A NSW Greens councilor has been accused of politicizing an Anzac Day dawn service after appearing in a traditional pro-Palestinian Arabic headdress.
Rafaela Pandolfini dropped off a bouquet of flowers at a removal service in Coogee, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, on Thursday morning while wearing a keffiyeh.
The keffiyeh has recently become a symbol of support for Palestine amid the conflict in the Middle East.
Many on social media took aim at Pandolfini for the fashion choice, including the Australian Jewish Association.
“Disappointed to see that a Greens Randwick councilor could not help herself and had to politicize the dawn service in Coogee by wearing one of the keffiyehs worn by radical and terrorist protesters,” the organization said in X.
Another commented: “That would be a huge insult to the Anzacs and Light Horse.”
NSW Greens councilor Rafaela Pandolfini (pictured left) has been criticized for wearing an Arabic keffiyeh while honoring fallen Anzacs.
Mrs Pandolfini wore the traditional headdress at a dawn service in Coogee on Anzac Day. The keffiyeh has recently become a symbol of support for Palestine.
It is not the first time that Pandolfini has chosen to wear the pro-Palestinian garment.
In March last year, she wore a keffiyeh to Randwick Town Hall’s women’s party. Art exhibition – leaving a local Jewish artist “shocked” and feeling “threatened.”
ADVANCE chief executive Matthew Sheahan told WhatsNew2Day Australia that Anzac Day should be “off limits to the Greens and their hardcore political activism”.
“Wearing the Keffiyeh in our most sacred ceremony was a deliberate act to strike at the heart of what unites our country,” he said.
‘It is an insult to every man and woman who has served in defense of our nation.
‘The truth is that the Greens treat even our holiest day as yet another political opportunity to impose their unwanted ideas on ordinary Australians.
“This councilor and anyone wearing a keffiyeh should be excluded from Anzac Day ceremonies.”
The memory of Anzac dates back more than a century in the State of Israel.
An Anzac Memorial dedicated to the Australian and New Zealand soldiers killed in Palestine during the First and Second Battles of Gaza (1917) in the First World War is located in the Negev, southern Israel.
In 2018, the forest surrounding the monument was severely damaged by an incendiary kite sent by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
WhatsNew2Day Australia has contacted Ms Pandolfini for comment.
The councilwoman (pictured, second from left) posted this photo to her Instagram account on Thursday morning.
It comes as activist groups plan to camp out at the University of Melbourne on Anzac Day while demanding the institution “cut all ties to guns” and “stop accepting blood money”.
It is also believed groups could protest at other locations in Melbourne’s CBD on Thursday.
On social media, the group Unimelb for Palestine wrote: ‘Support the camp, Anzac Day our way. Solidarity with Gaza.’
Protesters will also call on the university to condemn what they believe is “the systematic destruction of all Gaza universities by the Zionist regime and the targeted killing of Palestinian academics and students.”
RSL Victoria president Dr Robert Webster told the Herald of the sun Protests planned for Anzac Day were “disrespectful”.
‘I have no problem with them holding peaceful demonstrations, but what it entails is the right to respect other people. They are choosing to disrespect the veterans of this country who try [Thursday] like our national day, that is the problem for me,” he said.
Dr Webster said he wanted to make sure both the dawn services and the Anzac marches were safe for everyone, and was concerned the protests would upset veterans if they disrupted “their day”.
Similarly, Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia Victoria president Bob Elworthy believes the national day should be “left alone”.
“Anzac Day is not about glorifying war, we are respecting those who put themselves in harm’s way so people can protest,” he told the publication.
Elworthy said that although people have the right to protest, he did not respect that they did so on April 25.
Veterans have said pro-Palestine protests planned for Anzac Day are “disrespectful” (people pictured attending Newcastle’s Dawn Service on Thursday morning)
The University of Melbourne will hold a protest on Anzac Day asking it to stop accepting ‘blood money’ (pictured are pro-Palestinian protesters who gathered on Sunday)
University of Melbourne principal professor Nicola Phillips said she was aware a small group of students would protest at its Parkville campus.
He said the university does not support free speech expression if it prevents people from “fully participating in the university.”
However, he said freedom of expression is valued at the university.
Victoria Police said They were aware of at least three planned protests in Melbourne on Thursday and have increased patrols at several locations, including the University of Melbourne in Parkville.
Palestine Victoria teachers and school staff, who are organizers of some of the protests, said they would not disrupt any Anzac day services.