New South Wales Police brutalised pro-Palestine protesters picketing SEC Plating in Belmore on June 27, arresting five people and hospitalising one.
It was the fourth picket of the facility, organised by the Weapons Out of the West (WoW) group, which campaigns against weapons' production in Western Sydney.
SEC Plating manufactures plating, engineering coatings and finishes for F-35 fighter jets used by Israel to conduct its genocide in Gaza. It has contracts with a number of weapons' manufacturers.
At the previous picket, protesters managed to delay workers from entering the site for two hours, before police arrived and moved them on. This time, a WoW spokesperson told Green Left that when the group of 50 pro-Palestine protesters approached the site, police were waiting for them.
Police had already arrested one legal observer before the picket started. The WoW spokesperson said on June 27 they were attempting to negotiate with police when one officer became “agitated” and the violence started.
Videos posted on social media show police dragging protesters across the ground, holding people by the neck and slamming them into fences.
A young woman was hospitalised with injuries to her eye and face “after being battered by two officers with no apparent cause”. She now needs surgery. One officer reportedly said as she protested the violence: “That’s on you”. WoW said that medics were “barred by police from providing first aid”.
Another protester was “illegally strip-searched in front of the crowd in the cold with no privacy”, the spokesperson said. They were subsequently arrested, despite nothing incriminating being found.
Rising Tide activist Zack Schofield, who was arrested, said NSW Premier Chris Minns “can’t arrest his way out of the people objecting to genocide and the complicity of Australia in this”. He added: “The excessive force used by police was brutal and will be put into question.”
Martime Union of Australia Sydney branch organiser Shane Reside, who was also arrested, said: “After witnessing the brutal assault committed against another member of the community, I called out the police for their actions and on that basis they then targeted me and I was arrested.”
Another protester said: “We refuse the funding, arming and support of the Zionist entities in our communities … A company heading towards insolvency and cowering from an angry community calls on the violence of the state to protect itself…”
Legal Observers NSW said police were seen “tackling individuals walking along the footpath to the ground and dragging one person on the concrete”.
“A police officer placed their hands around the neck of one person to drag them backwards, causing them to be unable to breathe for about a minute, with serious bruising developing”.
They said police had issued move-on orders on the basis that individuals being near the location would cause “fear and alarm” and that the protests were “unauthorised” because they hadn’t filled out a Notice of Intention to hold a public assembly.
Legal Observers NSW said these are “not valid reasons for issuing a move-on order under the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002”.
Families for Palestine said Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley should “take accountability” for the actions of police. “This violence happened under your watch.”
Palestine Action Group Sydney, which last week took NSW Labor to the Supreme Court over its draconian anti-protest laws, said: “Once again, the authorities who should be arresting those complicit in genocide, are instead those trying to stop it.”
NSW Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi said the Minns government has “repeatedly undermined our civil liberties and vilified pro-Palestine, anti-genocide protesters ... Today’s events are a direct result of that dangerous political approach and this Labor government must be held accountable.”
The WoW spokesperson said there was a lot of community support for the pickets, and that protesters would not be deterred by police violence and intimidation.
[Legal Observers NSW are asking for any footage of the incident to be emailed to them at legalobserversnsw@protonmail.com]