New South Wales Labor and the NSW Police’s attempt to shut down week 52 of the peaceful pro-Palestine protests on October 6 backfired, as it was one of the biggest protests this year to march on Gadigal Country/Sydney though the CBD.
More than 140 community organisations, including the Australian Council of Social Service, Community Legal Centres NSW, Australian Services Union NSW ACT and NSW Council for Civil Liberties, called on Australian governments to respect fundamental protest rights.
Geoffrey Watson SC, director of The Centre for Public Integrity and the Grata Fund, said: “The freedom to protest peacefully is an essential characteristic of a healthy democracy. A blanket ban like this is anti-democratic. We have legal protections against dangerous, violent, or offensive conduct. It is those laws that should be applied if necessary, but hopefully there will be no need.”
There was no need.
NSW Police arrested one person for holding a sign equating the state of Israel to the Nazi regime. He was charged under Section 93ZA of the NSW Crimes Act, which makes it an offence to “knowingly display” a Nazi symbol “without a reasonable excuse”. Many would argue he had one.
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A similarly large and diverse protest was organised in Naarm/Melbourne. Smaller, although just as spirited, protests took place in Boorloo/Perth, Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide and Tharawal/Wollongong.
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Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Senator Lidia Thorpe told the rally in Naarm that it is up to activists to teach future generations about resistance and respect for human rights.
Gumbainggir activist and historian Professor Gary Foley called out Labor’s hypocrisy in criminalising the Hezbollah flag while allowing Australian citizens to fight for the Israel Defence Forces.
Adel Salman, president of the Islamic Council of Victoria, also addressed mainstream media and politicians’ focus on flags, calling it “an attempt to distract us”.
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Christy Cain, former Construction Forestry Maritime Employees Union national secretary, criticised Labor for attacking the pro-Palestine solidarity and union movements.
“We are going to march alongside you until you get your country back, right until the end ... Until there is peace for all.”
Ohad Kozminsky, from the Jewish Council of Australia (JCA), rejected claims that Israel is representative of all Jews, calling for human rights to be applied without exception, and defended wherever they are violated.
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Commenting on the Gadigal rally, sacked ABC reporter Antoinette Lattouf said on X: “The overwhelming message from a crowd of young and old, students, families, people with disabilities, Arabs, Jews, Anglos & everything in between was demanding a ceasefire now and basic human rights for Palestinians & fear for Lebanon.”
Huge concerns that Israel — with the United States’ backing — is spreading its war to Lebanon, and potentially Iran, would have motivated more people to support the anniversary protests.
Another factor would have been the mainstream slander, including from the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and deputy PM Richard Marles, that those taking part in the protests are antisemitic.
This lie was powerfully rejected by rally speakers, as well as several anti-Zionist Jewish protesters, including author Antony Loewenstein, who said he had never “felt unsafe” at protests and that “occupation is not a Jewish value”.
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The JCA said on October 7 that “Israel’s actions and ongoing campaigns of violence against Palestinians, which started well before October 7, only serve to make all people in the region unsafe.
“As some families of the hostages put it: ‘Netanyahu is dragging the region into all-out war, for his own personal motives. Hostages and residents on all sides of all borders be damned.’”
Al Jareeza reports that huge protests were organised across the world to mark the year of war, including in London, Rome, Manila, Caracas, Paris, Jakarta, Madrid and Hamburg, and many more regional towns in countries across the globe.
A solemn vigil on October 7 in front of Sydney Town Hall on Gadigal Country included multi-faith prayers, beginning with the Kaddish, the Jewish Prayer for the Dead, followed by Christian and Muslim prayers and supplications.
This peaceful and inclusive event, organised by the Palestine Action Group Sydney, gave the lie to the Zionist scare campaign that tried to silence the movement for Palestine and Lebanon solidarity by falsely branding it “antisemitic”.
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The Big Ride for Palestine in Magan-djin/Brisbane on October 5 began around the Brisbane River. Further Big Rides are planned for October 13, 19 and 20 in several places around the country. It is raising funds for aid projects in Palestine via Union Aid Abroad.
The main 12-month anniversary rally in Magan-djin/Brisbane will be held on October 13.
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