NSW premier seeks power to ban protests after Bondi Beach terror attack

Chris Minns said months of anti-Israel rallies helped fuel conditions for violence.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns is asking the state legislature for expanded powers to temporarily ban protests, arguing that months of anti-Israel demonstrations in Sydney helped create the conditions that led to last Sunday’s terror attack at a Chanukah event in Bondi Beach, where 15 people were murdered.

Speaking at a press conference Friday, Minns said mass protests featuring graphic imagery and violent rhetoric had fueled tensions that authorities could not contain.

“When you see people marching and showing violent, bloody images — images of death and destruction — it’s unleashing something in our community that the organizers of the protest can’t contain,” he said.

“The truth of the matter is, we can’t risk another mass demonstration on that scale in NSW. The implications can be seen, in my view, on Sunday.”

Minns appeared to be referring to a massive march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in August, when an estimated 100,000 demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, displayed images likening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, held portraits of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, and chanted slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — widely viewed by Jewish groups as a call for Israel’s destruction.

At the time, Minns had said that although “he wanted the killing to stop as well,”  he was against closing such a main traffic artery in the city as it would be extremely inconvenient for commuters.

Under the proposed legislation, once a terrorist incident is formally declared — as it was after the Bondi Beach shooting — police, in coordination with the Minister for Police, would be empowered to prohibit public assemblies in specific areas or across the entire state for 14 days at a time, renewable every two weeks for up to three months.

“These powers are designed to ensure that members of the community are not intimidated or fear for their safety, and to minimize risks to community safety, in the immediate aftermath of an attack,” the NSW government said in a statement outlining the proposal.

The decisions would not be subject to judicial review.

“This was a targeted terrorist attack that has shaken our state and devastated the Jewish community,” Minns said. “The scale of harm demands a response that is decisive, sustained and unequivocal.”

“These powers are proportionate,” he added. “They are not about suppressing views – they are about preventing intimidation, escalation and violence.”

“After an act of terror, public safety must come first.”

Jewish leaders across Australia have warned repeatedly over the past two years that antisemitism was spiraling out of control following the Hamas-led invasion and massacre of nearly 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Just two days after that attack — well before Israel launched its ground operation in Gaza – hundreds of pro-Palestinians cursed out “the Jews” as well as Israel at a rally at the Sydney Opera House.

While government officials issued condemnations, no arrests were made.

Many in the Jewish community said it would only be “a matter of time” before no government action in the face of a rising tide of antisemitic vandalism, individual physical assaults and firebombed synagogues led to a tragedy along the lines of Sunday’s deadly assault by Sajid and Naveed Akram, a father-and-son pair who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, an extremist Islamist organization.