On 27th June, a pro-Palestine community picket was held by Weapons Out of the West in Belmore to protest against the genocide in Gaza. Police arrested five protesters at the scene.
The protest took place at 2:30am outside SEC Plating, a Western Sydney-based company that makes components for F-35 fighter jets and other weapons.
The group stopped workers from entering the building on Lakemba Street for two hours and occupied the site for three hours before being forced off the site by police. The picketers had received a tip-off from a SEC Plating worker about the company’s start time.
Police gave protesters the order to move on, claiming that the protest was unauthorised.
Recent changes introduced by the Minns government allow police to issue move-on directions to protesters if they are near a place of worship. SEC Plating is located opposite Teebah Islamic Association Mosque on Lakemba St.
The NSW government website specifies that this law is intended to “regulate protests that aim to intimidate or prevent religious people from practicing their faith in NSW”.
The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) investigated the incident and found that police initially issued a move-on direction under the allegation that the protest was unauthorised and would cause “fear and alarm”.
According to the SMH, police arrested a protester for failing to comply with the direction immediately after the protester “walked across the road to the opposite side of SEC Plating which is a place of worship”.
Greens candidate Hannah Thomas was present and beaten by police. Thomas was hospitalised with severe injury to her eye and face, and her lawyers have said she is at risk of losing sight in her eye.
Police said that she was arrested for not complying with the move-on direction. On 29th June, Thomas was charged with resisting police and failing to comply with a direction to disperse.
According to WOW, medics were prevented by police from providing first aid to Thomas, and police said to Thomas regarding the severity of her injuries, “That’s on you”.
Another protester was strip-searched and arrested at the scene. No incriminating items were found on their person.
Arrested protester Zack Schofield, said in a statement “Minns can’t arrest his way out of the people objecting to genocide and the complicity of Australia in this. The excessive force used by police was brutal and will be put into question.”
Another protester commented “This is how the prison colony upholds itself. A company heading towards insolvency and cowering from an angry community calls on the violence of the state to protect itself, and that state readily sends in the goon squad.
“This will not deter us. We refuse the funding, arming, and support of the zionist entity in our communities.”
In a media release, Weapons Out of the West stated “As the brutality of the imperialist project escalates, so too do our means of resistance. We recognise ourselves as a small part of this ecosystem which is directly confronting the genocidal infrastructure.”
O’Brien Criminal & Civil Solicitors, who are representing the protesters in court, gave a statement on the aftermath of the protest.
Principal solicitor Peter O’Brien said “Given that recent changes in the law in relation to protests have attempted to expand police powers to give directions, now subject to constitutional challenge, police may well have felt emboldened to act without proper and lawful acknowledgment of the right to protest.
“The government was warned that these changes to expand police powers to disperse protestors could lead to serious and ugly confrontations. Those warnings have now rung true.
“Hannah Thomas has sustained a serious and potentially life-altering injury as a result of her interaction with police at the protest. In a democratic society, no individual should suffer injury at the hands of law enforcement merely for exercising their lawful right to protest.”
The five arrested protesters were granted bail and will appear at Bankstown Local Court on 15th July.
