the atrocities, the pogrom, that the Jewish nation has not witnessed since the Holocaust, take place in Sydney,” he said.

On Monday evening, as pro-Palestine protesters congregated at Sydney’s Town Hall, videos emerged online of the Jewish businessman being pulled aside by police officers as he yelled “I did nothing wrong!”

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke on Tuesday said Mr Spiro had been arrested for his own protection.

“A person was removed from the Town Hall rally, who was carrying a flag, for his safety,” he said.

“He was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, for his safety. He was removed and released.

“I understand his view – very clearly understand his view – and what he sees as his right but also very clearly that situation … could have caused significant risk to him and others present.”

Mr Spiro, an Australian-born dual citizen of Australia and Israel, said he was “shocked, appalled, and concerned” as he was led away. “In the year 2023, certain segments of our society can’t go into the CBD while others can and burn flags of Israel and chant the way they did,” he said.

“I simply couldn’t believe that we were allowing that to happen.

“My intention was to go then to the Opera House, see this iconic building lit up in blue and white and take a photo with the Israeli flag in solidarity with my family and friends who live in Israel and the Jewish people worldwide.”

Mr Spiro said two of his friends had died from Hamas’s attacks on Israel. “They were people I admired greatly,” he said. “They were people who have been in my home in Sydney in the last 12 months.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said Mr Spiro’s arrest was “atrocious” and a “moral failing”.

“People who came to their own CBD to gather with their fellow citizens in a show of solidarity and support weren’t able to do so, and were taken away by the police when they attempted to do so, whereas the mob was allowed to run riot and do what they wanted to do. That’s a clear moral failing.”

Mr Spiro said he had taken the train to Town Hall station, Israeli flag wrapped around a wooden pole, on Monday afternoon to see the rally. When he walked up the steps to the surface and looked to see the protesters – flag still wrapped around the pole – “within three seconds of turning up … I have police on me forcibly removing me from the area”, he said.

“I do get where (the police were) coming from, but why should … an Australian Jew, a taxpaying, hard-working citizen, be fearful to go into their own city?”