Palestinian activist Sara Shaweesh was arrested at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate office, in Marrickville on July 18, after attempting to find out why her Gazan family’s visas had been denied.
Shaweesh is a citizen and the PM is her local member. She has been a part of a peaceful picket outside the office, helping initiate it almost six months ago.
“The police and the Australian Federal Police are threatening to arrest me because I went into the office today to ask about my family’s declined visa applications to come here from Gaza,” she said.
The police said she was under arrest for “trespass”. They confiscated her phone and took her to Newtown Police Station, where she was held for more than three hours before being charged.
According to Senate Estimates, as of May 29, 4614 Palestinian people from Gaza have had their visitor visas refused. Only 2686 visas have been granted, since October 7 last year.
Paul Power, CEO of the Refugee Council of Australia (RCA), said in June that the grounds for refusals are “predominantly based on the applicants’ inability to demonstrate a genuine intention to stay temporarily, as required by the criteria of the visitor visa”.
Power said the refusals highlights the RCA’s concern about the use of visitor visas for individuals fleeing conflict, “a purpose for which these visas was never intended”.
“Expecting people fleeing a war zone to demonstrate an intention to return in a few months is not only unrealistic but also inhumane,” Power said.
Shaweesh’s bail conditions stipulate she remains 100 metres away from Albanese’s office.
She was given a letter from the PM’s office stating: “You do not have permission to enter the office of Anthony Albanese, including the curtilage of the premises.”
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Activists gathered outside the Newtown Police Station to show solidarity with Shaweesh, while police issued a move-on-order and a letter to picketers outside the PM’s electorate office.
The letter said: “The ongoing activities in the immediate vicinity of this office are significantly impeding the movement of staff and constituents in and out of the office. As a result I ask anyone who is participating in these activities depart the public entranceway immediately and that protests are conducted elsewhere.”
Picketers obliged by moving away from the entrance to the footpath outside Albanese’s office.
Lydia Shelly, NSW Civil Liberties Council president, who represented Shaweesh, said Albanese’s notice to the vigil participants the protestors is “undemocratic”.
Amnesty International Australia’s spokesperson Mohamed Duar said on July 19 he was alarmed that criminal charges were laid on Shaweesh, as well as denying services to peaceful protesters. He said it represented a “grave escalation in government’s crackdown on the right to peaceful protest”.
“Palestinian Australians are distressed and terrified for their family members in Gaza, with every day bringing more news of Israeli bombardment on civilian ‘safe zones’,” Duar said.
“Ms Shaweesh has expressed this anguish through lawful, peaceful protest and sought to help her family members. There is no justification for criminal charges for exercising her human rights.”
Shaweesh told the weekly Palestine protest on July 21: “They arrested me to deter me. But I won’t be deterred.”
[Rachel Evans is an activist in the City of Sydney for Palestine. She is contesting the City of Sydney’s Lord Mayoral position for Socialist Alliance.]