A woman has been charged over a heated western Sydney shopping centre confrontation in which she allegedly verbally abused and intimidated a Muslim woman.
Video posted to social media of the Friday incident in Bankstown Kmart showed a woman taking issue with the “from the river to the sea” slogan on a T-shirt.
“Are you proud of wearing ‘from the river to the sea’?” the woman in the video yells.
The Muslim woman – identified as Mariam, a “very active participant in the Palestinian rights movement” – claimed the other woman also made hand gestures threatening to slit her throat and threw boxes at her and her daughter.
“She threatened to end my life. My daughter was there as well, which was really appalling,” she said, in an interview conducted and shared by pro-Palestinian activists.
“I didn’t know how to protect her, and she marched at me. Came straight to my face, just straight here.”
There were no boxes thrown or threats heard in the video itself.
Yesterday morning, supporters rallied outside Bankstown police station and police confirmed they were investigating.
They said officers were called to the shopping centre about 4pm on Friday “following reports a woman was allegedly verbally abused and intimated (sic)”.
Last night, they revealed a 39-year-old woman had been charged with publicly threatening violence on grounds of religion.
She was refused bail to appear in Parramatta Local Court today.
Civilians flee in Rafah as Israel pushes ahead with its offensive
Amid Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ bloody October 7 attack, “from the river to the sea” has become a battle cry with the power to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists.
Many Palestinian activists say it’s a call for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and decades-long, open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians. Jews hear a clear demand for Israel’s destruction.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised the statement as inflammatory and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was strongly criticised by some for comparing it to Nazi ideology.
Greens senators and independent senator Lidia Thorpe voted against a motion in May to condemn former Labor senator Fatima Payman’s use of the slogan when she broke ranks with her party to declare Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The ministry’s count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it has said more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war was sparked by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, where the militant group killed 1200 people and took 250 hostages in Gaza.
– With Associated Press
