Four arrested after climbing onto the roof of the Australian Parliament to denounce Israel’s offensive in Gaza

A parliamentarian from the ruling party leaves her seat in protest against the government’s stance and becomes an independent

4 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Australian police arrested four people on Thursday after they climbed onto the roof of Parliament in the capital, Canberra, where they displayed banners accusing the authorities of being complicit in “genocide” for their support of Israel in the military offensive against the Gaza Strip.

Police have indicated that the detainees, a woman and three men, will soon be charged with violating private property, while stressing that all of them have been banned from entering Parliament for two years.

During the protest, one of the demonstrators used a megaphone to accuse the Australian government of its stance on the conflict. “Australia continues to allow and commit war crimes, as a lackey of its powerful friends,” he stressed.

Protesters also held up banners reading “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “War crimes” and “No peace on stolen land” before officers climbed onto the roof of Parliament to remove them without incident, Australian television channel SBS reported.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later condemned the incident. “We say that those responsible must feel the full weight of the law. Peaceful protest has an important place in our society, but this was not a peaceful protest,” he said.

“These actions have done absolutely nothing to advance a cause. In fact, they have damaged the cause that those involved in this reckless activity believe they are advancing,” he argued, a criticism echoed by opposition leader Peter Dutton.

In this regard, Dutton has stressed that the banners “were there for at least an hour and a half, when they should have been removed immediately.” “We understand that there are security issues, but it sends the wrong message,” he said, according to ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’.

The Speaker of Parliament, Milton Dick, has said that an investigation will be opened into the “serious security breach”. “We are deeply concerned about what happened this morning,” he said, while calling on the police to “carry out a comprehensive review of security arrangements.”

The protest also took place on the same day that a senator from the ruling party left her seat and became an independent in protest at the government’s stance on the Gaza conflict, which could make it even more difficult for Labour, which does not have a majority in Parliament, to pass its bills.

Senator Fatima Payman has also said she has received death threats over the past month over her stance on Palestine. “I’m still trying to work out what it’s going to look like[being independent]. Obviously, I’ve held on to Labour values ​​for a long time,” she said, before ruling out joining the Greens.

However, Payman has also criticised the protest by the four demonstrators, saying in an interview with Sky News that it was “not the right thing to do”. “I don’t condone any kind of violation of private property,” he said, although he acknowledged that “tensions are high and people are frustrated that they are not being listened to.”