Lebanese Australians believe they are being treated as second-class citizens, with entire families killed in Lebanon as debate in Australia focuses on Hezbollah flags and visas.
Relatives of Hassan Awada, a former Liberal deputy mayor in southern Sydney, were killed in Lebanon on Monday, with a family of nine – including babies and children – wiped out and others still missing.
Politicians had made members of the community feel like “second-class citizens”, “sub-human” and “animals” as they focused their anger on a small number of people waving Hezbollah flags at a rally, he said.
“Our relatives can die and get mutilated in the name of self defence of Israel and (the federal government) support that,” Mr Awada told AAP.
“Our feelings don’t count. We’re sub-human as far as our government is concerned … they decide to talk about a flag and forget about my nine family members and children.
“That’s not important but they talk about an individual (waving a flag) who might be emotional, or immature or whatever and we get tarnished with that.”
Hundreds of people have been killed in Lebanon following a multi-day missile attack from Israel, which it said targeted the designated terrorist group.
Israel and the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah had been trading cross-border rocket attacks for months before a significant escalation in recent weeks.
It has translated to growing frustration within Arab and Lebanese communities in Australia due to perceived federal government inaction.
They argue senior ministers failed to condemn the killings with strong enough language, instead opting for “concern” about the situation.
As Palestinian and Jewish communities prepare to mark the first anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas last year, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has decided to go to court block planned long weekend protests in Sydney.
The force said in a statement on Tuesday evening it could not be satisfied the rallies set down for Sunday and Monday could proceed safely following negotiations with organisers.
Discourse following a rally last weekend decrying the death toll in Lebanon and Gaza has focused on some attendees waving the Hezbollah flag and holding pictures of its killed leader.
The federal opposition is spearheading a charge to cancel the visas of anyone who waved the flags.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said he was willing to cancel visas of people inciting hate and discord but cautioned against assuming people’s immigration status.
“We’ve done this with protests before and they haven’t come back with anyone being on visas,” he said.
It’s a commonwealth offence to display the symbol of a listed terrorist organisation.
However Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett said solely displaying Hezbollah’s symbols wasn’t enough for prosecution as other prerequisites needed to be met.
The coalition called for the law to be strengthened if it didn’t provide a low enough bar.
“We don’t have any tolerance of this sort of glorification of a terrorist leader,” Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said.
Mr Burke accused Mr Dutton of trying to “throw more kerosene on the fire” by calling for visa cancellations and stronger laws, with the AFP already investigating and demands police refer any visa cases to him.
He warned the 2023 law – which criminalises the glorifying and praising of terrorist acts – hadn’t yet been tested in court, noting the opposition supported the legislation.
Alleged offenders would be arrested and prosecuted, Ms Barrett said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is helping Australians secure commercial airline tickets as the situation worsens, while defence assets and personnel are on alert in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt as Israel invades southern Lebanon.
It follows months of repeated warnings Australians in Lebanon needed to leave as the security situation deteriorated and any repatriation effort in a crisis would be severely strained and unable to evacuate everyone.
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