By Kat Wong and Alex Mitchell in Sydney

A police boss has apologised to Muslim leaders after his officers dragged away men who were praying during a rally opposing the Israeli head of state’s visit.

Police were seen beating, pushing and pepper-spraying people at a protest in Sydney after Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Australia on Monday.

Muslim men who were filmed kneeling and praying before being pushed and dragged away by police were not angry but instead “scared”, Australia’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik said.

The force’s actions were “disgraceful” and “appalling”, Mr Malik said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has repeatedly defended police, saying they faced “incredibly difficult” circumstances.

But Mr Malik said he was brought to tears when the premier failed to call out a controversial line of questioning in a television interview that suggested the men had been “baiting” police when praying.

“The premier should have pushed back and said … ‘I don’t agree with that characterisation’, and had he said that, things would have been different,” he told the Senate on Tuesday night.

“But unfortunately, he responded the way he did, and this is part of the normalisation in which day-by-day, Muslims are being degraded  … it’s the ordinariness of Islamophobia destroying the dignity of Muslims who are legitimate citizens like anybody else.”

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said he had apologised to senior members of the Muslim community for any offence caused.

But he also continued to defend the actions of police, who had been instructed to clear protesters from Sydney Town Hall.

Police could face legal action over their treatment of protesters. Footage of their behaviour has been widely circulating online and could cause reputational damage, one expert said.

“Civilians see this kind of violence so rarely in Australia, but when we do, it’s shocking,” University of Newcastle criminologist Justin Ellis told AAP.

“Police are going to have to deal with any reputational fallout.”

A message about safety, rather than officer tactics, could help reassure the public going forward, Dr Ellis said.

But the damage may already have been done.

Greens MP Abigail Boyd is considering legal action after she was struck by police.

Others could also take the police to court or make formal complaints, with video posted to social media showing a man with raised hands being punched repeatedly in the stomach by officers.

Former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas, who suffered a serious eye injury when she was arrested at a protest in 2025, had charges of resisting police dropped and an assault charge was laid against the constable who allegedly maimed her.

Lawyer Josh Bornstein said an independent probe into the protest policing was required.

“It’s difficult when police are the usual source of investigating criminal acts of violence, but we need some sort of independent investigation in this situation,” he told ABC TV.

Officers arrested 27 people on Monday and later charged nine with offences including behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and resisting police.

Five members of the public were hospitalised.

The violence has not deterred protesters in other parts of the nation from taking to the streets as Mr Herzog continues his Australian tour through Melbourne and Canberra.