A group of between 300 and 500 people took to the streets of central Vienna on Wednesday, October 11th, in support of Hamas despite the protest being banned. Vienna police received hundreds of complaints after they did nothing to stop the illegal protest, which went on for hours.
The demonstration took place just outside of Vienna’s iconic Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, the area known as the Stephansplatz.
However, despite authorities having banned the planned protest over safety concerns, the large number of policemen present did little to stop the rally after announcing over loudspeakers that they would dissolve the event, Kronen Zeitung reports.
The rally was attended by Islamists with pro-Hamas sympathies and occurred just minutes away from a vigil for the Israeli victims massacred by Hamas since the group attacked Israel on Saturday, October 7th.
The pro-Hamas protestors attempted to march toward Ballhausplatz, where the vigil was being held but were stopped by Vienna police before any potential conflict could take place.
Following the rally, police received around 300 complaints regarding the illegal event and were able to identify at least 304 of the participants, with one person reported for offences under the Austrian Assembly Act and eleven for lesser administrative offences.
Vienna police explained why they did not break up the illegal rally, stating on X, formerly known as Twitter, “for tactical reasons, dissolving a gathering is not always accompanied by a direct physical dissolution.”
On Thursday, the Vienna police added,
The following summary of yesterday’s operation: As already known, the reported meeting at Stephansplatz was banned in advance and declared dissolved during the evening. The aim of the operation was primarily to prevent the two rallies from meeting and disrupting the memorial ceremony at Ballhausplatz.
Around 2,000 people attended the vigil for the victims of Hamas terrorism, including Austria’s president Alexander van der Belen, Chief Rabbi Jaron Engelmayer, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler, Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig, and several other prominent political leaders.
Several Europeans, including at least one Austrian citizen, whose death was confirmed by the Austrian foreign ministry but who was not formally identified other than being acknowledged as a dual citizen of Austria and Israel, were among the hundreds of civilians killed by Hamas.
The murdered Austrian national is not believed to be 38-year-old Tal Shoham, who along with his 38-year-old wife Adi and their two children have been missing since Hamas attacked the Kibbutz Be’eri, which had been set on fire.
As the illegal pro-Hamas demonstration was going on, Vienna Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Dominik Nepp claimed that he and his colleague Maximilian Kraus, both of whom are Vienna city councillors, were kicked out of a taxi for mentioning the pro-Palestine event.
“We talked about rejecting the pro-Palestine demonstration on Stephansplatz. The taxi driver then said that he didn’t want to hear it and didn’t want to talk about it, and that we should get out immediately,” Nepp said. But he added that the driver later found them in the centre of Vienna and apologised.
Nepp slammed the lack of action from the Vienna police, saying,
The Viennese police leadership has failed to guarantee public order and security. The demonstration should have been dispersed immediately.
The passivity of the police leadership at a time when clear and decisive action is needed is unacceptable. Therefore, we demand the immediate resignation of those responsible …It is the duty of the police to protect the citizens of Vienna and to maintain public order. This omission cannot and must not go unanswered.
The Israel-Hamas war has largely united politicians from across the Austrian political spectrum, with all of the major parties on the Right and Left denouncing the terrorist acts of Hamas. The country also announced it would be suspending all aid money to the Palestinians.
The Vienna event is just the latest pro-Hamas rally to take place in a Western country since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas last weekend. Similar rallies have been seen in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and France.
In France, a poll published by broadcaster BFMTV revealed that as many as 75% of French are highly concerned that the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip could spread to other countries, with 68% stating they were concerned it could lead to conflict within France itself.
