Sydney Harbour Bridge pro-Palestine protest marred by Ayatollah image and traffic chaos
Sydney traffic was thrown into chaos as 90,000 pro-Palestine protesters marched across the Harbour Bridge on Sunday under a sea of umbrellas, Palestinian flags and crude anti-Israel signs.
In a procession drenched by pouring rain and occasionally marred by hateful images, an estimated 90,000 pro-Palestine protesters marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday led by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The bridge was closed for more than five hours, throwing Sydney traffic into chaos, as the largely well-behaved protesters made their way from the CBD to North Sydney under a sea of umbrellas, Palestinian flags and crude anti-Israel signs. However, the “March for Humanity” was marred by a protester who held aloft a picture of Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei behind Assange and other prominent figures.
The picture of Khamenei, standing with a rifle, was clearly visible behind Assange as he marched alongside Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, republican activist Craig Foster and former journalist Mary Kostakidis.
Assange, who was joined by his wife Stella and their two children, greeted former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr but did not speak to the media.
Other high-profile attendees at the march included writer Randa Abdel-Fattah, radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and former sportsman Anthony Mundine.
Small pockets of protesters chanted “all Zionists are terrorists” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine is all you see”.
The bridge march coincided with a warning by terror group Hamas that it would not lay down its arms until an independent Palestinian state was established, a move that will make it tougher for the federal government to formally recognise Palestine this year.
Hamas vowed to continue its armed struggle until Israel agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state with full sovereignty and Jerusalem as its capital.
The statement came as a video emerged of an emaciated Israeli hostage, Evyatar David, digging what he fears is his own grave in a tunnel under Gaza and declaring he had just “a few days to live”.
In the video, the young musician who was kidnapped from the Nova musical festival, is also seen crossing off dates on a calendar drawn on sheets of paper and detailing when he has eaten – and when he has been starved.
In Melbourne, heavily armed police clashed with anti-Israel activists during a volatile pro-Palestinian protest in the CBD on Sunday, with officers verbally harassed and traffic brought to a standstill.
Victoria Police established a blockade on the King Street Bridge early in the day, deploying more than 100 officers, including riot police and mounted units, in anticipation of the demonstration.
Protesters responded with fury, chanting “Shame on you Jacinta Allan” and “Free, free Palestine” in defiance of the Premier’s warning that anyone blocking the bridge would be “dealt with swiftly”.
By midday, thousands had descended on the city, confronting officers in a tense standoff before spilling through the streets and staging rolling disruptions throughout the afternoon.
It was the first time Victoria Police were forced to come out in a show of force since the toxic Land Forces protest last year.
Several agitators were swept away from the crowd by police as the protesters continued to march towards the King Street Bridge guarded by more than 100 officers from the Public Order Response team, including 15 on horseback.
In Sydney, as people gathered at midday in Lang Park, protesters stomped on a sign that pictured a bloody Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu next to the words “two killers”.
Stalls sold keffiyehs and Palestinian flags. Others held signs with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s face on it with a Hitler moustache above the word “terrorist”.
Protesters remained spirited on the walk back across the bridge, some two to three hours later, continuing to chant and sing, but at one point were forced to stop in order to avoid a dangerous crowd crush at the northern end of the harbour bridge. One senior police officer said he had never seen a more perilous situation”.
“I was honestly worried that we were going to have a major incident with potential loss of life,” Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Adam Johnson said.
The number of protesters far exceeded the 10,000 that the Palestine Action Group organisers had outlined in its notice of a public assembly document.
A police bid to have the march declared unauthorised was thrown out by the NSW Supreme Court on Saturday, leaving police and transport authorities scrambling to assure the safety of protesters and the public.
NSW Supreme Court judge Belinda Rigg ruled the protest could go ahead, saying the Palestine Action Group had “ensured that people’s safety was a priority” on previous protest days.
Justice Rigg said she accepted the evidence of PAG organiser Josh Lees that the timing of the march was “based on his view that ‘we are at a critical moment, on the issue of Palestinian rights not only due to the crisis in Gaza, itself, but also due to awareness of that crisis brought about by the horrific images published … recently’.”
“Mr Lees’ evidence indicates that the timing and the lodging of this proposed march and its location is directly responsive to the dramatic increase in the known suffering of Gazan citizens over the last weeks,” Justice Rigg said.
At the march, Mr Carr told The Australian the protest was a “major statement against the policies of Israel enforcing a genocidal starvation on a huge civilian population”.
“It’s a signal going right around the world to show that even in far-off Australia, ordinary people are horrified by the use of systematic starvation directed at civilian populations,” he said.
Protester Anwar Gourani said. “We are here because many years ago there was a Holocaust and everyone said ‘never again’ to the atrocities that happened back then and we’re seeing it now, live in 4K, high definition, and we’ve got to do something about it. And if we just sit at home, they’ll keep doing it, there will be deaths, and people are becoming immune to it because it’s been going on for two years.
“This is the least we can do, send a message, we’re using our voices, we’re protesting, it’s a very peaceful rally, it’s something that makes us feel good, we don’t feel helpless. We’re standing here, it’s raining, for three hours. That’s fine. In Gaza, they’ve got no food, no houses, they’re getting rained on … This is nothing compared to what they’re going through.”
“It’s never been done before, it’s a really massive feat that’s been achieved by the activist community,” his cousin Ibby Gourani said of Sydneysiders walking over the Harbour Bridge.
“Those heart-wrenching pictures of those starving children is enough to make any rational humane person sick and we’ve got to do something about what’s going on,” Michael Morrell said.
Making reference to his sign, which said “Never again really?”, Mr Morrell said: “They said it would never happen again, well guess what, the Zionist state is perpetrating exactly the same thing the Nazis were doing to the Jews in the Second World War.”
“It’s plain and simple why we’re here; we’re here to stop the mass starvation of innocent people, we’re here to protest against common-day genocide, we’re all human – we stand with humanity. Stop the genocide now, it’s simple,” Sarah Aminah said.
Many people at the rally wanted the government to recognise a Palestinian state. One woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, started crying as she described seeing images of Gazan children online, as her children stood by her side.
“We want this war to stop. Children want to play … I don’t want to see something like that. No life deserves to be taken away, and that’s what Israel is doing. Let them live. And let Palestine be recognised as a state.”
Additional reporting: Ryan Bourke, Rhiannon Down
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