Police have turned to the public for help in identifying several men involved in a violent brawl at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on the morning of Sept. 7, 2025 between rival protest groups, one pro-Palestine and the other pro-Israel.
Jews against the Occupation, a Jewish-led pro-Palestine group, had organised a “paddle out” on surfboards on Father’s Day in support of the fathers of Gaza.
It attracted hundreds of participants to what organisers promised would be a “peaceful event.”
But a pro-Israel group decided to stage a counter-protest at the same time.
In response to concerns about community safety, local police were called in at around 8.00 a.m. to manage the protests. They needed the support of the Public Order and Riot Squad, Operation Odin (which specialises in assisting with protests, parades, demonstrations, and large crowd events), and the Central Metropolitan Region High Visibility Patrol unit.
“During the assembly, members from different groups became involved in a brawl, with police intervening,” NSW Police said in a statement.
Police have used social media to release images of three men they believe may be able to assist with their inquiries.
Premier Chris Minns said he hopes police “throw the book at the people that started it”
“People come to Australia because … we are largely free of political violence,” he told reporters. “That’s not the case in other countries and places around the world. We don’t want that on Sydney streets.
“You’ve got a right to protest; you don’t have a right to assault someone.”
The premier opposed a pro-Palestine protest march over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in August, and said that after the Bondi incident he did not wish to see iconic Sydney landmarks get “routinely disrupted by political protests.”
But there was not much the government could do further to prevent them, he admitted.
“We’ve pursued changes to the law in relation to landmarks, religious institutions, [and] racial vilification, [and] we’ve been widely criticised for it,” Minns said.
“It’s not as straightforward as passing a bill this afternoon saying, ‘That’s the end of protests on Bondi Beach’; it’s almost certain to be knocked over by the High Court.”
Numerous rallies have been held across Sydney and the rest of the country since the latest conflict between Israel and the designated terrorist group Hamas erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.
