Australian police arrested four pro-Palestinian protesters on Thursday after they briefly occupied the roof of the national parliament in Canberra with anti-Israel banners.
Video and photos of the demonstration shared on social media showed the intruders unfurling a black banner with the genocidal slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as well as a sign charging Australians with genocide since British colonization in 1788.
Another flag featured the inverted red triangle, the symbol seen in Hamas propaganda videos when its terrorists murder Israelis.
“We will not forget, we will not forgive and we will continue to resist,” one protestor exclaimed through a megaphone, accusing the Israeli government of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The roof rally lasted for around an hour before the handful of participants were led away by waiting police forces.
All four were arrested and charged with trespassing and have been barred from entering parliament grounds for two years, a spokesperson for the Australian Capital Territory Police subsequently told reporters.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the protest, which took place on the last day of the parliamentary session before a six-week recess.
“Those responsible should feel the full force of the law. Peaceful protest has an important place in our society, but this was not a peaceful protest,” stated Albanese.
Milton Dick, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Australia’s lower house, announced he had ordered a probe into the security breach.
Also on Thursday, a senator for Albanese’s Labor Party announced she would continue as an independent, The Guardian reported. Fatima Payman said her resignation from the party was prompted by Labor’s opposition to a motion to immediately recognize a Palestinian state.
“With a heavy heart but a clear conscience, I announce my resignation from the Australian Labor Party. I have informed the prime minister that, effective immediately, I will sit on the crossbench to represent Western Australia,” she told journalists at Parliament House.
Payman described the “genocide” in Gaza as a tragedy of “unimaginable proportions,” adding that she had told Albanese and other party members multiple times that “this is a matter I cannot compromise on.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry previously accused the 29-year-old senator of antisemitism after she concluded a statement on Israel with, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
In April, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that eventual recognition of a Palestinian state would not constitute a reward for Israel’s enemies and would help break “the endless cycle of violence.”
“We are now 30 years on from the Oslo Accords that put Palestinian statehood at the end of a process. The failures of this approach by all parties over decades—as well as the Netanyahu government’s refusal to even engage on the question of a Palestinian state—have caused widespread frustration,” the Labor Party minister claimed.
Albanese’s government understands that “any future Palestinian state cannot be in a position to threaten Israel’s security and will need a reformed Palestinian Authority,” Wong claimed.
Palestinian polls suggest that 89% of Palestinians support establishing a government that includes or is led by Hamas, which openly seeks to destroy Israel in its entirety and replace it with an Islamic state.