Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi posed with a student protester holding up a ‘Keep the world clean of Jews’ poster at a pro-Palestinian rally.
The Pakistani-born senator has previously voiced her support for Palestine, saying the Australian government was showing its support for Israel as “one colonial country supporting another.”
Senator Faruqi joined hundreds of students who skipped classes on Friday and gathered outside the Town Hall in Sydney, while similar events were held in Wollongong, Melbourne and Byron Bay.
In the photo, Senator Faruqi smiles as she stands with students in front of a sign that appears to call for the eradication of Israel; reading: ‘Keep the world clean’ above a person throwing a garbage bag with the Israeli flag on it into a waste bin.
The senator later deleted the post, but not before it was quickly shared on X.
The event was organized by High Schoolers for Palestine and the University of Sydney group Students for Palestine.
Senator Faruqi shared this photo of herself posing with students, one of them holding a sign that appeared to call for the eradication of Israel.
Others at the Sydney protest held posters calling for a ceasefire, and one appeared to bear the Nazi swastika
Students skipped school on Friday to express their support for the state of Palestine
Education Minister Jason Clare urged students to stay in school and focus on their studies if they wanted to positively change the world
Also at the protest, one man was arrested and led away by police “to avoid a disturbance of the peace” after unfurling an Israeli flag in front of the demonstrators.
A video of the rally, posted on the social media platform TikTok, shows students singing “From the river to the sea / Palestine will be free,” a rallying cry of Palestinian supporters.
The camera pans from the students to a small group of people on the fringes of the gathering clearly supporting Israel, with the man standing at the center of the video waving an Israeli flag as he argues with a NSW police officer.
“Do you have your body camera on?” he asks the officer, who repeatedly tries to de-escalate the situation.
“I’m not putting it down,” he tells the officer, before the video shows a short time later, when the group of pro-Palestinian students turn and start chanting in his direction.
Police and media camera operators stand between the two groups, before the flag-bearing man begins repeatedly asking the officer, “Am I under arrest?”
Another officer intervenes and forcibly moves the man away from the main protest, before the shot hits the man who demands that the original officer remove his hands from his wrist while pointing in the officer’s face.
A video on TikTok shows police confronting a man unfolding an Israeli flag
The man was led away from the protest in Sydney to avoid a ‘breach of the peace’
The man was arrested, although police have not confirmed any charges
The man struggles and other officers intervene and walk him further away. They can all be seen talking from some distance away, with the man trying to film with his phone as the video ends.
“Around 1.30pm, officers from the Central Metropolitan Region facilitated a highly visible operation at a public meeting at City Hall, to ensure a peaceful demonstration,” NSW Police said in a statement.
‘Officers saw a man with a flag approaching the large group.
‘The 49-year-old was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace and taken to Day Street Police Station.’
It is unclear at the time of writing whether he will be charged with an alleged crime.
At the protest in Melbourne, a teenager was quoted sharing her support for the terrorist organization Hamas.
In Melbourne, a 16-year-old was quoted as saying Hamas was ‘doing a good job’
Speak with The Australianthe 16-year-old said she believed Hamas was “doing a good job” and said it was not important to “stay in school when these things really matter.”
‘I think Hamas is doing well. I think they should stand up and protect Palestine,” she said.
“After what they did to my brothers and sisters, I don’t think Israel should really exist.”
The student, who was not named, was one of about 500 people who attended the meeting in Melbourne’s CBD on Thursday.
The arrest comes after tense clashes between protesters on both sides of the Middle East conflict and police in recent weeks.
In a similar incident, another man waving an Israeli flag had to be removed by police after a pro-Palestinian rally outside the Sydney Opera House in early October, just days after a Hamas attack on Israeli settlements sparked the conflict between the two nations had escalated.
Politicians across the board have also urged students not to skip classes ahead of a similar school strike planned in Sydney.
Education Minister Jason Clare said the best way for students to change the world is to ‘go to school’ ahead of the second day of student protests.
He said schoolchildren “should be in school during school hours” and his counterparts in the state and territory shared the same view.
‘The most important thing for students is that school continues. If you want to change the world, go to school,” he told Channel 7.
‘Education is the most powerful cause of good in this world. That’s where you learn.
“If you want to protest, do it on the weekend.”
His panel mate, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, said social harmony was “very important in schools”.
“I am very concerned about the activists and their influence on schoolchildren through social media,” she said.
“I don’t blame the children, there are toxins circulating… being pushed towards our schoolchildren, and it’s causing some of the problems we’re seeing.”
Ny Breaking has contacted Senator Faruqi for comment.
