Police prepare as thousands to march in CBD pro-Palestine rally
Thousands of protesters have gathered at Sydney Town Hall in support of Palestine, demanding an end to the deaths of children in Gaza. See pictures and video
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Thousands of protesters have gathered at Sydney Town Hall in support of Palestine with plans to march through the city.
Just before 1pm the crowd spilled onto George St chanting “free Palestine” and “shame Albanese”.
Protesters said they were denouncing the “genocide” of Palestinians under Israeli “occupation”.
“I’m Palestinian, I have family in Gaza and I’m here in support of my country,” 22-year-old protester Kareemah Nazer said.
Some among the crowd chose to pray, with about 100 men and women bowing in peaceful prayer.
Elsewhere, organisers pleaded with protesters to refrain from anti-Semitic chants, flag burning and lighting flares.
The rally heard from a roster of Palestinian and Indigenous speakers as the crowd continued to grow.
Palestinian Action Group spokeswoman Amal Naser said violence was “entrenched” in the state of Israel.
“Israel’s systems and structures were exported from the United States, were exported by Australia,” she said. “We will stand strong until liberation.”
Ms Naser said the Australian government had the blood of Palestinians on its hands, labelling Labor the “party of genocide”.
Two young girls who organisers said had recently returned from the West Bank gave an impassioned speech to the crowd of thousands.
“It was so hard to leave a place which was once a land of freedom and opportunity was now a place of constant oppression,” the young girl said.
Michelle Berkon of Jews Against the Occupation said the root cause of the violence is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.
Pictures from the bombing of a Gaza hospital were distributed among the crowd showing bloodied children.
“How many more kids must die?” the signs read.
The crowd shouted “Israel, USA how many kids have you killed today?”.
This morning, scores of police assembled around the Sydney CBD as the protesters prepared to march from Town Hall.
The NSW Police said they would have 800-plus officers on hand for the pro-Palestine rally as the force braces to deal with 17 more protests across metropolitan Sydney today.
Despite the peaceful scenes of last Sunday’s event, Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Friday warned officers were prepared to deal with violent protesters who caused an uproar at the Opera House last week.
“If there is anyone that thinks that they can join in the protest and cause trouble police will be there to arrest those that break the law,” Commissioner Webb said.
“We will have no tolerance for those that want to play up and break the law.
“No tolerance for hate speech, no tolerance for intimidation.”
It comes after senior police a week ago warned they were considering extra powers brought in after the 2005 Cronulla riots over concerns the same protest organisers “could not guarantee … it wouldn’t be hijacked”.
Those organisers – Sydney Palestine Action Group – this week negotiated with police over the route of their protest.
The group is planning to march from Town Hall down to Belmore Park this afternoon.
Operation Shelter, formed after the protest at the Opera House last Monday night turned ugly, has so far charged 11 people with 22 offences.
Three of those were from the scenes at the Opera House where a minority of the crowd chanted “f...k the jews” and burned an Israeli flag.
“We made it very clear at the time, just because you weren’t arrested on that evening does not mean that we will not find you and arrest you and put you before the court,” Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.
“(The 800 officers) is based on events that happened on the Monday night.
“That type of behaviour is completely unacceptable to the community, throwing of flares, the hate speech that we saw, and the other behaviours that were completely and unlawful.”
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