Hundreds protest against Anthony Albanese's 'complicity' in Gaza war - MASHAHER

Key Points

Sydney’s Town Hall was surrounded by hundreds of demonstrators flying Palestinian flags on Saturday.
Albanese did not address the government’s position on Israel’s months-long attack in Gaza.
Almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Hamas-Israel war started on 7 October.

Anthony Albanese may have been silent on Gaza in Sydney’s Town Hall, but hundreds who gathered outside to protest were anything but.

The prime minister used the conference on Saturday to promote Labor’s handling of domestic issues such as tax cuts and the protection of Indigenous heritage sites.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon (left) during the 2024 NSW Labor state conference in Sydney on Saturday. Source: AAP / Jeremy Piper

But while it was not on Albanese’s agenda, Israel’s invasion of Gaza is what drove the loudest response on the day, with Sydney’s Town Hall surrounded by crowds flying Palestinian flags.

The party conference was a chance to draw attention to the government’s complicity in the violence in Gaza, Students Against War member Luke Ottavi told AAP.

“Albanese continues to send parts of the F-35 fighter jets that Israel uses to rain bombs on Gaza,” Ottavi said.

“These parts are made in Australia, and are not made anywhere else, continuing the flow of those means that Israel is able to continue its massacre of Palestinians.”

Chris Breen, a school teacher with Teachers and School Staff for Palestine, said that “real” democracy was not happening inside the conference.

“There’s been thousands of children (operated on) without anaesthetic and it needs to stop. And the Labor government could play a role in that.”

Breen called out NSW Premier Chris Minns and the state’s education department, claiming he could not speak openly about the conflict in his role as a teacher.

“There really is an effort to clamp down on any show of human sympathy for the victims of the genocide in Gaza in our schools,” he said.

“On Harmony Day … students were told not to wear the keffiyeh, not to wear the Palestinian flag, not to do any of that.”

Israel’s war on Gaza continues to dog the Labor government and the party itself as it comes under fire from protests from around the country and seeds division in its ranks.

Paul Harridge of the Palestinian Action Group, who organised the protest on Saturday, has been attending Sydney’s pro-Palestine protests since they began last October.

“All the eyes in the world are on them, and it would be a lot worse if we weren’t holding them accountable,” Harridge said.

Israel’s bombing attacks and ground offensive in Gaza have killed almost 40,000 Palestinians since 7 October, according to the local health ministry.

Almost while 495,000 are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Israel’s campaign was a response to Hamas’ 7 October attack, when the group killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages, according to the Israeli government.

Source Agencies