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New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has stepped forward to defend the actions of police amidst the pro-Palestine demonstrations in central Sydney, coinciding with Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia.
In an interview with Today this morning, Minns urged the public not to form opinions based solely on brief video snippets circulating on social media.
He emphasized the difficult position faced by law enforcement, revealing that officers were tasked with the challenging duty of maintaining a buffer between protestors and a significant number of Jewish mourners.
“It’s important to note that police took every measure to prevent a confrontation, starting with their appeal to protest organizers last week to relocate the event to Hyde Park, where it could be conducted safely,” he explained.
“While the clips seen in the media are brief, it’s crucial to grasp the broader context. The protesters breaking through police barriers and causing chaos in Sydney could have had dire consequences,” Minns added.
“What we can say today what we couldn’t say yesterday is that we had 7,000 Jewish mourners in the same city at the same time, and police had to keep those two groups apart.”
Police say 27 demonstrators were arrested for allegedly assaulting police and 10 officers were injured during the clashes outside Town Hall.
Criticism of the way NSW Police handled the rally, including accusations from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties of unprovoked violence against protesters, grew overnight, sparking calls for the state government to take responsibility.
Critics included backbench Labor MP Sarah Kaine, who defied the premier by attending the rally, and later described police actions as “over the top”.
Minns insisted the situation would have spiralled further without the police response, and her criticism was off the mark.
“No. She’s wrong. I’m not going to throw police under the bus this morning,” he said,
“This is a situation that’s incredibly combustible. And the circumstances that weren’t shown on the news this morning or on TV last night because is what would have happened if protesters breached police lines … It would have dangerous … as difficult as the scenes were to watch, it would have been infinitely worse if NSW police didn’t do their job last night.”
The Palestine Action Group Sydney in a social media post condemned “the brutal attack by the NSW Police” and said protesters had behaved peacefully.
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