![\"Israel's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770717129_49_israels-president-isaac-herzog-right-and-his-wife-michal-her-IVV7LZJAG5CNVPH3V4MKA5YY3Y.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNine protesters have been charged after a rally against the Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s Australia visit devolved into chaos.<\/p>\n
Thousands of demonstrators at Sydney’s Town Hall were met by a hulking police presence, with some pepper-sprayed, arrested, beaten and shoved by officers on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Police arrested 27 people and nine had been charged as of Tuesday afternoon. <\/p>\n
Ranging from 19 to 67 years of age, they were charged with offences including behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and resisting a police officer.<\/p>\n
Police are in the process of issuing an additional six protesters with court attendance notices for failing to comply with a move-on direction.<\/p>\n
Social media videos posted from the event showed a man with raised hands being repeatedly punched in the stomach by officers, while another depicted a group of Muslim men praying before being ripped from their knees and taken away by police.<\/p>\n
Five members of the public were taken to hospital.<\/p>\n
Australia’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik said the police response included “unprovoked violence and aggression”, describing it as “a very dark night”.<\/p>\n
Premier Chris Minns defended the actions of police and pointed to strong relations between authorities and the Muslim community.<\/p>\n
“NSW Police have had a strong and co-operative relationship with Sydney’s Islamic and Arabic community, going back decades,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But context is important and the circumstances facing police were incredibly difficult … it was in effect in the middle of a riot.”<\/p>\n
Minns criticised his own MPs who attended the rally and called out some speakers for attempting to march despite police restrictions.<\/p>\n
Labor MP Sarah Kaine, who spoke at the rally, rejected any suggestion she had incited violence.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s helpful for police or anyone else in high office to be making allegations like that,” she told AAP.<\/p>\n
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon described the assembly as a “volatile” crowd.<\/p>\n
Greens MP Abigail Boyd said her assault by three police officers dispelled notions the response was proportionate.<\/p>\n
“I got this almighty shove from my right and I went flying, lifted off the ground … and then this one copper just punched me as I was trying to get my balance,” she told AAP just hours after returning from hospital.<\/p>\n
“I only weigh 60 kilos, I’m only 5’3”, I don’t understand why they were attacking me. I’d said I was a member of parliament.<\/p>\n
“I’ve never seen anything like it, it was so brutal.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, right, and his wife Michal Herzog, second right, visit Bondi Beach. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Officers restricted movement along most of the boundary of the demonstration site, forcing the large group into a gridlock as protesters’ chants grew louder and the police presence swelled.<\/p>\n
Police issued a move-on order but the situation escalated as the densely packed crowd struggled to leave before officers rushed at protesters in an attempt to disperse the group.<\/p>\n
Community worker Paula Abood said she was assaulted by police on two occasions while trying to aid other rally-goers who were being hit.<\/p>\n
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 40 years of marching the streets of Sydney,” she said.<\/p>\n
Herzog was invited to Australia after the Bondi terror attack.<\/p>\n
He has faced scrutiny over 2023 comments which a UN inquiry found might reasonably have been interpreted as inciting genocide against Palestinians.<\/p>\n
The president denies that claim and says his comments were taken out of context.<\/p>\n
An undeterred Herzog continued his tour on Tuesday, visiting Jewish school Moriah War Memorial College in Sydney’s east.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine protesters have been charged after a rally against the Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s Australia visit devolved into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,14849,5107,43,31451,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-276689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-israel-gaza-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-terrorism","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}