Security staff at Melbourne’s busiest court have told people they must remove their keffiyehs before entering.
Court Services Victoria said that staff had discretion to order the removal of the garments, which are often worn by people expressing support for Palestine, under a law which allowed them to “ensure, maintain, or restore the security, good order and management of court premises”.
The keffiyehs were worn by several of the dozens of people accused of committing offences during the protests against the Land Forces weapons expo in September, and their supporters, during hearings at the Melbourne magistrates court on 21 January.
Those charged face a wide range of offences, including assaulting or hindering police.
A Court Services Victoria spokesperson said that three people wearing keffiyehs were directed to remove them, and a person wearing a T-shirt with a political statement was asked to turn it inside out.
“The Keffiyehs scarves were properly receipted and returned to the court users on exit,” the spokesperson said.
“Court Security Officers are authorised to exercise discretion under Court Services Victoria’s Conditions of Entry Policy.”
The court spokesperson declined to comment on whether there was a specific directive banning the keffiyeh in Victorian courts, and whether the state’s chief magistrate, Justice Lisa Hannan, supported security ordering the removal of the garments.
The lawyer Bernadette Zaydan, who was representing several of the accused at the court on 21 January, said that far more than three people were asked to remove their keffiyehs, saying the number was more than a dozen.
She said she witnessed the security staff, employed by G4S, ordering people to remove them, and questioned them about the directive.
Victoria police have charged or fined more than 100 people in relation to the Land Forces protests.
Many of those involved in the protest wore keffiyehs, and specifically opposed the weapons expo going ahead in Melbourne in the context of the ongoing Gaza conflict.
Security officers ordered the removal of the keffiyehs at the public entrance to the court building.
All members of the public must pass through security to access the court complex, including those accused of offences who are not in custody and have hearings before court that day.
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The court rooms are only accessible to the public after passing through this entrance.
Court Services Victoria justified the directive under the Court Security Act.
The relevant sections of the act say an authorised officer can give a reasonable direction to “ensure, maintain, or restore the security, good order and management of court premises” and that they “may refuse a person entry to the court premises … if the authorized person believes on reasonable grounds that the person is likely to affect adversely the security, good order or management of the court premises”.
It comes after Victoria’s parliament ruled that keffiyehs were political in May last year, effectively banning them from the upper and lower houses.
The president of the upper house, Shaun Leane, told the Greens MP Samantha Ratnam at the time that watermelon earrings, another symbol of Palestinian resistance, could not be worn.
He said that unlike pins worn by MPs to mark events such as Anzac Day and the Cancer Council’s Daffodil Day, there was no “consensus” around the Palestinian symbols.
“If it is a cause we can all get behind or we reasonably think everybody can get behind, we should be relaxed about it,” Leane said.
“If it is symbolism – and I am not making a commentary on the symbolism – that you could reasonably expect the whole chamber is not behind, then I think it is a fair ruling to say that that should not be worn.”
He compared the ruling with a ban on wearing “Yes” pins during the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum.
