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“You f***ing terrorist c***s ... I’ll kill every one of you"
Little Palestine activists attacked and arrested
Alex McKinnon
July 19, 2024
A group of six pro-Palestinian activists allege they were violently assaulted and threatened by “a middle-aged Caucasian male” in an Adelaide hotel lobby earlier this month.
In a media statement released on Wednesday, representatives of the group said the attack took place shortly after midnight on July 6. The six friends were entering the elevator of their hotel when the alleged assailant, a “middle-old aged Caucasian male guest, called us ‘terrorists’”. Several members of the group, most of whom are of Arab and Muslim background, were wearing keffiyehs.
“The assailant proceeded to aggressively punch us, grabbing at our keffiyehs and forcefully holding us to prevent our efforts to protect each other and to escape,” the group said.
“He punched multiple members of the group in the face and in the back of the head, as well as choking one of us by pulling on the keffiyeh around their neck. Five of the six members of the group were physically assaulted. Despite three of the six members being feminine-presenting, the assailant’s attacks were indiscriminate.”
“You fucking terrorist cunts … You support those fucking terrorist Muslim cunts,” the man allegedly said. “I’ll kill every one of you cunts.”
After restraining the man, the six activists called the police. They allege that, despite initiating the assault, when the man saw police entering the hotel lobby he “encouraged them coming [in] as he believed they would side with him”.
“The nature of it being so unexpected and violent during our return home to the hotel was shocking and traumatising,” the group’s statement reads. “The implication that he felt justified in his actions by encouraging the arrival of the police in his belief that they would side with him reinforces the warped injustice of the situation.”
Noting that the alleged attack “comes during a time of rising Islamophobia within Australia,” the group singled out “our politicians’ demonisation of pro-Palestine peace protests” as contributing to anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic violence.
“This rhetoric has the effect of dehumanising people like us and emboldens such hostile Islamophobic attacks to occur,” they said.
The activists were in Adelaide to help set up a rolling community picket outside the electorate office of foreign minister Penny Wong. Many of them were active members of the similar picket outside Anthony Albanese’s office in Marrickville that was established in February.
One of the Marrickville picket’s cofounders, Sarah Shaweesh, was arrested for trespass yesterday afternoon after entering Albanese’s electorate office. In a video posted to Instagram, Shaweesh said she was asking for migration assistance on behalf of her family in Gaza, who have had their visa applications declined, and was turned away by Albanese’s office staff.
“What are our taxes for? Why did we pay a fee for the visa?” Shaweesh said. “Millions have been collected from Palestinians living in Australia applying for visas for their families most have been denied or have been idle for months.”
Speaking last month against the growing number of Palestinian solidarity protests outside MPs’ offices, Albanese said “the idea that constituents would be blocked from getting help on social security and migration is appalling.”
After Shaweesh’s arrest, police issued move-on orders to the picket’s occupants, who have peacefully protested outside Albanese’s electorate office for more than five months.
While Shaweesh is no longer allowed to enter Albanese’s office, they have met before, albeit briefly.
“I encountered him on the street,” Shaweesh said in February. “I was distraught — I get voice notes from my family in Gaza about their situation, so I was telling him what they’ve been relaying to me. He pretty much told me to fuck off, and shooed me away.”
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