Australian police consider special search powers ahead of pro-Palestinian protest

FILE PHOTO: Participants of a pro-Palestinian rally react outside the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, October 9, 2023. AAP Image/Dean Lewins via REUTERS/File Photo reuters_tickers

By Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian police are considering applying special stop-and-search powers for the first time in almost two decades to attendees at a pro-Palestinian rally on Sunday, as tensions rise in the country after Hamas’ bloody incursion into Israel.

New South Wales state police said on Friday they had sought legal advice about special powers not used since race riots in 2005 that would allow police to search and demand the identity without cause of those attending a pro-Palestinian protest in Sydney.

“If they fail to do so it is an offence, these are extraordinary powers,” Acting Commissioner Dave Hudson told a news conference.

Police expect more than four hundred people to attend the protest in Sydney’s Hyde Park.

The planned demonstration has touched off nationwide debate after footage from a Monday rally by the same group showed people chanting “gas the jews”. Organisers claim a fringe group of “vile” antisemites attended and were told to leave.

Protest organiser Palestine Action Group Sydney have said Sunday’s rally will go ahead without police authorisation, and defended the right to demonstrate after calls from politicians across the political spectrum to cancel the event.

Countries across the developed world are curbing pro-Palestinian protests out of concern the Israel-Hamas conflict could trigger violence at home. France banned pro-Palestinian protests on Thursday saying they were likely to “generate disturbances to public order”.

Germany banned a pro-Palestinian group after it posted photos on Instagram of activists handing out sweets celebrating the Hamas attacks.

Australia’s intelligence chief warned on Thursday about the potential for opportunistic violence and called for people to tone down rhetoric that could inflame tensions in the community.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Stephen Coates)