‘Escalate for Rafah’: Protesters plan to occupy Labor MPs’ offices

Palestine supporters plan to occupy the offices of Labor MPs across the country on Friday in a national day of action over the war in Gaza, as one of the politicians targeted accused protesters of crossing a line and risking social cohesion.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong this week demanded Israel halt its military campaign in the southern Gazan city of Rafah after the killing of dozens of civilians. But protest organisers said the failure of federal Labor MPs to support a Greens motion recognising Palestine as a state had compelled them to intensify pressure, testing Labor’s fault lines.

Fake bodies were laid outside Labor MP Peter Khalil’s electorate office in Coburg in Melbourne’s north in November.Credit: Twitter

A spreadsheet shared by protest organisers listed the way every lower house MP voted on the motion. They are urging supporters to occupy offices across the country.

Friday’s action from Stop Arming Israel calls for residents to occupy, picket and post flyers at electorate offices of Labor MPs around the country, and subgroups have planned “die-ins” with fake blood and dolls.

Protest material circulated on social media urges activists to “Escalate for Rafah.” “Intifada. It’s coming home.”

Graffiti to a billboard in Khalil’s electorate of Wills.

Federal member for Wills Peter Khalil, whose office in Melbourne’s northern suburbs will be targeted again on Friday, told The Age he believed actions and rhetoric had escalated.

Electrical wiring was cut this week to an ALP billboard in his electorate that was then graffitied with “revolution until victory”. Khalil said damaging the property of local small businesses crossed a line.

“This is not about me,” Khalil said. “Small businesses, what do they have to do with this?

“They can protest out the front of my office, they can protest anywhere, as long as it’s peaceful, and it doesn’t cross over into hate speech towards others.”

The Age does not suggest organisers of Friday’s protest were involved in the billboard damage.

Nathalie Farah, from activist group Disrupt Wars, said she woke up on Wednesday morning feeling hopeless and decided then to call the national day of action, which she insisted would be peaceful.

“We’re not calling for breakage or property damage,” Farah said. “We’re not the ones who are breaking social cohesion, it’s them.

“We’re not bringing conflict, we’re bringing peaceful protest. No one is calling for anything beyond picketing and flyering, and it’s our democratic right to do that.”

Federal and state Labor MPs have been at pains to focus attention on protecting social cohesion, but some worry they could be punished in seats with large Muslim and Arab populations at the next federal election, due by next May.

Former Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam hopes to flip Khalil’s seat of Wills, which is 10 per cent Muslim, and drew attention to the war when her candidacy was announced.

Khalil accused the Greens of politicising tragedy, and insisted his criticism was not political.

“I’m not interested in the politics. I’m interested in the safety of my community. I’m interested in social cohesion and our multicultural society and the harmony of our society,” he said.

“I’m interested in the responsibility and obligation that I have as an elected representative to represent my community, everyone in my community, and have them safe and not be subjected to either intimidation, hate speech, or these violent acts, or damaging of their property or their small business or their livelihoods, their safety at work, that’s what I’m interested in.”

In a statement, Ratnam said the Greens stood with communities “during this time of grief and catastrophic loss, while Labor has refused to show any leadership”.

“We have been listening to communities who are devastated by the genocide unfolding in Gaza and frustrated that Labor won’t listen or speak up for them,” she said.

The Unionists for Palestine group, which supports Friday’s protests, claimed Labor at state and federal levels was complicit in genocide and had ignored rank-and-file members who voted to support the Palestinian cause at this month’s state conference.

“For these reasons, Unionists for Palestine will be attending the planned protests,” the group said in a statement.

Victoria Police said it was aware of Friday’s planned protests. “There will be a police presence to prevent breaches of the peace and ensure community safety.”

In Melbourne, protesters plan to stage a “die-in” with fake blood and dolls at a defence industry event that Victorian Jobs Minister Natalie Hutchins is addressing.

Yasemin Shamsili, from the Stop Elbit Systems campaign group against the Israeli military company, told The Age “we feel we are the witnesses of a catastrophe”.

The Victorian government has repeatedly said foreign policy was a matter for the federal government.

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