A man leads a chorus of young schoolboys in chants of “free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea,” while another, claiming to be a parent and teacher, uses his megaphone to call for authorities to listen to the wants of the students.
New South Wales Education Minister Prue Carr responded to concerns about who the adults were.
“I’m not sure whether they were maybe some members of the community, I believe the staff at that time were actually really busily trying to get the actual students inside the school, so I’m not sure where those adults actually were from,” she told 2GB radio.
The minister said the rally, which also saw Palestinian and Lebanese flags waved around, was “unacceptable,” and noted that an assembly had been to remind students of expectations around their behaviour.
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“What happened yesterday is completely unacceptable, there is a reason why this individual that works at this school was stood down … when politics comes into our schools it’s not acceptable,” she said.
“There’s a code of conduct for a reason… we need students at school actually participating in lessons.”
Carr confirmed the status of the support educator.
“We believe the department stood this staff member down, he’s working from home that’s what I believe some people were protesting about yesterday,” she said.
“There is a code of conduct here for a reason because public schools have to be a place where every single student—regardless of faith or background—will feel safe to walk through the gates where you feel like you can belong and when comments are made like that that are inflammatory we do have to act.
On the same day as the Feb. 26 protest, a flyer appeared on the X account of a New South Wales (NSW) collective called Teachers and School Staff for Palestine NSW, encouraging a repeat of the protest on Feb. 27.
It is not known if any action was attempted.
The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies (NSWJBD) issued a statement in the wake of the protest, calling it “troubling.”
“How were radicals allowed to stand outside the school gates and whip students into a fervour?” the group said in a statement.
“How could any student or staff member who doesn’t share the views of the demonstrators feel safe in that environment?”
The NSWJBD said teachers who used their role to advocate for political causes were misusing their positions.
New South Wales Police told The Epoch Times they attended the rally on Feb. 26 but no arrests or charges had resulted.
The NSW Department of Education was asked about Charkawi’s employment status and the role of the adults at the protest.
Ongoing Anti-Semitism Concerns
A day before the protest, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess told Liberal Senator James Paterson during a Senate Estimates hearing that anti-Semitism was a major concern.
“Right now in terms of my organisation and threats to life, threats to way of life … in terms of threats to life, it’s my agency’s number one priority because of the weight of incidents we’ve seen play out in this country,” he said.
Support from Some Quarters
Lebanese Muslim Association Gamel Kheir told Melbourne’s Radio 3AW that he believed schools should be secular and that the rally was not appropriate.
However, Kheir defended the use of the term “Allahu Akbar,” likening it to “right-wing Anglo-Saxons” chanting the phrase, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi.”
Kheir acknowledged that the term was sometimes misused by terrorists, but said it was part of a greater Islamic belief praising their God.
