‘Hey Dumbass!’: Protesters charged over pro-Palestine posters in Sydney CBD

Two brothers charged with pasting more than 20 “provocative” pro-Palestine posters across Sydney’s CBD defended their actions to police, telling officers they could not be “expected to sit here and do nothing”.

Mouhammed Misselmany, 20, and brother Moahmmed Ali ElMisselmany, 24, pleaded guilty before Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday to a single charge of affixing a poster on a property without consent.

Documents tendered to court reveal the duo from Beverly Hills in Sydney’s south were captured on CCTV placing more than 20 posters on signposts, bins, and Town Hall Station exit in the evening of September 21.

The posters depicted images of “injured children and young persons” as well as slogans such as “Israel bombed this innocent Palestinian girl’s jaw off” and “Israeli snipers regularly shoot children in Palestine”.

“Hey dumbass! The Israeli army shot this 6 year old girl 355 times yet our (Australian) government still has a ‘close and warm relationship with Israel’,” another poster read, some of which were placed on George St.

Police were alerted to the two men by the City of Sydney’s street monitoring video and followed them into Town Hall Station where they sped up before being ordered to stop after beginning to run up the stairs.

The men initially declined to answer questions but once placed inside the caged police vehicle, Mr ElMisselmany “questioned police about their political stance”, stating “I hope you understand why people do stuff like this”.

Asked what he meant by the officer, the elder brother continued: “Like putting up posters. When a bomb drops and kills children, and we are expected to sit here and not do anything about it.”

“While in custody, the co-accused (Mr ElMisslemany) again asked the custody manager ‘Can’t I just go and scrape all the posters off, and then you can let us go’?” court documents state.

Appearing before the court, Mr ElMisselmany’s lawyer said it was “unfortunate” that the brothers were spotted by police and not city rangers, as the offence would have usually been dealt with by way of a simple fine.

“He clearly has a passion for human rights, and it’s that passion that has landed him before this court. Sticking these A4 pieces of paper around the city during the protest was illegal,” his lawyer said.

“They could have participated in the protest and it would have been all fine and all good … There is no offence to what the posters say,” adding that the two brothers had “good intentions”.

Magistrate Brett Shields questioned whether the posters were in fact harmless, stating that “there is a section of the community who would find it offensive … there is a diversity in points of view”.

He went on to tell the brothers: “You’ve both got fine-only offences, fixing paper on a premises without consent … The thing that is troubling about those offences is the nature of the material.

“You gave your perspective of what is going on in the Middle East, others have another opinion. Some people might have found it provocative. You can’t carry on and affixing posters to other people’s property.”

The pair were ordered to a period of supervision without conviction. The court was told they were both students and without criminal records, with Mr ElMisselmany having spent five days in custody over the charge.