The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is confident charges will soon be laid against protesters who attended weekend demonstrations around the country where some people waved flags of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
A — some holding what appeared to be framed photographs of the group’s — joined a Melbourne event demonstrating against Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, as speeches ended and people began to march.
Hezbollah is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia. .
The AFP told SBS News on Tuesday it had multiple investigations in progress, with at least six referrals from Victoria Police from the Melbourne demonstration for potentially breaching .
AFP deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett said alleged antisemitic chants were one focus of investigations.
“I’m aware that there were alleged chants … certainly that will be a focus of our investigations,” Barrett told SBS News.
“I am fairly confident that we will have some matters out of the protests that we will put before court.”
She would not say whether facial recognition technology would be used by police to track down alleged offenders, but said there were “a number of ways that we can receive information”, calling for members of the public to refer any individual who was “inciting violence or wearing prohibited symbols while calling for the destruction of any group or individuals”.
Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett says she’s confident charges will soon be laid against individuals over a weekend protest where Hezbollah flags were waved. Source: AAP / James Ross
Lebanese Australians decry dehumanisation
Omar Hassan, one of the organisers of the Melbourne rally, said he rejected antisemitism. He said a very small group were flying the Hezbollah flag.
“Honestly as a Lebanese person, it feels like there is more passion and interest from media and politicians for some bits of cloth than the dead bodies of Arab men, women and children.”
Hassan Awada, a former Liberal deputy mayor in southern Sydney, said his relatives were killed in Lebanon on Monday, with a family of nine — including babies and children — wiped out and others still missing.
“Our relatives can die and get mutilated in the name of self-defence of Israel and (the federal government) support that,” Awada told the Australian Associated Press.
“Our feelings don’t count. We’re sub-human as far as our government is concerned … they decide to talk about a flag and forget about my nine family members and children.
“That’s not important but they talk about an individual (waving a flag) who might be emotional, or immature or whatever and we get tarnished with that.”
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni also criticised the “fixation” on a handful of flags at a protest over the actions of Israel.
“It reveals a stark and racist truth: Arab lives are deemed expendable,” he said.
“It’s a national disgrace that condemning a flag has become easier than confronting the brutal reality of a rogue state intent on annihilating an entire population.”
Vigil for slain Hezbollah leader condemned
Separately, both the Labor government and the Oppositoin have also criticised a vigil for held at a Sydney mosque on Monday night.
“There is no place for mourning a terrorist leader,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
“And we’re very concerned about some of the terrorist symbols. It’s completely unacceptable.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton said “red lines” were being “continuously crossed”.
“We are a tolerant society, but we are not going to accept the glorification of somebody who has led a terrorist organisation.”
Barrett said the AFP would look at any potential charges regarding the vigil on a case-by-case basis.
“And it is a contextual basis in terms of what may be occurring at the vigil, the impact it may be having on others around them, those sorts of things,” she said.
With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press
