Lebanese Australians are protesting Israel’s strikes in their home country that killed hundreds of people as the death toll rises.
Israel launched a barrage of rockets against some 1600 targets in Lebanon, saying it was targeting designated terrorist organisation Hezbollah and its weapon stocks that were hidden in residential buildings.
The two-day death toll has reached 569, including dozens of children, the Lebanese health ministry says as Israel vows further retaliation against Hezbollah for its own rocket attacks.
Minister Jason Clare came out with stronger rhetoric than his cabinet colleagues, saying, “the killing of civilians, including children, in Lebanon overnight is beyond words”.
“I know that people in my community are watching on in fear and praying for their families and friends,” he wrote on social media platform X.
Mr Clare represents a Western Sydney electoral with a large Muslim population.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at Sydney’s Town Hall to decry the foreign minister’s response to the attack.
On the sidelines of a United Nations summit in New York, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters, “we are deeply concerned, we’re alarmed by the escalation and the loss of civilian life both in Lebanon and also the attacks into Israel”.
Her comments drew scorn from one protester.
“Israel can act with impunity because they’ve been doing in for this whole entire year and that is why they are attacking Lebanon with impunity because the West do not care,” he yelled at the crowd in a video posted to social media.
“The Australian government does not care.”
Israel had murdered Lebanese families, the man said before yelling “intifada”, a controversial phrase that denotes rebellion, uprising or resistance but one which some argue incites violence against Israelis and Jews.
“We stand in solidarity with our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters,” the man said.
A second video posted to social media shows protesters chanting “hands off Lebanon, hands off the Middle East” and “all our martyrs we salute”.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham defended the right to protest but said all demonstrations needed to be peaceful and respectful.
No protesters should fuel or encourage anti-Semitism, he said.
“Such actions are reprehensible,” he told Sky News on Wednesday.
“We don’t want to see conflict or an undermining of social cohesion here.”
Senator Birmingham reignited a call for the federal government to use its power to officially designate parts of southern Lebanon a no-go zone, which would carry penalties for people who travel there without a legitimate reason.
Lebanese authorities needed to put pressure on Hezbollah to stop firing rockets into Israel and withdraw from southern Lebanon to reduce hostilities, Senator Birmingham said.
Israel needed to see “that there is not an imminent threat” to de-escalate hostilities after months of rocket attacks from Hezbollah, he told Sky News on Wednesday.
Oxfam Australia called for a ceasefire, saying the spread of conflict into Lebanon “has inflicted immense damage on civilian infrastructure and led to a tragic loss of life”.
Thousands of Australians have been urged to leave Lebanon as the window to escape via commercial options narrows with the federal government lacking the capacity to evacuate everyone in the event of a full-scale conflict.
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This post was originally published on Michael West.