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Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the Sydney waterfront in the aftermath of the surprise Hamas attack on Israel to express their support, and their general dislike of Israel’s existence. The focus of their attention was the iconic Sydney Opera House, which was lit up with a projection of the Israeli flag as a show of solidarity. As tensions escalated, passing pickup trucks shot red and green fireworks (two of the colors of the Palestinian flag), and protesters began throwing flares at the opera house. It was as the smoke rose over the pointy curves of the landmark’s silhouette, and the red glow of fire and flares bathed the protesters, that the chanting took on a darker tone. Vociferous chants of ‘gas the Jews!’ turned into enthusiastic ‘Allahu Ackbar’ and finally ‘f**k the Jews!’ in scenes that resembled somewhere in the Middle East and not far-flung Australia. Reaction to the protest was one of horror and disgust. Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese called the chanting ‘horrific’ and said, ‘we are a tolerant multicultural nation,’ which seems like an odd way to express intolerance of the behavior of Muslim immigrants but oh well. Fahed Ali, one of the protest’s organizers, said on Twxttxr that ‘antisemitism has no place in our movement,’ and that the chants were from a ‘minority,’ something which appears to be very strongly contradicted by the video of the incident posted to social media by the Australian Jewish Association.
