The findings of the NSW Police investigation into the pro-Palestine demonstration at Sydney Opera House just days after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel highlights the conflict’s propensity for conflating propaganda and prejudice as weapons of the war.

Forensic analysis of video and audio from the protest found no evidence that the antisemitic phrase “gas the Jews” was used. Instead, the investigation concluded the scary phrase chanted as recorded on audio and video files was “Where’s the Jews?” The evidence also caught other offensive slogans, including “F--- the Jews”.

A pro-Palestinian protest was held last year on the steps of the Opera House.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

The upshot is that the two offensive phrases that were used are unlikely to meet the threshold for criminal prosecution under hate speech laws because they do not directly threaten or incite violence.

Nonetheless, the fact that protesters will escape possible criminal prosecution in no way lessens the impact of either of these abhorrent offensive phrases less than 48 hours after Hamas gunmen killed some 1200 people, mostly Israeli Jews. Angry protesters gathered outside our most famous building shouting menacing abuse, burning flags and setting off flares at a time when the Opera House sails were lit in the colours of the Israeli flag as a show of sympathy.

Footage where the “gas the Jews” chant appeared as subtitles was posted online by the Australian Jewish Association. It stirred chilling recollection of the use of gas by the Nazis against the Jews during the Holocaust and ended up being widely reported, both in Australia and around the world.

In a statement, a day after the protest, rally organisers Palestine Action Group Sydney said media outlets had reported on a “tiny fringe (we estimate less than 20 people) of vile antisemitic attendees who showed up to the Opera House for an event unrelated to the demonstration we organised”. It said boys, mostly in their teens, were “quickly condemned … and asked to leave” for chanting “f--- the Jews … From our observations this occurred for less than one minute and was not an ongoing chant. This is not what our movement stands for”, the group said.

Following public uproar, police engaged an independent expert in biometric science to examine audiovisual files. On Friday, Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon said police did not believe the footage posted online had been doctored, but that on analysis, it had been incorrectly captioned. “Obviously, subtitles [are an] opinion of someone putting those subtitles on,” he said.

Following the protest, police threatened to invoke rarely used special powers introduced after the 2005 Cronulla riots to hamper further demonstrations by pro-Palestinian groups. It also prompted the Minns government to introduce a bill on November 21 that it said would “improve the prosecution process” for the offence of publicly threatening or inciting violence against a person or group based on attributes including race and religion.