10 May 2025: In recent days, we’ve seen a wave of commentary linking the Greens’ electoral losses to their principled support for Palestinian human rights and pro-Palestine rallies. This narrative is not only inaccurate—it is irresponsible.
The protracted war in Gaza is having a deep impact on Australian communities.
Ian Cutmore)
If you talk to almost any politician in Canberra at the moment, they will tell you there is something disturbing playing out in their communities. Many are deeply unsettled by it.
Anger at a war, unfolding in real-time on social media, is triggering animosity. MPs are detecting a level of polarisation — some call it intolerance — that they haven’t observed at this level in their careers. Perhaps even their lives.
After last year’s polarising Voice referendum vote, Australia went almost immediately into a period of domestic conflict over the war in the Middle East. The tensions have been boiling over relentlessly ever since. There has been a lack of self-analysis from us as a country about what that referendum was, why it failed, and what it tells us about the schisms in our community.
The referendum has become like the Voldemort of Australian politics — many of its main protagonists can’t talk about it at any depth beyond platitudes.
Tensions were already high
Meanwhile, the world has been thrust into witnessing a brutal conflict that many believe has fundamentally changed community relations in Australia. It is tearing workplaces, families and friendship groups apart.
What worries those I’ve talked to on both sides of the political divide is that social cohesion was already at record lows. Towards the end of last year, the Mapping Social Cohesion Report was released putting the Scanlon-Monash Index of Social Cohesion at its lowest level since the survey began 16 years ago.
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The index, which provides a barometer of social wellbeing, declined by four points over the 12 months to the end of last year, hitting the lowest result on record. Since November 2020, it has plummeted 13 points. Something is going on and it’s sparking many conversations in Canberra.
The protracted war in Gaza is having a deep impact on the communities most directly affected. MPs representing some of Australia’s most multicultural communities — particularly those with high numbers of Arab and Muslim constituents — say their communities are angry that the Albanese government hasn’t gone further in denouncing Israel’s military campaign. Their communities are feeling abandoned and ignored.
The political ramifications for the Albanese government are yet to be felt but it’s fertile ground that could spell trouble. Last week Australia, Canada and New Zealand issued a joint statement warning Israel against carrying out a “devastating” and “catastrophic” ground offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza, saying: “There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”
The statement was strong but it drew criticism from Palestinian activists that it was too little too late.
Australia warns Israel over its operation in Rafah.
What’s the end game?
At the same time, Jewish Australians are experiencing the highest rates of anti-Semitism in their lives. I know Jewish Australians who are far from supportive of the Netanyahu government’s military strategy but who say they don’t feel comfortable in their workplaces or communities because of the conflation between being Jewish and being branded a supporter of the war. Nuance seems dead.
A leak of a WhatsApp chat group called “Jewish Australian creatives and academics” sent chills through the Jewish community. While members said it was formed as a supportive space, there’s no doubt that some conversations focused on rebuking media critiques of Israel. The targeting of individuals is dangerous territory that politicians have vowed to stamp out.
The leakers say they acted in the public interest because they claim the chat group was coordinating actions to target pro-Palestinian activists. Some of those on the WhatsApp group say that was not what they were there to do. Others had their names published even though they weren’t active in the group. The bigger question is why we are in a situation where Australians — whether Jewish or Palestinian — are being personally targeted and policed. What’s the end game?
The Australian government has reacted to this episode with a move to criminalise doxxing and introduce jail terms for those responsible. The parameters of the laws will be subject to consultation and public journalism will be protected, but the fact that we are even having this conversation speaks volumes about how toxic things have become.
The government plans to criminalise “doxxing” after the details of Jewish Australians were published online.(Rhiana Whitson)
Cabinet minister Bill Shorten told me last week that community and racial cohesion in Australia was at a “very low point” since the Israel-Gaza war and he had not seen this level of intolerance during his time in parliament.
Speaking on ABC Radio National, Shorten said his electorate office in Moonee Ponds had been targeted several times by advocates.
“It’s at a very low point,” he told me. “I’m someone who really enjoys mixing with our constituents and getting out and about. The vast bulk of people are excellent, but there’s no doubt that we’ve seen a rise in anti-Semitism, or we’ve seen a rise in this sort of ugly intolerance which, to be honest, I haven’t seen in my time in parliament.
“For those people who would seek to vandalise, so somehow the events elsewhere justify law-breaking here, they’re wrong.”
The member for Macnamara, Josh Burns, has also been worried about how alienated his Jewish constituents are feeling.
“I know people are distressed about what is happening in the Middle East, but we cannot let the conflict overseas breed division and hatred in our local community,” he says.
He says the majority of the community has been incredible and empathetic, however, there’s a “small and loud group of people who feel that a conflict on the other side of the world is an excuse to target their fellow Australians”.
“The way we talk about the conflict matters, our words matter, and we must not forget what it means to be a proud multicultural nation — listening, empathising and understanding one another.”
30 December 2023, The Canberra Times
South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice for an urgent order declaring that Israel is in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its ongoing crackdown against Hamas in Gaza.
In the latest development in Israel’s war against Hamas, tens of thousands of newly displaced Gazans sought refuge in the centre of the Palestinian enclave on Friday after fleeing an Israeli tank offensive while warplanes attacking the south flattened homes and buried families as they slept.
Israel on Friday rejected South Africa’s launch of a genocide case against it as a baseless blood libel with no legal merit and said it was abiding by international law in its war on Hamas.
“South Africa is collaborating with a terrorist group that calls for Israel’s destruction,” a statement from the Israeli foreign ministry said.
“The people of Gaza are not an enemy of Israel, who is making efforts to limit harm to non-combatants.”
The court application is the latest move by South Africa, a vociferous critic of Israel’s war, to ratchet up pressure after its lawmakers last month voted in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire was agreed in Israel’s war with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.
In a statement from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the government said the application against Israel was filed on Friday.
“Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide,” DIRCO said in a statement.
It said it had requested that the ICJ declare “on an urgent basis that Israel is in breach of its obligations in terms of the Genocide Convention, should immediately cease all acts and measures in breach of those obligations and take a number of related actions”.
The ICJ is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and helps settle disputes between states in accordance with international law.
South Africa has backed the Palestinian cause for statehood in Israeli-occupied territories for decades, likening the plight of Palestinians to those of the black majority in South Africa during the repressive apartheid-era, a comparison Israel vehemently denies.
The new Israeli assaults in central and southern Gaza on Friday propelled a new exodus of people already driven from other areas in what Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called an essential stage of its mission to destroy its foe Hamas.
Twelve weeks after Hamas militants stormed Israeli towns, killing 1200 people and seizing 240 hostages, Israeli forces have laid much of the Gaza Strip to waste.
Nearly all its 2.3 million people have fled their homes at least once and many are now on the move again, often reduced to taking shelter in makeshift tents or huddled under tarpaulins and plastic sheets on open ground.
Gaza health authorities said 187 more Palestinians were confirmed killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 21,507 – about 1 per cent of the Gaza Strip’s population.
Thousands more bodies are feared to be buried in the ruins of obliterated neighbourhoods.
In the south, Israeli forces have been pounding Khan Younis in preparation for an anticipated further advance into the main southern city, swathes of which they captured in early December.
Gallant said troops were reaching Hamas command centres and arms depots.
“Our operations are essential to achieving the goals of the war. We see the results and the destruction of enemy forces,” he said.
Australian Associated Press
Labor senator Fatima Payman has crossed the floor to vote against her party on a motion related to Palestinian recognition.
The Greens moved a motion calling for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine.
Labor and the Coalition both tried to amend that motion to add qualifications, but neither party supported the other’s attempts and both failed.
Throughout, Senator Payman sat in the chamber in the advisor’s box and did not participate in votes.
But when the final vote came on the Greens’ motion, she stood up and voted with the Greens and crossbench senators Lidia Thorpe and David Pocock in support of recognition.
It is the first time a Labor politician has crossed the floor while Labor is in government since 1986.
Labor party rules state that all members must vote in line with the position taken by the Labor caucus. It is then up to the caucus to decide on the penalty, which can include suspension from the caucus.
Expulsion from the Labor Party itself is a matter for the party’s national executive.
Senator Payman has made several public statements in recent weeks in support of the Palestinian cause and criticised her party’s position in an opinion piece published in Al Jazeera last week.
‘Most difficult decision I have had to make’
In a press conference held immediately after the vote, Senator Payman said she did not decide how she would vote until she was sitting in the chamber immediately before it.
“It was the most difficult decision I have had to make, and although each step I took across the Senate floor felt like a mile, I know I did not walk alone,” she said.
“We cannot believe in two-state solutions and only recognise one.”
Senator Payman said she still held “the core values of the Labor party” and hoped to remain.
But she said it had been made clear to her that expulsion from the party was a risk if she crossed the floor.
“I hold Labor values,” she said, adding she believed her vote was consistent with those values. “Unfortunately I was not joined by my fellow party colleagues.”
She said she had not spoken to the prime minister about the vote.
Senator Payman is the youngest parliamentarian and is the first politician to be elected who wears a hijab.
“I was not elected as a token representative of diversity,” she said on Tuesday evening.
“I was elected to serve the people of Western Australia and uphold the values instilled in me by my late father. Today I have made a decision that would make him proud and make everyone proud who is on the side of humanity.”
Government says expulsion not mandatory
A government spokesperson did not directly confirm what would happen to Senator Payman’s status in the party, but did say there was “no mandated sanction in these circumstances and previous caucus members have crossed the floor without facing expulsion”.
“The Senator says she maintains strong Labor values and intends to continue representing Western Australians who elected her as a Labor senator,” the spokesperson said.
“As reflected in our amendment, the government supports the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process towards a two-state solution.”
In full, Labor’s failed amendment would have added that recognition should happen “as a part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is also the leader of the government in the Senate, was not present in the chamber at the time of the vote.
She met with the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele in Parliament House on Tuesday and has a standing arrangement that does not require her to attend every vote.
The Coalition’s failed amendment would have added extra pre-conditions for Palestinian recognition, including that Hamas should have “no role” in a future Palestinian state, that the Palestinian Authority should be reformed and that Palestinian representatives must recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Greens call Labor’s vote ‘utterly cowardly’
Speaking after the vote, Greens leader Adam Bandt accused the government of a “shameful act” in voting against Palestinian recognition.
“It’s cowardly… [Labor has] failed to do what over 140 other countries around the world have done, and that is recognise Palestine.”
He paid tribute to Senator Payman, who he said “had the courage to do the right thing. What Senator Payman’s action shows is that every Labor MP who said they care about the plight of Palestinians [is] utterly cowardly and full of nothing but hollow words”.
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi, who moved the motion in Senate, said she was “proud and pleased of [her] friend Senator Payman who had the courage, the conviction and the principle to support this motion and cross the floor. That showed real moral courage.
“The rest of Labor, I have to say, completely and utterly failed this moral test.”
Labor senator Fatima Payman has become the party’s first member to cross the floor in decades after she voted with the Greens to recognise Palestinian statehood in a vote yesterday.
The federal government moved quickly to quell expectations the WA senator would be expelled from Labor, despite the fact MPs have previously been thrown out for not toeing the party line. Payman said she was proud she upheld her convictions although she was bitterly disappointed her Labor colleagues had not joined her.
‘‘My decision to cross the floor was the most difficult decision I have had to make, and although each step I took across the Senate floor felt like a mile, I know I did not walk these steps by myself, and I know I did not walk them alone,’’ Payman said during a snap press conference held minutes after the vote.
‘‘I walked with the people of Palestine, for the 40,000 killed, for the hungry and scared boys and girls who now walk alone without their parents, and for the brave men and women who have to walk alone without their children. I walked for humanity. I am proud of what I did today, and I’m bitterly disappointed that my colleagues do not feel the same way.’’
Asked if she expected to be expelled from Labor, Payman said: ‘‘That is a prerogative for my party.
‘‘I believe that I have upheld the party ethos and called for what the party’s platform has stipulated,’’ she said
Labor rules bind caucus members to the party’s collective decisions, and MPs who vote against those risk being thrown out.
While not ruling out expulsion, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office said: ‘‘There is no mandated sanction in these circumstances, and previous caucus members have crossed the floor without facing expulsion.
‘‘The senator says she maintains strong Labor values and intends to continue representing the Western Australians who elected her as a Labor senator,’’ the spokesperson said.
Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said Payman’s decision to vote with the Greens ‘‘directly challenges the leadership of the prime minister’’.
Greens leader Adam Bandt paid tribute to Payman, who he said ‘‘had the courage to do the right thing’’.
Payman said she only made up her mind over the vote while on the Senate floor and had not spoken to Albanese about her plans. ‘‘The Australian Labor Party’s policy platform recognises both Israel and Palestine. We cannot believe in two-state solutions and only recognise one,’’ she said.
‘‘I was not elected as a token representative of diversity. I was elected to serve the people of Western Australia and uphold the values instilled in me by my late father. Today I have made a decision that would make him proud.’’
Payman said she’d received mixed treatment from her caucus colleagues. ‘‘There’s been many comrades who feel the same way, but don’t agree with the method I’ve gone about conveying my message,’’ she said.
‘‘Everyone who would ask me until today what I was going to do with this motion, I said: ‘I will follow my conscience and I will, you know, I’m in the hands of God and I will do what’s best for the people that I represent, and that I pledged to represent when I got elected.’’
Party were ‘fierce champions of Palestine’ in opposition and they must ‘summon that spirit of old’, she writes for Al Jazeera
The Labor senator Fatima Payman has called on her own government to “recognise Palestine” and undermined efforts by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to discredit protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Payman, writing for Al Jazeera, argued that nations needed to take a “definitive stance” on Palestinian statehood because Israel “continues to disregard its obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and cease genocidal acts”. Israel denies committing genocide in its military response to the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
Labor has accused the Greens of encouraging protests outside MPs’ electorate offices, which it argues are undemocratic, and joined with the Coalition opposition to condemn what it calls “misinformation” over the government’s position on recognising Palestine.
The Greens have targeted the Albanese Labor government for its refusal to join a procedural motion to bring on a parliamentary debate about recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“My party, the Australian Labor Party, has consistently argued that such motions are political machinations on the part of the Greens in order to score ‘cheap points’ and sway the public,” Payman wrote.
“Even if that were the case, this ‘politicking’ does not detract from the underlying fact that a genocide is ongoing, and the Australian public knows it.”
Payman broke ranks in May by accusing Israel of genocide and declaring “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a politically charged phrase that Albanese has criticised.
“Our country must not become one that smothers voices calling for justice, or one that censors the oppressed seeking freedom,” she wrote in Al Jazeera.
“Australian hearts have an affinity for justice. This is the reason why our students across the country are standing up as their predecessors did when they denounced the wars in Vietnam, and Iraq, and Afghanistan. The students were right on each of these generation-defining conflicts.”
Payman also noted that “in opposition, our prime minister and the Labor Party were fierce champions of Palestine and passionate voices for justice”.
“I ask that we summon that spirit of old and do the same in power.
“Let historians write of us that we were on the right side of history, that we boldly reinforced international law, and that we were a shining beacon and voice for freedom. It is time to recognise Palestine.”
Australia supported a UN vote on Palestinian membership although the foreign minister, Penny Wong, was at pains to note the motion was not about recognising Palestine as a state.
The international criminal court has applied for warrants for the arrest of five people including three Hamas leaders, and the Israeli prime minister and defence minister for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Albanese government has said it respects the independence of the ICC, as the opposition led by Peter Dutton demanded it denounce the decision.
On Tuesday Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, blasted Payman, who he said had “taken positions on the conflict utterly antithetical to her government’s own policies, including the use of a chant that our own prime minister called ‘violent’ and contrary to a two-state solution”.
Ryvchin said the offices of her own colleagues had been targeted.
“Instead of writing for Qatari state media, the senator would be well served reflecting on how this war started and calling on the Hamas leadership in Gaza and Doha to accept the ceasefire that Israel and all meditating parties have supported.”
Payman has rejected claims her use of the politically charged phrase “from the river to the sea” promoting Palestinian freedom is antisemitic. Organisers of protests outside electorate offices insist they are peaceful.
“This is all a distraction from what is at stake: the total destruction of Gazan society and the mass killing of innocent civilians,” Payman said on Tuesday night. “Words are not violence, violence is violence, and it beggars belief that Israel continues to act with impunity, punishing innocent civilians, eradicating entire family lineages, ignoring international law, and still claiming with a straight face, that it is defending itself.
“I reiterate that I do not want to see antisemitism and islamophobia weaponised here or anywhere else, nor any harm come to innocent people. The various strategies to cast those standing up for the recognition and liberation of Palestinians as violent, obfuscate the very real violence that we condemn and demand that it be stopped.”
Earlier in June the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, hit back at the prime minister and the opposition leader, accusing them of “attempting to distract from their complicity” and adding: “I will not be lectured to about peace and non-violence by people who back the invasion of Gaza.”
Labor senator Fatima Payman has called on the Albanese government to recognise a Palestinian state, arguing the move would help bring to an end the bloody, months-long conflict on the Gaza strip.
In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, Payman said the world had ‘‘witnessed the mass killing and displacement of Palestinians and the devastation and destruction of Gaza’’.
In a direct challenge to Anthony Albanese, Payman said that ‘‘in opposition, our prime minister and the Labor Party were fierce champions of Palestine and passionate voices for justice. I ask that we summon that spirit of old and do the same in power’’. ‘‘Let historians write of us that we were on the right side of history, that we boldly reinforced international law, and that we were a shining beacon and voice for freedom.’’
The first-term senator from Western Australia has repeatedly spoken out about the plight of the Palestinian people and stepped down from two parliamentary foreign affairs committees after Albanese rebuked her for using the controversial phrase ‘‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’’. She has also accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Jewish groups regard the ‘‘from the river to the sea’’ slogan as a coded call for the elimination of Israel, while others have insisted it is simply a call for freedom and equal rights for Palestinians.
In the opinion piece, Payman highlighted the fact that a Greens lower-house motion to recognise Palestine had failed on May 29 because 80 MPs, including the Labor Party, had voted against it. She said that Labor had argued publicly the vote was designed to score ‘‘cheap points’’ with the public.
‘‘Even if that were the case, this ‘politicking’ does not detract from the underlying fact that a genocide is ongoing, and the Australian public knows it. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been slaughtered, among them 15,000 children,’’ she wrote in the piece.
‘‘Recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders is imperative. Australia’s recognition would be a symbolic and bold rejection of Israel’s current bid to erase the Palestinian people.
‘‘Recognition of a Palestinian state would not frustrate a peace process; rather, it would rescue that very peace process and keep it alive.’’
Payman’s challenge to the prime minister to recognise Palestine will heighten fears in Labor that she could cross the floor and vote with the Greens if a similar motion on recognition was put to the Senate. If Payman crossed the floor, she would likely face expulsion from the party.
Last month, the Albanese government voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution that declared ‘‘the state of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations’’ under its charter rules. The vote stopped short of Australia officially recognising a Palestinian state, but showed support for it.
The co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, said Payman had taken positions ‘‘utterly antithetical to her government’s own policies, including the use of a chant that our prime minister called ‘violent’ and contrary to a two-state solution’’.
‘‘Her deceitful rhetoric on genocide has endangered our community and her own colleagues, whose offices are now being targeted by thugs and vandals. Instead of writing for Qatari state media, the senator would be well served reflecting on how this war started and calling on the Hamas leadership . . . to accept the ceasefire that Israel and all meditating parties have supported.’’
The Israeli military says it has approved battle plans for an offensive in Lebanon as Jerusalem warns Hezbollah would be destroyed in the event of a “total war”.
As Hezbollah published a more than nine-minute video showing surveillance drone footage purportedly taken over northern Israel, The Israeli Defence Forces said: “The Commanding Officer of the Northern Command, MG Ori Gordin, and the Head of the Operations Directorate, MG Oded Basiuk … held a joint situational assessment in the Northern Command. As part of the situational assessment, operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated.”
The video, which AFP was unable to immediately verify independently, pinpointed what Hezbollah said were Israeli military, defence and energy facilities, as well as civilian and military infrastructure.
The footage of Haifa’s coastline, 27km away from the Lebanese border, appeared to include a portion of an Israeli Navy base, as well as several warships and infrastructure said to belong to the Navy’s submarine unit, Shayetet 7, the Times of Israel reports. It also included shots of what Hezbollah said were strategic military locations including the Iron Dome and David’s Sling air defence systems.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily cross-border fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
“We are very close to the moment when we will decide to change the rules of the game against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Israel Katz said.|
“In a total war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be hit hard.”
US envoy Amos Hochstein, on a visit to Lebanon, earlier Tuesday called for an “urgent” de-escalation of the cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
“The conflict … between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on for long enough,” the presidential envoy said on a visit to Beirut.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically – that is both achievable and it is urgent.”
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Hezbollah stepped up attacks on northern Israel last week after an Israeli strike killed one of its senior commanders.
Mr Hochstein met with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, a day after holding talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Speaker Berri and I had a very good discussion,” Hochstein said. “We discussed the current security and political situation in Lebanon as well as the deal on the table right now with respect to Gaza, which also provides an opportunity to end the conflict across the Blue Line,” he added, referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden last month outlined a truce proposal which Mr Hochstein said would ultimately lead to “the end of the conflict in Gaza”.
“A ceasefire in Gaza and, or, an alternative diplomatic solution could also bring the conflict across the Blue Line to an end” and allow the return of displaced civilians to southern Lebanon and northern Israel, the envoy added.
“This is a serious time and a critical moment,” Mr Hochstein said later after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, calling their discussion “excellent”.
“What we are working together (to do) is to try to identify a way to get to a place where we prevent a further escalation,” he added.
Mr Mikati said “what is required is to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon and return to calm and stability on the southern border”.
In a statement from his office, the Prime Minister said “continued Israeli threats” will not distract Lebanon from seeking calm.
Hochstein also met with Lebanese army chief Joseph Aoun.
Anthony Albanese has been locked out of his Sydney electorate office this year because of pro-Palestinian protests, amid official security warnings that Islamist extremists are attending anti-Israel demonstrations on university campuses and outside parliamentarians’ offices.
The Prime Minister’s Marrickville office has not been used since January because of fears for the safety of staff from continuous protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators and warnings from federal police.
Security around Mr Albanese, other MPs and in Parliament House has been tightened since late last year after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel in October and the conflict in Gaza sparked protests and vandalism at MPs’ offices and even in parliament.
Parliamentarians requested a security briefing from the AFP and ASIO as concerns rose about protests and security. The Australian understands there was formal advice Islamist extremists and political activists were appearing together at university campus protests around the nation, outside ministerial offices and at public demonstrations.
The official advice was that there could be co-ordination between extremists and political activists, and they were certainly appearing together at protests and demonstrations.
One aspect of the security concerns was the ability of the groups to organise flash protests when the Prime Minister was at a venue, even a private one.
Mr Albanese has raised the security concerns with Peter Dutton as late as Tuesday afternoon in parliament.
Tensions between Labor and the Greens over the war in Gaza also deepened on Tuesday after Mr Albanese denounced the “blockade” at electorate offices of Labor MPs, which he said was being supported by Greens senators and state Greens.
During a Labor caucus meeting in which three of his MPs expressed concerns about the protests and behaviour of the Greens, the Prime Minister declared “actions to intimidate have no place in a democracy”.
The Opposition Leader backed the Prime Minister’s concerns and told The Australian: “A violent protester who breaks the law by attacking a person of Jewish faith on a university campus or seeks to intimidate an MP should be dealt with by the police.
“The fact no one has been arrested for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to electorate offices just encourages the next criminal protester to trash another office. We celebrate peaceful protest but criminal behaviour by these anti-Semitic hate protesters should result in arrests and strong penalties.”
Mr Albanese noted it had been a difficult period for a number of Labor MPs and their staff whose electorate offices were targeted.
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Referencing his own office in Marrickville, Sydney, Mr Albanese said the idea constituents would be blocked from getting help on social security or immigration matters was “appalling”.
But Greens leader Adam Bandt said Mr Albanese’s attack was a “shameful attempt” to distract from Labor’s “backing of the invasion of Gaza, their refusal to recognise Palestine and their refusal to take any meaningful action to prevent a genocide that has claimed over 34,000 lives”.
Greens sources said the protests mentioned by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Penny Wong had not been organised by the minor party.
“The Greens support peaceful protest, we will continue to do so, and we support the protest organisers’ calls for no property damage or breakage,” Mr Bandt said.
“Instead of admitting that his own electorate is disappointed and angry at Labor’s refusal to take action on a genocide, the Prime Minister is attacking people in the community who are calling for peace.
“People are opposing Labor’s support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s invasion because every day they see the impact of the attacks – children killed by bombs and gunfire, and civilians on the cusp of starvation.”
One Labor MP said in caucus on Tuesday that electorate staff had been assaulted, while another congratulated Senator Wong for calling out the behaviour of the Greens and said the Muslim leadership had been keen to distance itself from the “violent” protests.
Pro-Palestine protesters vandalised signage outside the electoral office of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese located in Marrickville, in March, 2024. Picture: X
Pro-Palestine protesters vandalised signage outside the electoral office of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese located in Marrickville, in March, 2024. Picture: X
A third Labor MP told colleagues they previously had to close their office over a Greens protest on a different issue, with extreme misinformation fuelling the anger.
The vandalism began in Parliament House last year with threats and slogans being written on lavatory walls in the public part of the building calling for MPs “to end the killing”.
Pro-Palestinian vandals have defaced the electorate offices of Mr Albanese, Richard Marles, Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen and Mark Dreyfus as well as backbenchers Ged Kearney and Peter Khalil, with most being in Melbourne.
Vandals also attacked the US Consulate General in St Kilda Road, where red paint was splashed on the front and the slogan “Free Gaza” was tagged on the front of the office.
Red paint was splashed across the front of the suburban offices of Mr Dreyfus and Mr Shorten by vandals who also wrote slogans accusing the government of being complicit in genocide in Gaza.
“Vandalism or acts of violence which aim to call out violence is counter-productive,” Mr Shorten said on Friday.
Senator Wong has urged Mr Bandt, who she said had been part of the protests, to condemn the violence seen at electorate offices, including smashed windows.
“If you speak to many workers who are being confronted with what they have seen over a long period of time, including the occupation of offices and the destruction of property, I think people have felt unsafe,” Senator Wong said.
Israel is mourning four captives reported dead in Gaza by the army, amid growing doubts and international pressure over a plan for a ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
In the besieged Palestinian territory, Israeli strikes continued into Tuesday, particularly in Bureij in central Gaza where local hospital sources reported several deaths.
In northern Israel, firefighters and troops were battling forest blazes after rocket fire from neighbouring Lebanon, with the border area the scene of near-daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas, since the start of the war in Gaza eight months ago.
Israel’s military overnight on Monday announced the deaths in Gaza of four hostages seized during the October 7 Hamas massacre, naming them as Chaim Perry, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Nadav Popplewell.
Their bodies were still in the hands of Hamas, it said.
Cooper, 84, Metzger, 80, and Perry, 80, were abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz while Israeli-British citizen Popplewell, 51, was kidnapped from the Nirim kibbutz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense domestic pressure from multiple sides to negotiate an end to war.
Families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip protest at the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on Monday.
Relatives and supporters of hostages have staged mass protests demanding a truce deal, but his far-rght coalition allies are threatening to bring down the government if he agrees to that.
Mr Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the bloody conflict, free all hostages and lead to reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.
However, Mr Netanyahu’s office stressed that the war would continue until all of Israel’s “goals are achieved”, including the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
The G7 group of countries said in a statement its leaders “fully endorse” the deal pushed by Mr Biden, and called on Hamas to accept it.
Hamas said on Friday it viewed Mr Biden’s outline “positively”, but has since made no official comment on stalled negotiations.
UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland on Tuesday urged all parties to reach an agreement after he visited Gaza and “witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of the hostilities. The scenes of destruction and suffering … are heart-wrenching”.
“There is a serious proposal on the table – outlined by President Biden – and I urge all parties to reach an agreement immediately to achieve a ceasefire and return the hostages,” he posted on X.
“There is no alternative – and any delay, every day simply costs more lives.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer earlier quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying Mr Biden’s outline was only “partial”, and that under the plan fighting would stop temporarily only “for the purpose of returning the hostages”.
The fighting showed no sign of easing, with the war that has devastated the coastal territory of 2.4 million people.
On Monday, Israel’s military said its forces had struck “over 50 targets” over the past day.
Gaza hospitals reported at least 19 deaths in overnight strikes.
