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Pro Palestine Protesters Scale Roof of Australia's Parliament

Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)
Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Pro Palestine Protesters Scale Roof of Australia's Parliament

Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)
Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)

Pro Palestine protesters climbed the roof of Australia's Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday and unfurled banners, one saying Palestine will be free, and accused Israel of war crimes, in a serious security breach condemned by lawmakers.

Four people dressed in dark clothes stood on the roof of the building for around an hour, unfurling black banners including one reading "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", a common refrain of Pro Palestine protesters.

One of the protesters gave a speech using a megaphone accusing the Israeli government of war crimes, an accusation it rejects.

"We will not forget, we will not forgive and we will continue to resist," the protester said, Reuters reported.

A handful of police and security advised people not to walk directly under the protest at the main entrance to the building, while more were seen on the roof attempting to remove the protesters, a Reuters witness said.

The protesters packed up their banners before being led away by waiting police at around 11:30am local time (0130 GMT).

"This is a serious breach of the Parliament's security," opposition Home Affairs spokesperson James Paterson said in a post on social media platform X.

"The building was modified at great expense to prevent incursions like this. An investigation is required."

Since the war began Australia has been the site of several pro Palestine protests, including weekly demonstrations in major cities and a months-long occupation of university campuses.

The ruling Labor Party indefinitely suspended a senator, Fatima Payman, on Monday after she crossed the floor of the Senate to vote in favor of a motion backing Palestinian statehood.

Australia does not currently recognize Palestinian statehood, though Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in May it could do so before a formal peace process between Israel and Palestinian authorities is complete.

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New UK Prime Minister Starmer Assembles Cabinet for the First Meeting: ‘Now We Get to Work’

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chairs the first meeting of his cabinet in 10 Downing Street, following a landslide Labour win in Thursdays General Election, in London, Britain, July 6, 2024. (Pool via Reuters)
Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chairs the first meeting of his cabinet in 10 Downing Street, following a landslide Labour win in Thursdays General Election, in London, Britain, July 6, 2024. (Pool via Reuters)
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New UK Prime Minister Starmer Assembles Cabinet for the First Meeting: ‘Now We Get to Work’

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chairs the first meeting of his cabinet in 10 Downing Street, following a landslide Labour win in Thursdays General Election, in London, Britain, July 6, 2024. (Pool via Reuters)
Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chairs the first meeting of his cabinet in 10 Downing Street, following a landslide Labour win in Thursdays General Election, in London, Britain, July 6, 2024. (Pool via Reuters)

Prime Minister Keir Starmer held his first Cabinet meeting Saturday as his new government takes on the massive challenge of fixing a heap of domestic woes and winning over a public weary from years of austerity, political chaos and a battered economy.

Starmer welcomed the new ministers around the table at 10 Downing St., saying it had been the honor of his life to be asked by King Charles III to form a government in a ceremony that officially elevated him to prime minister.

“We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” he said.

Starmer’s Labour Party delivered the biggest blow to the Conservatives in their two-century history Friday in a landslide victory on a platform of change.

Among a raft of problems they face are boosting a sluggish economy, fixing a broken health care system, and restoring trust in government.

“Just because Labour won a big landslide doesn’t mean all the problems that the Conservative government has faced has gone away,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

In his first remarks as prime minister Friday after the meeting “kissing of hands” ceremony with Charles at Buckingham Palace, Starmer said he would get to work immediately, though he cautioned it would take some time to show results.,

“Changing a country is not like flicking a switch,” he said as enthusiastic supporters cheered him outside his new official residence at 10 Downing. “This will take a while. But have no doubt that the work of change begins — immediately.”

Starmer singled out several of the big items, such as fixing the revered but hobbled National Health Service and securing its borders, a reference a larger global problem across Europe and the US of absorbing an influx of migrants fleeing war, poverty as well as drought, heat waves and floods attributed to climate change.

Conservatives struggled to contain the flow of migrants arriving across the English Channel, failing to live up to ex-Prime Minister’s Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats.”

Starmer has said he will scrap the Conservatives controversial plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda. The plan had cost hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars) without a single flight taking off.

“Labour is going to need to find a solution to the small boats coming across the channel,” Bale said. “It’s going to ditch the Rwanda scheme, but it’s going to have to come up with other solutions to deal with that particular problem.”

Suella Braverman, a Conservative hard liner on immigration who is a possible contender to replace Sunak as party leader, criticized Starmer's plan to end the Rwanda pact.

“Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked,” she said Saturday. “There are big problems on the horizon which will be I’m afraid caused by Keir Starmer.”