Anti-war protesters held a snap action outside the Downing Centre court on April 22 to demand that charges against those protesting Israeli President Isaac Herzog on February 9 are dropped.
NSW Labor’s anti-protest laws which covered the anti-Herzog protest have been found to be unconstitutional by the NSW Supreme Court.
Paul Keating, Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) Sydney branch secretary said the union stands with the protesters and against the undemocratic laws. “Members of the MUA were assaulted and arrested on that day,” he said. “The MUA will not be silenced, and will remain out there campaigning against these laws.”
Adam Adelpour from Stop War on Palestine said: “[Premier Chris] Minns should resign or be removed as premier because of these shameful laws. Minns is the criminal, not those brutally arrested.”
Vince Caughley, NSW National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) secretary, said the “outrageous charges are part of a pattern” to close down the democratic space. “Restrictions on the right to protest must not be normalized,” he said, adding the union moved recently in Unions NSW to oppose these laws. He said the resolution was carried unanimously, with even the Police Association voting in favour.
One woman arrestee told the protest: “We were on the streets to defend the Palestinian people. Silence is complicity on this important issue.”
Josh Lees, from Palestine Action Group (PAG), said Minns needs to resign. “The laws were only able to be implemented because the NSW Labor government declared a ‘major event’, just three days before the demonstration.”
Charlotte, from the Watch the Cops group, said police are repressing many sections of the community. “These arrests are designed to intimidate and exhaust many people,” they said, beginning with the campaign for justice over Black deaths in custody.
MUA official Maureen Howard pleaded not guilty to larceny at the anti-Herzog protest in court. Her trial hearing was set down for December 10.