Updated 9.40pm

Last Sunday it was tomatoes. Today, activists reached for bananas as the symbol of their disdain for police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar as their protest in Castille Square reached the 24-hour mark. 

Laying the fruit along the edges of a banner with Mr Cutajar's face on it,  #OccupyJustice protesters stood on the steps leading to the Prime Minister's office as they held up placards and continued to call for Mr Cutajar and Attorney-General Peter Grech to quit. 

The term "banana republic" dates back to the turn of the 20th century and was first used to describe politically unstable Central American governments which were overly reliant on American fruit conglomerates which exerted outsized influence on the countries' economies and politics. 

Bananas line a banner calling for police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar to resign.

The #OccupyJustice group says it plans to camp in Castille square until Sunday in protest at what they say is the government's disregard for the rule of law, following the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.  

Their overnight protest began last night and received the approval of Ms Caruana Galizia's sons, who sent protesters pizza garnished with bay leaves - "a symbol of strength and courage," they wrote - from their late mother's garden. 

It also prompted a stream of misogynist invective from government consultant and former General Workers' Union boss Tony Zarb, who in a Facebook post likened the female protesters to prostitutes and suggested they should have set up their camps in Strait Street instead. 

But if Mr Zarb hoped his inflammatory comments would put protesters in their place, then that plan backfired badly: eyewitnesses reported as many as 200 protesters camped outside the Prime Minister's official doorstep tonight. 

Fallout from Mr Zarb's comments continued throughout today, with civil society groups, female personalities, the Equality Commission and the Nationalist Party all slamming the former union boss for his comments. 

Even Mr Zarb's former employer, the GWU, was moved to issue a statement in which it denounced all hate speech and said that the union was against discrimination in all its forms. 

The Civil Society Network, which organised last week's protest in Valletta, has said it will hold a second rally in Sliema this coming Sunday. It, too, is calling for Mr Cutajar and Dr Grech to resign, and for their successors to be appointed by a two-thirds majority. 

Protesters are preparing for their second night in Castille Square. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Protesters stand on a banner depicting police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar. Photo: Jonathan Borg