A pro-Palestinian rally planned for Canberra will go ahead despite anti-Semitism concerns, the organiser says.
Palestine Action Group Canberra has organised a rally in Garema Place for Friday 5.30pm.
The ACT Greens shared the event on social media, and organisers believe a few hundred people will attend.
Organiser Diana Abdel-Rahman said the group could not "predict who's going to turn up" to the rally or what they would say.
Anti-Semitic concerns
On Sunday, attendees at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney chanted anti-Semitic - or anti-Jewish - rhetoric, with NSW police warning Jewish people to stay away for their own safety.
Ms Abdel-Rahman said anti-Semitism was not welcome at the Canberra protest, and there would be a Jewish-Australian speaker, Celeste Rothschild.
Palestinian-Australian Sarah Sari, Palestinian-Australian Hamza Abu Jarbou, who is from Gaza, and Ms Abdel-Rahman, who is Lebanese-Australian, will also speak.
ACT police said while they support the right to protest, illegal activity would not be tolerated.
Canberrans should have a right to attend a pro-Palestine rally, Jewish Community Inc spokesperson Athol Morris said.
"We would be very upset if it was an anti-Jewish rally, as opposed to a pro-Palestinian one," he said.
"People can have rallies, people should stand up for what they believe in."
Palestinian Action Group Sydney, which organised the Sydney rally, said they had nothing to do with the offensive chants.
However, acting NSW police Commissioner David Hudson said police would not approve future protests by the group.
"We can no longer say that that group is responsible for conducting peaceful protests," he said.
The anti-Semites who attended the Sydney rally "were a completely separate lot of people [who] had nothing to do with the organisers," Ms Adbel-Rahman said.
"If somebody on the side is going to make something ... go talk to them, because they've got nothing to do with us. And if journalists can't work that out, and if the media can't work that out, then really they need to look for another job.
"A rally is organised by the people who speak on the microphone ... and generally, we know who they are and what they'll be saying."
'They are fighting back'
The current conflict was sparked on Sunday when Hamas gunmen bombarded an Israeli music festival, killing and taking civilians hostage.
Israel has responded with air strikes across Gaza, a strip of Palestine controlled by Hamas.
On Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry said the Israeli government attacks had killed more than 900 people.
The Canberra protest will be anti-Zionist and against the Israeli government, but not anti-Jewish, Ms Adbel-Rahman said.
Zionists believe in the establishment of a Jewish state in what is now Israel.
"Zionism and Israel are the evil causes, the evil that we are speaking against," Ms Abdel-Rahman said.
"The rally is to support the Palestinians to let them know that we in Australia, even in Canberra, that we have not forgotten them because the world has forgotten them."
Mr Morris hoped the rally would not glorify the Hamas militants who have killed Israeli citizens over the last few days.
"Current events are all about a group of violent thugs who have broken every law in the book," he said.
"These people are not representing the Palestinian cause, these people are just violent thugs who are murderous.
"But if they are glorified by the Palestinian rally, I would be very disappointed."
However, Ms Abdel-Rahman said the recent attacks resulted from decades of oppression.
"The Palestinians right now are a subjugated people, and they are fighting back against their oppressor," she said.
"It's Groundhog Day for us. But this time it's different because groundhog went, I'm not doing this anymore, I'm going to strike first."
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