{"id":207904,"date":"2025-10-12T13:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T13:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207904\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T13:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T13:28:10","slug":"lidia-thorpes-protest-declaration-sparks-controversy-as-hostage-release-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207904\/","title":{"rendered":"Lidia Thorpe\u2019s protest declaration sparks controversy as hostage release nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe will fight every day,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if I have to burn down Parliament House to make a point … I am not there to make friends. I\u2019m there to get justice for our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Senator<\/p>\n

Senator Lidia Thorpe addresses Sunday\u2019s pro-Palestinian rally.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

The federal opposition\u2019s Senate leader, Michaelia Cash, later released a statement calling Thorpe\u2019s statements \u201cdisgraceful and shocking but unfortunately unsurprising\u201d. Cash said the opposition would \u201cconsider options available within the Senate to hold Senator Thorpe accountable\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Coalition source said options such as the censure of the independent senator, or a referral to the privileges committee, would be considered.<\/p>\n

Also speaking to the thousands of protesters gathered at the State Library in Melbourne on Sunday was Palestinian activist Sarah Baarini, who said that while there had been a ceasefire called by Israel, it \u201cdoes not mean liberation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA ceasefire does not mean a free Palestine. A ceasefire is only a temporary respite for the Palestinian people, and let\u2019s be honest \u2013 Israel cannot be trusted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Palestinian<\/p>\n

Palestinian activist Sarah Baarini at the CBD rally. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

Indigenous activist Gary Foley also spoke \u2013 though only briefly, saying \u201cmy lungs are f—ed, so I can\u2019t speak for long\u201d.<\/p>\n

He urged Australians not to be \u201cfooled by fake Trump bullshit \u2013 the fight goes on, the struggle goes on\u201d. He said he wanted to \u201cexpress the solidarity of the Aboriginal people with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. We stand with you in our mutual struggles for justice and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier at Caulfield Park, about 200 members of the Jewish community gathered to celebrate what they hope will be the end of captivity for the remaining hostages held by Hamas since 2023.<\/p>\n

Among those to address the crowd was Liberal MP for Caulfield David Southwick, who said he hoped Monday\u2019s hostage return would reduce the level of antisemitism he had seen since October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is when the hostages finally come back, that things also go back to the way they were, and we can be finally welcome again \u2013 what we have seen as a community should never happen to anybody,\u201d Southwick said. \u201cEverybody should feel welcome, no matter who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"State<\/p>\n

State Liberal MP David Southwick (centre) addresses the crowd while flanked by fellow Liberal MPs James Newbury and Georgie Crozier. They joined about 200 members of the Jewish community who gathered on Sunday morning in Caulfield Park.Credit: Clay Lucas<\/p>\n

About 1200 people were killed during Hamas\u2019 cross-border assault in 2023, and 251 were abducted.<\/p>\n

AP reported last week that Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive had killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe will fight every day,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if I have to burn down Parliament House to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-207904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}