Police defend actions after violent clashes with Herzog protesters in Sydney

Dozens of protesters have been arrested in violent clashes with police as thousands demonstrated against visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog, hours after a court rejected a bid to strip police of enhanced powers granted during his time in Sydney.

The crowd on Monday night, estimated at 6000, waved Palestinian flags and held signs critical of Herzog as they surrounded Town Hall, before 27 were arrested, 10 of them for allegedly assaulting police.

In a press conference late Monday night, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna claimed those arrested were caught up in a “contagion of groupthink”.

“Officers were being threatened, jostled and assaulted, and we had to enact powers to move that crowd on and direct them out of the CBD,” McKenna said.

It led to “a number of melees, rolling fights at times, and violent behaviour from members of that crowd”, he said.

Punches were thrown and capsicum spray was used on dozens of demonstrators as police moved the crowd away. Others were thrown to the ground, and some were trampled as police officers and horses pushed the crowd towards Bathurst Street.

The clashes came as protesters sought to march towards NSW Parliament, while police blocked the crowd and ordered them to disperse.

Protesters helped each other flush their eyes, while others were pinned to the ground or dragged into police vans.

In the moments before the rally descended into chaos and violence, Palestine Action Group (PAG) spokesman Josh Lees addressed the angry crowd.

“We’re going to take back our streets and demand freedom,” he declared.

“People are getting arrested and pepper sprayed in front of us … this is a bloody outrage.”

Lees told the Herald people were “bashed” and “attacked” by police as they tried to leave after being told to disperse.

“The police just started charging in with horses and pepper spray and [were] bashing people and arresting people, and they were telling everyone to disperse, but they couldn’t go anywhere because they were boxed in on all sides,” he said.

“All they had to do was facilitate a march.”

McKenna said he witnessed “the restraint” of the police, and protesters were given more than enough time to disperse.

“Lots of people did, in fact, leave,” he said.

“Those who didn’t leave, if they got caught up in something, well, they made their choice.”

He accused those who spoke at the event of inciting the crowd and said the previously co-operative relationship police had with the PAG organisers had changed as a result of the evening’s “disappointing” events.

“They’ve got some work to do now to build some trust back,” McKenna said.

The group plans to protest outside a Sydney police station on Tuesday afternoon.

In video posted to social media, a group of men pausing to pray are dragged away by advancing police.

The shocking footage was deeply disturbing and entirely unacceptable, the Australian National Imams Council said in a statement.

“Police are entrusted to protect the community, uphold public safety, and de-escalate tensions, not to interfere with religious worship or inflame an already sensitive situation.”

Another video showed multiple police throwing punches at a man with his hands raised.

People should not judge the videos “out of context, on their own” too quickly, McKenna said.

He said he was yet to review police body-worn video of the events.

“If things need to come out for the right reasons, we’ve got no problems in sharing,” he said.

“In the context of thousands of people being in a very confined space where leaders get up and say ‘let’s do the wrong thing, let’s march’ … those officers are in a very vulnerable, precarious position.

“I absolutely think the police actions were justified tonight,” McKenna said.

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, who attended the protest, said police were “brutal, unnecessary and violent”.

“I saw young women being thrown against the wall, Aboriginal people detained and tear gas used indiscriminately,” she said.

“The police were clearly emboldened to be violent. There is a lot of footage of dreadful police violence.”

Earlier, protesters held signs labelling the visiting president a “war criminal” and accusing him of genocide. “Isaac you are pure evil,” one read.

Some held bloody dolls representing dead Gazan children. Other signs depicted wanted posters for Herzog, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Others brandished signs of Premier Chris Minns and Herzog painted with moustaches evoking Hitler.

The rally came shortly after the NSW Supreme Court rejected an urgent legal challenge to sweeping powers granted to police for Herzog’s visit to Australia. Justice Robertson Wright made orders less than an hour before the planned protest.

The NSW government quietly declared Herzog’s visit a major event on Friday under legislation typically used to manage crowds at large sporting events.

It triggered wide-ranging powers for NSW Police, including the ability to shut down parts of a “major events area” in the Sydney CBD and eastern suburbs, to limit the number of people who can remain in the area, and to conduct searches. The march to parliament was not an authorised route.

The major event declaration was not announced publicly until Saturday.

Minutes after the court challenge was rejected, Lees said the protest at Town Hall and planned march to Parliament House would go ahead regardless.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame condemned Herzog’s visit, earlier telling the crowd Australia was “a so-called democracy that punishes peaceful protesters like us, but welcomes a war criminal with open arms”.

“A man … who said, and I quote, ‘there are no innocent civilians in Gaza’,” Tame said, before leading a chant of “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada”.

Labor MPs Dr Sarah Kaine, Cameron Murphy and Stephen Lawrence were at the rally despite Minns invoking the special police powers.

Jewish independent journalist Antony Loewenstein told the crowd Israel’s actions “endanger all of us, including Jews.”

“[Herzog] in Israel may be seen as a Labor-left man, believe me, he is an extremist, which is very mainstream in Israel,” Loewenstein said.

It is the first time the sweeping police powers have been used solely for the visit of a foreign dignitary.

“The Prime Minister of Australia invited another head of state into NSW, so we’ve got an obligation to protect that person and that was part of the operation tonight,” McKenna said.

The government said in a media release on Saturday that “we cannot allow a situation where mourners, visitors and protesters are brought into close proximity in a way that risks conflict, violence or public disorder”.

Had it been successful, the challenge to the major events powers would only have removed one source of potential criminal liability for protesters.

The PAG has also launched a pending challenge to separate public assembly restrictions, introduced following the Bondi tragedy, which remove legal protections for protesters who block traffic or pedestrians on unauthorised protest routes.

While crowds gathered at Town Hall, chanting “from the river to the sea, Herzog to the ICC [International Criminal Court],” not far away, snipers and a hovering police helicopter prepared for Herzog to arrive at a different ICC, the International Convention Centre, where he addressed an event organised by the Zionist Federation of Australia.

At the request of police the crowd at the Sydney ICC were held in place for 30 minutes at the end of the event, in an attempt to keep supporters of the Israeli president separate from protesters in the CBD outside.

Herzog arrived in Sydney on Monday morning and is also expected to visit Canberra and Melbourne as part of the visit.

His invitation came after the Bondi Beach massacre on December 14. The attack, which targeted the Jewish community, killed 15 people and injured dozens more on the first night of Hanukkah.

The visit prompted pro-Palestine activists to prepare for a nationwide day of protests to coincide with Herzog’s arrival. A United Nations commission of inquiry found Herzog and other Israeli officials were “liable to prosecution for incitement to genocide” for comments made after the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.

Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts on email or turn on notifications in the app.