Key Points
- NSW Police applied to the state’s Supreme Court earlier this week to prohibit two pro-Palestinian events on 6-7 October.
- The application has now been withdrawn after police reached an agreement with the event organisers.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have both previously criticised the events’ timing.
Two pro-Palestinian events on dates coinciding with the onset of the latest round of conflict between Hamas and Israel in 2023 will go ahead in Sydney after police agreed to changes in organisers’ plans.
A vigil planned for 7 October will still take place but will now be a standing — or ‘static’ — vigil, which unlike a moving protest doesn’t require a permit for police presence.
Meanwhile, the route of a demonstration on Sunday 6 October has been shifted after last-minute negotiations with NSW Police.
As a result, the police withdrew an to prohibit the events organised by the Palestine Action Group.
Police pledge to ‘work with organisers’
According to their application, organisers expect around 5,000 people to participate in the 6 October protest, which will now commence in Hyde Park instead of Town Hall.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna told the court at today’s hearing that the organisers’ new proposed route still caused him “great concern” due to its proximity to a synagogue adjacent to Hyde Park.
“I think it would actually be quite provocative to re-enter that close to the Great Synagogue, especially with the significant number of people that I would expect in this protest,” he said.
“It places people in positions that would only take one or two passersby to say the wrong thing and it would be a tinderbox,” McKenna said.
SBS News understands that a re-negotiated route will not go past the Great Synagogue, which is home to Sydney’s oldest Jewish congregation.
NSW Police said later on Thursday night that the force would “work with organisers to conduct a high visibility policing operation on Sunday to ensure the safety of the community”.
“Protest organisers have agreed that no flags, portraits or symbols connected to a prohibited terrorist organisation will be displayed,” the police said in a statement, adding that officers “will not hesitate to take appropriate action against anyone who commits a criminal offence”.
Criticism from some quarters over the rallies has ramped up over the past week amid a spotlight on who waved flags connected to and pictures of its leader, .
‘We got what we wanted’
Palestine Action Group organiser Joshua Lees said Sunday’s rally will look very similar to what was already planned.
“We got what we wanted,” he said.
Another pro-Palestinian event organiser, Amal Naser, said the police and organisers had “reached a good outcome”.
“It’s what we’ve been saying all along; we have the right to protest, and we need to protest now more than ever,” he said, as reported by the Guardian.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson also praised the outcome.
“Once again, a grassroots community justice movement has stood up for and defended our democracy and the fundamental right to protest in the courts against the strong arm of an emboldened law-and-order state,” she said.
The Palestine Action Group vowed on Thursday morning to push ahead with its events on Sunday and Monday regardless of the court’s decision and hit back at criticism, saying the rallies were “not provocative”.
Earlier, the organisers described the NSW Police’s application as an “attack on fundamental democratic rights”, saying they had been organising “peaceful rallies for 51 consecutive weeks”.
The controversy over planned 6-7 October events
Protests have been held in Sydney and Melbourne every Sunday since broke out — but senior government figures have said rallies on dates coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks were inappropriate.
About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 assault on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies, and about 250 people were taken hostage.
Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry,
that the planned events were “not a time for demonstrations to occur”.
“It will be perceived as — whether that’s the intention or not — being something that is less than an appropriate commemoration of the atrocities that occurred on October 7. And it will do nothing to advance the cause,” he said.
His comments were later echoed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, 7 October was “a solemn occasion” and “not an occasion for protest”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns also warned of a “high prospect of conflict” if the events went ahead.
Conversely, Greens Senator David Shoebridge described the NSW Police’s attempt to block the events as “a deeply anti-democratic move” and said they provided an opportunity for people to “come together to mourn their loved ones and call for the end of violence”.
Will rallies be held in other cities?
Pro-Palestinian groups in Melbourne also plan to hold a rally on 6 October and a vigil the day after. Victoria Police don’t have the power to prevent the events from going ahead as the state doesn’t have a permit system like NSW.
However, Victoria Police will reportedly deploy more officers over the weekend and be given extra resources throughout October.
The events have drawn criticism from Premier Jacinta Allan, who said “people simply should not be protesting on October the 7th” as it wasn’t “in the spirit” of a “multicultural community and society, and it’s certainly not in the spirit for calls for peace”.
In South Australia, police have confirmed they won’t be intervening to stop a vigil planned by pro-Palestinian activists on Monday.
With reporting from the Australian Associated Press
*An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the vigil on 7 October had been cancelled
Source Agencies
