Pro-Palestine protesters arrested after tampering with traffic lights, blocking roads and docks
By Madeleine Heffernan, Cara Waters, Marta Pascual Juanola and Cameron Houston
Fourteen people have been arrested after pro-Palestine activists blockaded parts of Melbourne, including the docks and Hoddle Street, and allegedly tampered with traffic lights during a global day of action against the war in Gaza on Monday.
The protests began early in the morning in Port Melbourne, near Boeing’s Melbourne office, where 12 protesters were arrested after blocking a major city truck route. Some chained themselves on the road before police removed them and reopened the street.
About a dozen mounted police and numerous parked trucks from the public order response unit were at the scene at the corner of Salmon and Lorimer streets in Port Melbourne.
Protesters, some wearing black masks, beanies and goggles, chanted: “Free, free Palestine”, “Israel out of Palestine” and “How many kids have they killed today?”
Meanwhile, two people who were allegedly tampering with traffic lights at the intersection of Victoria and Nicholson streets in Carlton just before 8am were arrested and charged with criminal damage. They were bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in July, police said.
Organisers said there were also protests at Dandenong manufacturer AW Bell and defence business Thales in Bendigo, while blockades were also held at the busy Hoddle Street exit on the Eastern Freeway and at the corner of Bell Street and Sydney Road, Coburg.
Monday’s protests, which were also held in Brisbane, Tasmania, Wollongong and Canberra, were designed to “disrupt the economy and disrupt the war machine”, organisers said.
“We will continue to mobilise to make it economically unviable for Australia to continue to support Israel in committing genocide in Palestine. There will be no business as usual until Palestine is free,” organisers said on the Instagram account @disruptwars.
About 200 protesters gathered on the steps of Parliament House from 8am and marched through the city to protest against the state government’s partnership with Israel-based military technology company and defence contractor Elbit Systems.
Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam spoke at the rally and said the Labor government should stop doing deals with weapons manufacturers.
A woman is arrested in Fishermans Bend after being disconnected from a fellow protester by police.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“This will be one of the most defining moments, all of our lifetimes, potentially generations to come,” she said.
“Like the protests against the Vietnam War, like the hundreds of thousands who marched through the streets in Australia and around the world against the Iraqi war and occupation. History will study how the world responds now.”
Ratnam asked protesters to sign a petition calling on the Allan government to end deals with weapons manufacturers. She said that if the petition received more than 2000 signatures, a debate could be forced in parliament.
“We have warmongers at the helms of our governments right across this world who are itching to escalate this conflict,” she said. “The disruption that comes with protest activity pales in comparison to the devastation that people are experiencing right now in Gaza.”
A pro-Palestine protester waves a flag outside Parliament House in the CBD. Credit: Eddie Jim
Organiser Nathalie Farah told the crowd at Parliament House the protesters aimed to cause disruption.
“We’re taking an effective action to disrupt the war machine, and we will continue to do so until Australia cuts its ties with the genocidal entity of Israel and the US imperialist state.”
The rally ended with a sit-in blocking trams and traffic on Collins Street outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade offices.
On Monday night, dozens of protesters also gathered outside the Broadmeadows Town Hall, demanding liberation for Palestinians and a boycott of any alleged manufacturing of weapons in the Hume council area.
Police outside the Broadmeadows Town Hall on Monday evening.Credit: Penny Stephens
The car park outside was full of families and demonstrators clutching Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyeh scarves and holding signs that said “Stop killing children”.
As a drum beat in the background, they chanted: “The ethnic cleansing, shut it down, the bombing of hospitals, shut it down” and “liberation, liberation, Palestine is a nation.”
One of the rally’s organisers, Mohamed Helmy, said the area was home to one of the highest Muslim and migrant populations in the state.
The event followed a spate of protests outside a Campbellfield factory in recent months. Residents want the Hume council to ensure no businesses or factories in the area are assisting with any kind of weapon manufacturing being used in Israel’s war efforts.
Rally organiser Mohammed Helmy outside Broadmeadows Town Hall on Monday evening.Credit: Penny Stephens.
The protesters called for the Hume council to pass a motion calling for an end to any deals with companies that supply weapons to the Israeli military.
Earlier in the day, up to 50 protesters gathered outside BP’s Bourke Street office, chanting “Free, free Palestine” and unfurling a “BP fuels genocide” banner. Police formed a line in front of the door to prevent protesters getting too close.
Local protest group A15 Action had vowed to “identify and blockade major choke points” in the economy by “focusing on points of production and circulation” as part of a global protest over Israel’s continued military assaults in Gaza.
“The global economy is complicit in genocide,” a statement on the A15 Action website says. “Join participating cities in blocking the arteries of capitalism and jamming the wheels of production ... there is a need to shift from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy.”
Pro Palestine protesters march through the streets on Monday. Credit: Eddie Jim
The blockade plans in Melbourne were part of a global movement involving at least 30 international cities.
Israel’s seventh-month bombardment of Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks on Israel in which 1200 people were killed. The Jewish state’s response to the attacks has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians.
On Thursday, Israeli shipping line Zim docked one of its cargo ships, the Sparrow, at Melbourne’s Webb Dock, prompting warnings from port operators that it could be a target. In January, protesters tried to hamper a Zim container ship unloading at the Port of Melbourne. Police used pepper spray to break up the blockade at Webb Dock.
Activists block the intersection of Lorimer and Salmon streets in Port Melbourne.Credit: Chris Hopkins
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