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Today's Paper | May 12, 2026

Published 15 May, 2024 09:00am

Australia state parliament bans MPs from wearing Palestinian keffiyeh

Parliament in Australia’s state of Victoria has voted to ban members from wearing the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh and other symbols representing Palestine in the legislative chamber, members of the Australian Greens party said, Al Jazeera reports.

Members of Parliament for the Greens took to social media to protest the ruling, which one MP said was designed to “silence us”.

Greens party leader in Victoria Ellen Sandell said the ban “makes us one of the only parliaments in the world to ban the keffiyeh — on Nakba day, a day that marks the displacement of Palestinian people”.

“Victorians have watched in horror at the atrocities unfolding in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military. Yet Labor has signed a secretive MoU with Israeli Ministry of Defence & given $ to Israeli weapons companies,” Sandell said on social media.

Sandell said the Greens will move in parliament to make the memorandum of understanding with the Israeli military public.

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