Melbourne Labor MP Peter Khalil is the most recent parliamentarian to have their office vandalised by pro-Palestinian protesters, who not only sprayed it with red paint but forced “substances” into the building.
Fellow Labor MP Josh Burns’ St Kilda office was damaged in June when vandals smashed the windows and painted the exterior with slogans, but the latest attack marks an escalation.
Signage and the outside of Khalil’s office were sprayed with red paint overnight, while “land back” and “glory to the martyrs” were written along the walls. But the minister said “fire extinguishers and other kinds of propellants” had also been used to push “substances into the office.”
“We’re just not sure what’s in there, the smell is horrific,” he said. “It smells like an abattoir and it’s hard to breathe nearby it.”
Additionally, an inverted triangle has been painted on a door. This has been used by Al-Qassam militant brigades—part of Hamas—to identify targets such as Israeli tanks and soldiers for lethal strikes.
Since the Oct. 7 attack last year, it has become an online symbol shared by Hamas sympathisers and some pro-Palestinian activists. It has also been displayed in protests in Melbourne.
Staff arrived at work at 8:45 a.m. this morning to find the damage. A Hazmat team and Fire Rescue Victoria were called.
The office is closed to the public as police investigate, and staff will not be on-site “given the possibility there could be something toxic there and dangerous,” Khalil said.
Office Had Been Attacked Before
Late last year, Khalil was also among a small group of Labor MPs who had fake “dead bodies” left outside their offices, along with signs carrying pro-Palestinian messages.“You can say that we’ve experienced this pretty consistently over a period of time, but it still doesn’t change the fact that everyone deserves to be safe at work,” the minister said.
“The instance that we’ve seen today that puts other people in danger, that puts my staff in danger, that is both unacceptable under the law and also unacceptable morally.”
The son of Egyptian immigrants, he was appointed as special envoy for social cohesion in July, tasked with working across communities to promote harmony.
“This is one of the major challenges to our cohesion, that people think it’s okay to take these kinds of actions to express themselves,” Khalil said.
In July, two teenagers—17 and 18 years old—were charged with burglary and criminal damage after the attack on Burns’ office. Police found flammable chemicals at that site, and two small fires had been lit, including one outside the street-facing door to apartments on the floor above.
