{"id":295089,"date":"2026-02-17T04:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/295089\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T04:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:10:10","slug":"melbourne-protesters-denounce-israeli-war-criminals-visit-to-australia-labors-police-state-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/295089\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne protesters denounce Israeli war criminal\u2019s visit to Australia, Labor\u2019s police-state measures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne protest against Isaac Herzog, February 12, 2026<\/p>\n

A demonstration of around 50,000 workers, students and youth took place in central Melbourne on February 12, the largest of a series of nationwide protests<\/a> against the Albanese Labor government\u2019s invitation to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a war criminal who has openly incited the Gaza genocide.<\/p>\n

The rally took place just days after the New South Wales Labor government used \u201cmajor event\u201d laws to impose police-state conditions in Sydney<\/a>, where peaceful protesters were kettled, pepper-sprayed and assaulted under sweeping new powers aimed at deterring any opposition to Herzog\u2019s visit and to Australia\u2019s complicity in the US-backed onslaught on Gaza.<\/p>\n

Read the World Socialist Web Site\u2019s coverage of the Melbourne rally here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Melbourne, WSWS reporters spoke to a cross-section of demonstrators about why they opposed Herzog\u2019s tour, how they viewed Labor\u2019s role in the genocide and the broader assault on democratic rights.<\/p>\n

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Laura, a legal assistant, said it was her first time attending a rally against the Gaza genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come tonight because I believe in the freedom of Palestinian people and I\u2019m here to support that. Australia shouldn\u2019t agree with war crimes and shouldn\u2019t give any incitement to anyone that has anything to do with war crimes. So the invitation of Herzog is absolutely awful.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor has supported the genocide for the past couple of years now. I like to think I try to see the best in people. But I\u2019m not seeing it at the moment in this government.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the claim by Labor that the protests are antisemitic, Laura said: \u201cThat\u2019s ridiculous. People have a right to freedom of speech, including when it\u2019s speaking out against the oppression of a people. That\u2019s not antisemitic. They\u2019re completely different things and no one should say otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the police rampage in Sydney the previous Monday, she said: \u201cThat was police brutality, and I was shocked to see that happening here. It\u2019s the sort of thing we associate with videos of countries overseas, including the US with what ICE is doing to civilians<\/a>. I\u2019m ashamed for my overseas friends to see that that\u2019s happening in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob and family<\/p>\n

Rob is a truck driver who attended the protest with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United Nations and most nations around earth acknowledge that he\u2019s a war criminal,\u201d he said. \u201cWe shouldn’t be acknowledging and welcoming this criminal here. Selling weapons to people that kill children shouldn\u2019t be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the attack on protesters in Sydney by police, Rob said, \u201cIt\u2019s never illegal to have freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lily, a high school student, travelled from regional town Ballarat by train to attend the protest. She said: \u201cI just don\u2019t think that a man who promotes genocide the way he does, just doesn\u2019t promote what Australia is. I don\u2019t want to support a man who supports genocide. I\u2019m here today to just make my voice heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to the attack on protesters in Sydney, Lily said, \u201cI think it\u2019s in some part definitely inspired by what\u2019s happening over in the US with ICE. Governments are feeling freer to use more fascist sort of politics. It goes against our rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fiona and Ben<\/p>\n

Ben and Fiona both work in retail.<\/p>\n

Ben explained he attended the protest \u201cpartly because of the footage that came out of Sydney on Monday. I think it\u2019s a disgrace and I think people need to be held accountable and secondly, I think it\u2019s pertinent to show numbers when Herzog\u2019s in town. The gloves are off. The police are nothing but state bullies and they are enforcing protection for war criminals and private property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see disturbing parallels to not necessarily where America is now, but where it was a few years ago and how people let that slide and I see that as the future for Australia. They are telling us, \u2018don\u2019t believe what you know to be true, believe what we tell you to believe.\u2019 That\u2019s what a lot of Western politics is coming down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re saying it was justified and that the police were acting under such pressure,\u201d Fiona added. \u201cThey are lying to people\u2019s faces and expecting them to believe.\u2026 But we could see the footage. We saw that they wanted a fight. They were attacking people because they wanted to. It was disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

John<\/p>\n

Retiree John told the WSWS correspondents: \u201cThe New South Wales and Victorian state governments, all Labor are basically a bunch of fascists. I\u2019ve always been Labor. I don\u2019t think they represent the spirit of Labor. They have aligned themselves with America who are supplying the weaponry that kills Palestinian civilians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Britain, [Labour prime minister Keir] Starmer is no better than the Tories. Starmer represents basically the English labour movement, but do they look like a labour party to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot far from here there was the arms expo under the auspices of the Victorian Labor government. This is not [extreme right party] One Nation who\u2019s putting this on. We have no alternative anymore in Australia as to who we vote for because you\u2019ve either got Albanese who\u2019s on the right or you\u2019ve got a dysfunctional opposition. We\u2019ve become a one-party state effectively, because we don\u2019t have any alternative and the same goes in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people dislike Trump, but can you give me an alternative? America under Biden just supplied weapons to bomb the hell out of Palestinian civilians. Of course, they all will say, like [Foreign Minister] Penny Wong, they oppose violence against civilians. These are just words. Ultimately, you have to apply sanctions against Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you saw the Open Letter in Monday\u2019s Age, signed by prominent Jewish people, they were saying that Herzog does not represent them as Jews. So a lot of the opposition is coming from Jewish people themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

John was asked about the fact that the speech platforms at the protests promoted officials from the Maritime Union of Australia which has blocked any industrial action by dock workers to prevent arms shipments to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe degree of complicity is actually extraordinary,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can add all those Arab countries as well like Saudi Arabia, Egypt who have actually by their silence and lack of action facilitated the whole process. The labour movement apart from in Italy where they pulled a number of general strikes in the major ports, has done nothing. Where is the labour movement? They\u2019re not holding Albanese to account. It\u2019s a complete betrayal. The Palestinian people have been betrayed on a wide scale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne protest against Isaac Herzog, February 12, 2026 A demonstration of around 50,000 workers, students and youth took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-295089","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\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}