By Christine Chen
SYDNEY, March 20 (Reuters) – Protesters heckled and booed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday during a visit to Australia’s largest mosque for Eid al-Fitr prayers, voicing anger over his stance on ally Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Some in Australia’s Muslim and Jewish communities are angry over a fine line walked by the centre-left government since the Gaza war began, expressing concern for Palestinians, repeatedly urging a ceasefire, and backing Israel’s right to self-defence.
Video images showed protesters interrupting proceedings about 15 minutes after Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke joined worshippers at Lakemba Mosque in western Sydney to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Demonstrators booed, told Albanese and Burke to “Get out!” and called them “genocide supporters”, referring to Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza, following an attack by Hamas militants in 2023.
“Dear brothers and sisters, keep calm a little bit,” one of the organisers told the crowd, urging people to sit down and stop filming the exchange. “It is Eid. It is a joyful day.”
A security guard was seen tackling one heckler to the ground before escorting him away.
“Shame on you!” yelled protesters who followed Albanese and Burke when they left.
The mosque event was “incredibly positive”, Albanese said later, despite the incident.
“If you got a couple of people heckling in a crowd of 30,000, that should be put in that perspective,” he told reporters, adding that the community had dealt with a couple of hecklers.
He added that some frustration stemmed from the government’s designation this month of Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir as a prohibited hate group on the basis of laws prompted by a deadly mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14.
Protesters also turned out in February, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited at Albanese’s invitation to express solidarity with Jewish Australians allegedly targeted by gunmen inspired by Islamic State during the Bondi attack.
Thousands attended a rally in Sydney, where 27 people were arrested after clashes with police.
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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