5 July 2024

Pro-Palestine protesters arrested after scaling roof of Parliament House

| James Coleman
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protestors on Parliament House

The banners accused the Federal Government of war crimes. Photo: James Coleman.

Police have arrested four protesters at Parliament House after they breached security and scaled the roof to unfurl banners displaying anti-war and pro-Palestine messaging.

Two of the banners, unveiled this morning around 10:30 am, read “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” and “No peace on stolen land – genocide since 1788”, while the largest, draped over the coat of arms, accused the Federal Government of being complicit in “war crimes” in Palestine, as well as Vietnam, Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.

A crowd gathered out the front to watch the protest. Photo: James Coleman.

Protesters also threw paper planes from the roof inscribed with messages calling for Australia to support global peace and to end “the enabling of war crimes”.

The protest was instigated by a group calling themselves Renegade Activists, which, in a subsequent post to its Instagram page, revealed it had chosen 4 July, Independence Day in the US, as an occasion of “blood-soaked American flag-waving”.

Four protesters were arrested. Photo: James Coleman.

“We declare to the Australian government, we will continue to unmask you and to resist.”

Police officers cordoned off the area to the public and, within an hour, had directed the protesters to leave the roof. Three other officers subsequently donned safety equipment and climbed onto the roof to remove the banners.

Police removed the banners at around 11:30 am. Photo: James Coleman.

A spokesperson for ACT Policing said three men and one woman have been arrested. They are expected to be charged with Commonwealth trespass offences. They have also been issued with 24-month banning notices from Parliament House.

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If only Hamas cared about the Palestinian people as much as these protesters then there would be no genocide in Gaza.

So, there is a genocide?
Thanks for confirming.

Thank you to these brave people for bringing attention to the Australian Governments complicity in the genocide of the people of Palestine. We should all stand up for justice.
We need to support the UN ICC and ICJ rulings and as signatories to the Genocide Convention we are obliged to do everything we can to prevent the genocide continuing.
The govt says there is nothing they can do.
We can recognise the state of Palestine – as per Labor policy (instead of sanctioning those who voted for their policy)
Boycott Israel and
Recognise the terrorism in the West Bank, including from settlers
Call for the release of the thousands of Palestinians held without charge.

Shame on those who say those who call out the 38,000 people, civilians, women, children, health workers, aide workers, doctors, killed is supporting terrorism, those who support Israel are supporting terrorism.
Hamas killed 1100 people after generations of provocation. They shouldn’t have done that but the retaliation is totally out of proportion.
Collective Punishment is just one of the many text book war crimes that Israel have committed since October 7th.

Keyboard Warrior6:14 pm 04 Jul 24

How the hell does this happen?! Any time I’ve been there, day or night, there’s always a good 20-50 layabouts there in security or police uniforms, not to mention all the Chinese Hikvision cameras.
We are a complexity useless nation if supporters of terror can just walk up on our federal parliament and start climbing all over it.
Even NZ wouldn’t tolerate such lax security!

The supporters of terror have access passes into Federal Parliament where their offices are.

Ah, non-violent activism at its best. Banners, voices, messages to those in positions of power and influence, no body hurt. Excellent. This is what a true liberal democracy looks like. Oh, and they have a point. In 1948 the world allowed an imbalance to occur in the area then known as Palestine. It allowed a state to be created for some, at the exclusion of others who have suffered repression ever since. Time to rebalance. Recognise a Palestinian state. Aid a Palestinian state to flourish. Give hope and peace to both Israelis and Palestinians. End occupation, oppression, tit-for-tat explosions of madness. Rebalance, now.

@riccardo
While I have no issue with peaceful protest, liberal democracy is still about rule of law. They broke the law and should be judged accordingly.

Keyboard Warrior10:17 pm 04 Jul 24

Since the terrorist organization Hamas launched its attacks on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, around 1,200 Israelis have died, a further 5,431 were injured, some sexually attacked, then murdered.
If that’s your vision for a “true liberal democracy” then it comes as little surprise that you are also ok with those that support terrorists climbing all over our parliament to show off and grab some irrelevant media attention from the bottom of the world.

Isn’t the leadership of israel a wanted fugitive by the Hague for crimes against humanity? Talk about terror supporters…

peturbed_but_pretty12:22 pm 05 Jul 24

I agree – it was a great protest. The greatest changes in our world have been influenced by non-violent direct action.

Max_Rockatansky2:08 pm 04 Jul 24

“I think that people need to have a conversation with their kids and their grandkids, with their next-door neighbours, just about how evil the current Greens party is, that they’re nothing about the environment, they’re all about radical causes, and somehow Adam Bandt, who I think is unfit to be in public office, he has led a party now that is central to what we’re seeing on campuses, and the distribution of hate and antisemitic messages online, the chanting of ‘river to the sea’ and ‘intifada’ etc, and people, as we’ve talked about before, in the Jewish community, are living in fear, and when people say that this is a repeat of the 1930s, every decent honourable Australian should stand up to make sure that it’s not.” Peter Dutton, The Ray Hadley Morning Show, 2GB, 6 June 2024.

Yes, Australian politics is just as filled with zionist stooges as US politics is, unfortunately. Probably due to the same type of political donations ftom certain groups.

@Max_Rockatansky
When you posted that quote last time, I saw “Dutton” and “Hadley, and realised immediately there was nothing to be gained from reading it. Same reaction this time.

I can’t tell if you’ve posted this quote to show how ridiculous Dutton is, or because you agree with it.

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