NSW Police will launch a legal challenge against a pro-Palestine protest planned to take place in Sydney later this month.
The protest, which is demanding Australia place sanctions against Israel for its continued assault on Gaza and stop exporting F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, is scheduled to take place on Sunday 12 October.
It’s set to start at Hyde Park in the CBD — where organisers have been holding weekly rallies for almost two years — and make its way through the city, ending on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House.
On Friday, NSW Police assistant commissioner Peter McKenna said the organisers, Palestine Action Group, had lodged a ‘Form 1’ permit with the police force to hold a public assembly on that date.
McKenna told reporters he’d since been in discussions with organisers and trustees of the Opera House, and had instructed the NSW Office of General Counsel to object to the assembly in the NSW Supreme Court.
Citing public safety concerns for the decision, McKenna said police had suggested alternate routes to organisers, and discussions were ongoing.
“They have indicated to us that they will give us a response later about whether they will contest this matter in the Supreme Court or whether they will consider the alternate routes that we may be able to negotiate,” he said.
The planned protest date marks just over two years of Israel’s ongoing military assault in Gaza, which started after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
Around 1,200 people were killed in the October 7 attack, with more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, as well as leaving much of the enclave in ruins and creating a humanitarian disaster with grave shortages of food, drinking water and safe shelter.
Pro-Palestine demonstrations have been held in Sydney almost weekly for the past two years. Source: Getty / Lisa Maree Williams
Famine was declared in Gaza City in August, and more than 641,000 people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity, according to United Nations figures.
When announcing the protest earlier this week, Palestine Action Group said 7 October marked “two years since Israel launched its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people”, which it said had continued to escalate under the “protection” of Australian and other Western governments.
McKenna said he understood it was a “significant anniversary for probably both sides”, and there were high public emotions surrounding the date.
McKenna insisted that NSW Police were not “anti-protest” and had facilitated demonstrations by Palestine Action Group for two years, but that the Opera House site could not facilitate the number of people that protest organisers had indicated would attend.
When announcing the protest earlier this week, Palestine Action Group referenced the significance of using the Opera House for the planned rally this month.
Pro-Palestine protesters demonstrated outside the Sydney Opera House in October 2023. Source: AAP / Dean Lewins
The venue had “long been a symbol of anti-war protest”, it said, referencing the words “No War” being painted on its sails in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq War.
The group said the NSW government had “tarnished” that legacy by lighting the sails in the colours of Israel’s flag a few days after the October 7 attack in 2023.
The Opera House was also the site of a pro-Palestine protest shortly after the October 7 attack.
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
