A protest against the opening night of the Israeli Film Festival went ahead in Sydney despite a successful police gag application.
Palestine Action Group organised the peaceful public assembly to draw attention to Israel's occupation of Palestine.
The NSW Supreme Court ruled on August 20 to prohibit the action after the commissioner of police made an urgent application to the court. The case was heard by Justice Peter Hidden. Damian Ridgwell, from the Palestine Action Group, was represented by solicitor Stephen Blanks of SBA Lawyers and the NSW Council for Civil Liberties and barrister Roland Keller.
The making of such an order does not in itself make a protest unlawful, but merely removes the legal immunities against obstruction and unlawful assembly that are normally afforded to protesters after a notice is lodged with the police.
Hidden prophetically said during the hearing that even if the order were granted it would be likely that protesters would gather anyway.
The protest, which included a rally and speeches at Taylor Square before a procession around the Palace Verona cinema, proceeded without major incident. Although the size of the protest appeared to be well below organisers' initial estimates of up to 1000, the court's decision did little to dissuade those who attended.
"[The order] didn't affect my coming, but it might have affected others," student protester Mona Abu Zalaf told Green Left Weekly. "We haven't done anything illegal in the past so I don't think [the court's decision] will really affect tonight's protest."
Diane Dounas, a teacher, said: "I didn't know about the court's decision but [had I known beforehand] it would have made me more determined to attend, because now we're protesting for our own freedoms as well as the Palestinians'."
NSW Police have only a limited history of seeking to ban protests since the 1979 Act of Parliament that required such orders to be made through the courts. The application over the film festival is the eighth such attempt.
But it came just two years after the previous application that also targeted a pro-Palestine protest but was dismissed. Although few in number, these applications by the police have largely been successful. The only other failed attempt was a 2003 Refugee Action Coalition protest outside then-immigration minister Philip Ruddock's house.
The latest judgment appears to have been made largely on the basis of preventing injury to protesters. Hidden echoed a 2007 case in which the police tried to prevent protests against former US president George W Bush at APEC.
Hidden wrote: "[The APEC case] was concerned with a protest rally about Australia's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, issues about which his Honour perceived that many might have strong feelings.
"The majority, if not all, of those allied with the Palestine Action Group who attend the protest, want it to be peaceful and eschew violence of any kind. Nevertheless, the risk of violent confrontation remains … This is the type of protest likely to attract people with a different agenda, bent on fermenting violence."
Blanks was quick to refute the court's judgment.
"One of the police witnesses gave evidence that there was no intelligence to suggest that any violent groups intend to attend the protest. Most protests have little or none of that sort of thing," he told Green Left Weekly.
Many involved with the court case and protest have seen the court's judgment as an attack on fundamental freedoms.
University of Sydney staff member Nick Riemer, a member of Sydney Staff For BDS, told the crowd at the protest: "[The court's judgment comes] in the context of tightening restrictions on the right to protest in Australia itself. Victoria and Tasmania have both recently introduced laws which substantially restrict protesters' rights, and these are unacceptable."
Blanks told Green Left Weekly: "At a time when the federal government is emphasising the importance of free speech, it is disappointing that a state court has not upheld the full rights of this peaceful protest."
The rally against the Israeli Film Festival was Palestine Action Group's sixth protest action in Sydney since the conflict between Israel and Gaza escalated in early July.
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