Man charged with assaulting pro-Palestine group in hotel elevator
A man has been charged after allegedly assaulting a group of pro-Palestine supporters in a hotel elevator in Adelaide.
Aboud Shaweesh and his friends from Sydney were in Adelaide to attend the protests and were taking the lift back to their room on Franklin Street about midnight on July 6.
Inside, a lone man allegedly began a verbal tirade and set upon the group, some of whom were dressed in the Palestinian keffiyeh.
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Aboud Shaweesh and his friends were allegedly attacked Nine
"Youse (sic) support these terrorist c----," the man was heard saying on video.
"You dirty, f------ supporters. You f------ terrorist supporter."
At one point, the man appeared to allegedly grab the headdress of one of group.
Shaweesh said his friends tried to help one another but the man allegedly turned to hit someone else in the unprovoked attack.
"It was all very chaotic," he said.
The alleged assault eventually came to an end when the man was restrained and arrested by police.
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The group had been in the city for pro-Palestine protests. Nine
Meanwhile, most of the group walked away with only minor injuries.
"He must have felt very emboldened to (allegedly) behave in that way against six complete strangers just because we were wearing keffiyehs," Shaweesh said.
The 64-year-old man from Victoria was charged with five counts of common assault and will reappear at Adelaide Magistrates Court in September.
Under recent changes to the Sentencing Act, hate speech now needs to be taken into account as an aggravating factor in determining criminal penalties.
Shaweesh, however, remained concerned others may feel empowered to act hatefully and called on the federal government to treat all forms of racism with equal severity.
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