NSW Police objects to a peak-time city pro-Palestinian march
A pro-Palestinian group has issued a media release claiming NSW police will go to the Supreme Court tomorrow in a bid to block an Al-Nakba commemoration march in Sydney on Tuesday…but the police simply want the protest diverted from the city centre at peak time.
NSW Police say that the organiser of the protest, Patrick Langosch, has not responded to their request to relocate the protest.
Langosch’s Facebook page “Commemorate Al-Nakba: Protest against Israeli Apartheid!” posting includes the following Press Reelease:
Police file for Supreme Court order to prohibit Pro-Palestinian rally
NSW police initiated a Supreme Court action against the pro-Palestine Al-Nakba commemoration march to be held in Sydney on May 15. The police are seeking a court order prohibiting the public assembly and procession. Protest organisers state that they will not be intimidated and will defend the right to protest in court.
Independent journalist and author of My Israel Question, Antony Loewenstein, says: “The right to peacefully protest is a cornerstone of a democratic society. Supporting Palestinian rights is even more essential today in an age where our political and media elites choose to ignore Israeli apartheid right in front of their eyes.”
Sylvia Hale, Former Greens MLC, said: “It is critical, at a time when Israel has gaoled hundreds of Palestinians without charge or trial for protesting at Israel’s illegal occupation of their land, that we show our support for them and the thousands of other political prisoners in Israeli gaols. Australia must cut all military ties with Israel until the Israeli government abides by international law and ends its racist policies of ethnic cleansing.”
By attempting to ban the commemoration, the NSW police have shown they care more about assisting Israel in hiding from its past then upholding the democratic rights of Australian citizens.
May 15th marks the day of “The Catastrophe” (‘Al-Nakba’ in Arabic) where the state of Israel was created on the murder and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Within Israel, the state has attempted to silence protesters from speaking out against the oppression of the Palestinians and remembering this historic event. This has included intimidation and arrests of protestors and cutting funding of NGO’s involved in Al-Nakba events.
The march is planned for May 15 at Sydney Town Hall, beginning at 6pm. The rally will include speakers from the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Jews against the Occupation and many other pro-Palestinian activists.
A representative of the protest organisers has been summoned to a hearing at the Supreme Court at 10am on May 14 to contest the police actions.
NSW Police have issued the following statement….
“A schedule 1 form under the Summary Offences Act was received from Patrick LANGOSCH on behalf of the AL-NAKBA PLANNING COMMITTEE on the 8 May 2012. This notice informed of the intention to hold the above public assembly followed by a procession through the CBD commencing 19:00hrs and following the following route:
From Sydney Town Hall enter George Street and travel north to Market Street; proceed east on Market Street to Pitt Street; proceed North on Pitt Street to King St; proceed west on King Street to George Street; proceed South on George St back to Town Hall.
Police contacted the organiser LANGOSCH and requested that an alternative, static assembly be conducted due to the safety issues and traffic congestion that would arise for the intended activity and its timing. Police attempted to negotiate with the group providing alternatives to a procession during the traffic peak on Tuesday evening. The group have declined to negotiate or alter their proposal in any way.
As a result of the refusal of the group to negotiate police have caused the issuing of a summons by the NSW Supreme Court seeking an order to prohibit the intended procession. The matter is listed before the NSW Supreme Court at 10:00 hrs on Monday 14 May 2012.
Basis of the objection
That the proposed procession will cause an unacceptable risk to pedestrian and vehicle safety during the peak traffic period in which it is proposed. That the impact of the procession to traffic in the inner city and corresponding impact on connecting road systems is unreasonable.
The objection has nothing to do with the issue that is the subject of the protest. Police facilitate hundreds of protests in the city each year. The nature of these protests are often the subject of negotiation to achieve a safe event that does not create an unreasonable impact on the amenity of the city. Police oppose all proposals that impact on the traffic and pedestrian flow in the city during the morning and evening peak periods.
Why is this group not allowed to protest
They are allowed to protest however the nature of this proposal is unacceptable as it would be for any other group that proposed this type of event. Alternative locations and times were suggested to the group who declined to consider any amendments to their proposal.
Is this a political matter
No. Political or other interests are not the issue, the unreasonable impact of the proposed procession is the only issue.
Where are they allowed to hold a Rally
Static rally locations including Belmore Park and Hyde Park were suggested, however the group declined to consider any alternatives to their proposal. As the group declined to negotiate the potential to facilitate a procession at alternate times and locations could not be progressed.
Is it illegal for them to hold a rally
No it is not illegal for the group to hold a rally. In accordance with the summary offences act, the Supreme court will now determine if a breach of the traffic regulations can be enforced by police if the group proceed with the procession they have outlined.”
Al-Nakba commemorates the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Can i just say that in having no choice of working in the city, My husband will now not be able to get home for his daughters concert due to a protest that could have been relocated to a better time or better palce. I am all for the freedom of speech but to protest at the worst time of day about something that happened 64 years ago really boils my blood.
The police were not trying to stop it just move it as they cared about the Wives, Husbands, Mothers & Fathers that have to get home after working a long day in the city and wanting to spend time with their family before they go to bed or in my case see his daughter in her concert.
Many protesters wonder why people get angry – well there’s your answer. Think people think!!!
Hello Louisa
The march is at 7 Pm. Sorry to hear your husband returns home at 7. I presume there is only one street he can travel through to get home!
Good on you Ben – love the sarcasm!
In this case they rallied together before 6 and closures where already underway along with buses being disrupted before they even started to join together. In fact businesses were given notifications of closures and disruptions from 4pm.
The main bus route out of the city from the building in which he works along with hundreds of other workers is in the streets where the protesters marched – hence the reason the police were trying to negotiate to have the march moved so not to be as disruptive to commuters / workers getting out of the city.
Instead no they chose one of the busiest bus routes, in the main street of Sydney, then cried bullies when the police wanted to move (not stop) the protest.
So no Ben he doesnt finish at 7……. and yes he could take another bus just so it looks as though the march is peaceful and didn’t disrupt anyone but once again your missing the point, more than happy to protest for a cause but do it in a better place, better time that won’t annoy people and get them off side.
As Vicki said “The organisers are acting exactly like the Palestinians” and so are you Ben its everyone else that needs to to what you want: catch another bus, go down another street, leave at a different time.
Do your research about road closures and bus disruptions before commenting!
Use some logic and think to what domino effect there will be if roads are closed.
I am sadly amused by the Al Nakba march organisers refusal to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the NSW Police concerns. The organisers are acting exactly like the Palestinians who refuse to negotiate “peace” until Israel agrees to all of their demands prior to the commencement of negotiations.
The Jews Against the “Occupation” who intend to support and speak at this “peaceful” rally do not amuse me. They must be blind, self-haters.
Hello Vicki
Hiding behind specious excuses and still revealing hatred towards a colonised people’s cause! The march was at 7 pm, the excuse is disruption! I heard between 100 and 400 marched. Sorry for the hours of diruption and blockade of the Sydney CBD.
“Logic” a la “Ben” !!!
If the main street in Sydney CBD is blocked by a bunch of uncivilised Jew haters at 7 p.m.for 30 minutes it is ok !!!
Anyway, the pro palestinian PR machine functioned as well as their farcical cause and, although I feel sorry for the inconvenienced Sydney siders, I must admit that “Ben’s” mob couldn’t have provided my Zionist cause a better service.
Come to think of it ,[ strictly confidential ] could Patrick or Ben be ,actually, double agents……
Hello haver Ben, shkoyach !!
The following is an essay by Kasim Hafeez which shows how indoctrinated and intrenched of the ideas of ‘the Palestine people’ and ‘radical Islamism’ was reversed by self education and a trip to Israel. Dont let the lies be perpetuated……
Muslim, Zionist and Proud by Kasim Hafeez
How I went from hating to loving Israel and the Jewish people
I am a Zionist, a proud Muslim Zionist, and I love Israel, but this was not always the case. In fact, for many years I was quite the
extreme opposite. I experienced the high levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity taking place on British university campuses,
because I was the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist.
Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting
Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the “Zionist Entity” and all Jews. In short,
there was no accommodating a Jewish State in the Middle East.
To grow up around this constant barrage of hatred directed at Israel has a massive effect on an individual’s own opinions. More
disturbingly, many of these people weren’t radical or extreme, but when it was about Israel the most vicious of rhetoric poured
out, coupled with the casual anti-Semitism that seemed too prevalent, when the phrase “stop being a Jew” used as an insult.
My father, however, was much more brazen in his hatred, boasting of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he
didn’t kill enough Jews.
By the time I had reached 18 I was completely indoctrinated to the fold of radical Islamism. My hate for Israel and for the Jews
was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.
These views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day rallies, where speakers predicted Israel’s demise as Hezbollah flags
were waved proudly in the centre of London.
The Case for Israel
Was there a case for Israel? In my mind, of course not, there was no shadow of doubt. Even the most moderate clerics I came
across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified; the Jews must obviously deserve it, I believed.
So what changed? How could I go from all this hatred to the great love for and affinity with Israel and the Jewish people? I
found myself in the Israel and Palestine section of a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for
Israel. Given my worldview, the Jews and Americans controlled the media, so after brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking
“vile Zionist propaganda.”
I felt a real crisis of conscience, and thus began a period of unbiased research.
I did, however, decide to buy it, content that I would shortly be deconstructing
this propaganda piece, showing that Israel had no case and claiming my findings
as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause.
As I read Dershowitz’s arguments and deconstruction of many lies I saw as
unquestionable truths, I searched despairingly for counter arguments, but found
more hollow rhetoric that I’d believed for many years. I felt a real crisis of conscience,
and thus began a period of unbiased research. Up until that point I had
not been exposed to anything remotely positive about Israel.
Now, I didn’t know what to believe. I’d blindly followed others for so long, yet
here I was questioning whether I had been wrong. I reached a point where I felt
I had no other choice but to see Israel for myself; only that way I’d really know
the truth. At the risk of sounding cliché, it was a life-changing visit.
No Apartheid State
I did not encounter an apartheid racist state, but rather, quite the opposite. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and
churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the
judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn’t the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about.
After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had been confronted with the truth and had to accept
it. But I had a bigger question to confront, what now? I’d for years campaigned against Israel, but now I knew the truth.
Israel is not just a Jewish issue – it’s about freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish.
The choice was obvious: I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research
and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me.
Doing this is not easy and that’s something that has become very obvious. I have faced hostility from my own community and
even some within the Jewish community in the UK, but that’s the reality of standing up for Israel in Europe today. It is not easy,
and that’s what makes it so necessary.
This isn’t about religion and politics; it’s about the truth.
When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filed with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have
not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of.
We can change this situation but we need to be strong and united. Israel is not just a Jewish issue – it’s about freedom, human
rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It’s also about trying to be a light among nations.
Israel’s international humanitarian aid work speaks for itself, but if we don’t get the message out there, no one will. We don’t
have to be head-bowed apologists leading with :Israel’s not perfect…” – we should never be afraid to say: I am a Zionist and I’m
proud. I stand with Israel. Now I ask, will you do that?
Jwire – you really should fix up the layout of this report. It is not clear where the statements from the Police and the group in question begin and end. Perhaps some italicisation would not go astray…
The Palestinian Arabs make their own catastrophes.
When one sees the past opportunities there have been for an independent Palestinian State as per David Singer’s chronological outline, one has to wonder how so many can be so blind to the realities. The likes of Patrick Langosch no doubt have their own agendas, and the continual hatred and blame the Palestinians vent on Israel can be taken up by those such as Langosch to fuel their own cause. It’s all turning into a new form of anti-semitism; perhaps that’s why it’s easy for some to be blind to the realities.
Liat
The likes of Patrick Langosch do have their own agendas. It’s called “hate everything that the majority of people accept”
One only has to a look at his web sites Socialist Alternative, Students for Palestine and his personal and various Students for Palestine Facebook pages.
WOuld you apply the same logic to Australian Aborigines – they were responsible for the First fleet, colonisation, massacres and loss of their land.
And thus a genuine naqba is hoisted upon the civilised, peaceful Sydney dwellers who never wanted to turn this normal place into the ruins that best define every place so called palestinians have set foot on.
The self declared victims of self destructive spirits, the ilk that sends their children into death simply to satisfy their blood thirsty hatred of Jews, the intollerant, ilogical wreckers of our urban existential reason call upon notions of “rights” and “ethics” oblivious to the rules that govern a civilised society.
Blind destructive mobs want the whole society to be turned into chaos because this is the only mode of existence they have acquired while traversing generations of murderers towards their universal purpose of kneeling the whole of humanity to their sick will.
This democratic,civilised society did not object to the reasons for the mindless demonstration but the manner in which it is being planned !!!
A very convincing proof ( as we relly needed more of it ) that the spirit of naqba is what dominates the existence of these people. They have inflicted it upon themselves 64 years ago and now plan on perpetuating it in demonstartive ways upon Australians. A more selfish disrespect for this country cannot be fathomed !!!
The post rally report here says the protestors marched through deserted streets and were less than 150 in number. 150 people marching through deseretd streets is a naqba!
I wonder what Bishop Pat Power’s views will be, his name hasn’t been mentioned to date.
Or now that the outstanding tax issues owed by the Vatican for decades to the Holy Land has recently been resolved, he’ll no longer have the underlyng pecuniary interest.
If the forbears of those seeking to protest on the Town hall steps had only agreed to accept the recommendations of the Peel Committee in 1937 or the resolution of the UN General Assembly in 1947 to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state – how different the world would have been.
If only a Palestinian state had been created between 1948-1967 in the West Bank and Gaza – after all the Jews living there had been driven out in the 1948 War by six invading Arab armies – the AL NAKBA PLANNING COMMITTEE would not need to be planning a protest on Tuesday.
If the Palestinian Arabs had only accepted the offers made to them in 2000 and 2008 of more than 90% of the territory of the West Bank and 100% of Gaza – Antony Lowenstein and Sylvia Hale wouldn’t have to carry on as they are now.
Now that the Palestinian Arabs have achieved statehood and an end to Palestinian homelessness at UNESCO on 31 October 2011 – they are still protesting. Instead why doesn’t Mr Langosch and his fellow protesters turn their intended protest into a celebration of this wonderful achievement? That would be far more constructive and point the way forward rather than bemoaning what happened in the past.
Or will they all only celebrate when Israel is wiped off the face of the map?
As Jabotinsky put it so candidly, no native people will accept a new master or a prtition of their land unless compelled by an iron wall – in his case an iron wall of Jewish bayonets. israel is a coloniser and political Zionism is colonisation and dsiplacement. WHy should the Palestinians accept a recommendation imposed upon them by an imperial ruler acting with the collaboration of European colonisers displacing them from their land ?
If only the Jewish community here was as committed to Israel as the Palestinians, Arabs , Muslims and their Left wing allies are to the Palestinians .
Congratulations Ben! Through your brilliant prescience you see and decry actions and trends that have yet to occur.
But of course the Nakba Day planners have bought the catastrophe on themselves, as have the Arabs. The planned Nakba Day march was not just to offend Israel supporters, but to attract publicity and assert the power of some socially unrepresentative swill to over-ride the laws that apply to everyone else. That hoped-for triumphalism to compel the democratic, tolerant, law-abiding majority to bow to the demands of supporters of totalitarianism – in this case islamofascism – is being frustrated and they whine like the curs they are.
Those who object to laws and respecting the rights of others, are free to go to, say, Iran or Zimbabwe.
Ben, I strongly recommend you stay away from the pro-Palestinian web sites, it appears you frequent.
Surely you don’t mean what you posted?
If the Police have refused a permit to this group of extremists and rabble rousers, it wouldn’t be without a good reason. One in particular comes to mind.
Does Melbourne 1 July 2011 ring any alarm bells.?
In a Police State, people who have been refused a permit, wouldn’t be given the opportunity to attend a Court Hearing, to plead their case.
They would be refused it point blank. Or don’t you see that.?
hello Shirlee thank you for your comment. You are free to frequent any web site you choose to. I hope somewhere in the brwsing is an ability to look at facts objectively. You are welcome to challeneg any of the facts I have raised in the posting and I will debate you.
Hello Winter Sorry to remind you of history – I was refering to Jabotinsky’s “The Iron Wall” first published circa 1923. The Balfour Declaration, the collaboratin with British mandataory powers, the terror conducted by troops trained by Orde Charles Windgate are historical facts.
Hello Shirlee
Your spleen is showing. You will no doubt appreiate the semantic defference between “is being turned into a police state” and ” is a police state”.
NSW is being turned into a police state. Arbitrary powers to arrest, shootings, tasering of unarmed people, attacks by police on people and now an act out of the fascist book.
Oh dear Ben, I wished I lived in your fantasy world free of murderers, rapists, child molestors etc. Believe me when I say this is not a police state. If you or your family ever needed help I’m sure the good men and women of the NSW police would even help you.