Pro-Palestine vigil to go ahead without police authorisation

A pro-Palestine candlelight vigil planned for the anniversary of October 7 will go ahead despite organisers agreeing in court on Thursday to not hold a march.

Protesters hold up pictures of dead Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the Hezbollah flag at a protest at Town Hall in Sydney Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

A pro-Palestine candlelight vigil planned for the anniversary of October 7 will go ahead despite organisers agreeing in court on Thursday to not hold a march.

NSW Police reached an 11th hour agreement with Palestine Action Group organisers to allow a Sunday rally to go ahead with a revised route, after seeking an urgent ruling on whether the planned protests on Sunday and Monday should be banned.

Such a ruling would not have prevented the protest from taking place, but would have seen them ruled “unauthorised”, meaning police would be legally permitted to arrest people found to be obstructing pedestrians or traffic.

Thousands are expected to attend Sunday’s rally which will now be moved from Town Hall to Hyde Park in agreement with the police. As part of a backroom deal made while a Supreme Court hearing was in progress, pro-Palestine rally organisers agreed not to march past Sydney’s busiest synagogue in the CBD, but will be allowed to take an alternate route through the city.

Protest organisers withdrew their request to hold a public assembly on Monday evening, as they later said they did not need police permission to gather at Town Hall in a static gathering.

If those gathering at Monday’s vigil later decide to march, it will be regarded as ‘unauthorised’ action, allowing police to use their full suite of powers in response.

The lawyers indicated at the start of the hearing that plans for Monday’s rally had been scrapped but that they would forge ahead with an argument over the terms of Sunday’s march.

Last week’s protest in the Sydney CBD. Picture: News Corp through the streets of Sydney CBD. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Almost three hours later, just as the proceedings were concluding, the legal teams announced an agreement had been reached allowing Sunday’s rally to proceed and the court case was subsequently dismissed.

Greens MP and justice spokesperson Sue Higginson labelled the decision a win for democracy and the right to peaceful protest.

The court heard the original route planned out by rally organisers on Sunday would have seen protesters march past The Great Synagogue on Elizabeth Street – home to Sydney’s Orthodox Jewish community since 1878.

Rally organiser Joshua Lee agreed to alter the route to avoid passing the synagogue.

Outside court, he confirmed the candlelight vigil would go ahead on Monday and that the “Form 1” to request a public assembly was withdrawn because they did not need it for a static gathering.

“All along we’ve said the main protest we’re building is the October 6 protest,” he said.

“The vigil on Monday was only ever intended to be a small candlelight vigil, we don’t need [authorisation] for that, that is going ahead as planned.”

Mr Lees said he was happy with the change of route of the Sunday protest.

“What happened today was the police and the government under political pressure tried to ban our protest,” he said

“We’ve resisted that all along saying we’ll be going ahead and today we got a very good outcome which is everything we wanted, which is a mass protest through the city from Hyde Park marching through town.”

Organiser Amal Nasser criticised comments made by Assistant Commissioner McKenna inside the court about police witnessing more aggression in the protests since the war spread to Lebanon claiming protesters were “rightfully mourning the loss of their family members and the invasion of their country.”

‘COULD BE A TINDERBOX’

The new proposal for the Sunday rally involves an estimated 5000 people gathering at Hyde Park before marching through the CBD and eventually returning to the park.

In seeking to block a CBD protest on Sunday, Assistant Police Commissioner Peter McKenna in his affidavit noted his observations of conduct at prior protests and risk of another occurring so close to October 7.

Assistant Commissioner McKenna said the new route still gave him “great concern” due to the proximity of Hyde Park to the Elizabeth Street synagogue.

“I think it would be quite provocative to gather that close to the Great synagogue … it would be very difficult for police to ensure public safety.

“It could be a tinderbox.”

NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Mr McKenna said he had noticed a considerable shift in the tone of the protests since the war in the Middle East spread to Lebanon.

“I’ve seen a number of significant risks since the uptake of the Lebanese community coming into the protest with the Palestinian Action Group,” he said.

He said police on the ground had “ felt a different undertone come into the group”.

“We have had it described to us by police on the ground as a more aggressive feeling and we are very disturbed by it,” he said

“Not least last weekend when they were carrying prohibited items.”

Mr McKenna said last Sunday when some protesters carried prohibited symbols officers had to use pepper spray after being surrounded by young men during the march.

“It was nothing something we have seen in previous groups,” he said.

“It won’t take much to put the community and police in a very precarious situation.

“It can be avoided.”

‘DIFFICULT TO CONTROL’

Palestinian Action Group organiser Josh Lees told the court that while he estimated 5000 people would attend Sunday’s rally, he could not be certain how many people would actually show up.

Pro-Palestinian protest organiser Josh Lees. Picture: Supplied

He said there had been a substantial increase in numbers last Sunday and expected the coming rally to be “one of the biggest protests in the last few recent months”.

“Towards the end of October (last year) we had some of our biggest protests,” he said.

“Police estimated between 10,000 to 15,000 I believe.”

Police counsel Mr Gyles said the amount of media attention over the protest this weekend could result in one of the largest turnouts which would be difficult to control.

When asked by Mr Gyles if it was difficult to de-escalate potential conflicts during protests, Mr Lees agreed.

Additionally Mr Lees said protest organisers could “not physically force” protesters to put away Hezbollah symbols but said organisers had asked people via social media not to bring such symbols.

“ Some people brought these things on Sunday and our martials asked them to put them away,” he said.

“We can’t physically force them to do that”

About 50 protesters gathered outside the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon ahead of hearing.

Earlier, protest organiser, the Palestinian Action Group said both a rally on Sunday and a candlelight vigil on Monday would go ahead regardless of the outcome in the courts on Thursday.

Premier Chris Minns on Thursday morning said should the protests be deemed unlawful by the courts, police would automatically given more powers to prevent a march in the CBD.

“It does give the police power to ensure a mobile protest does not take place through Sydney streets as it would be an unauthorised march,” he said.

People hold up pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a protest at Town Hall in Sydney on Sunday Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“That may be important in protecting critical infrastructure for the city or ensuring that we don’t have an unfortunate conflict on city streets.”

The Premier said police had a right to be concerned that the application for a small candlelight vigil could turn into a mass march as it did on October 9th last year, during a rally at the Opera House.

Premier Chris Minns said if the protests were deemed unlawful police would have special powers to prevent a march from going ahead. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“Twelve months ago on the streets of Sydney, a protest or a vigil that was meant to take place in Town Hall ended up all the way down at the Opera House on the front pages of newspapers all around the world,” he said.

Mr Minns said he had been in conversations with religious leaders and Lebanese community leaders on Wednesday, who had been informing their communities not to bring any prohibited symbols or flags to any protests over the weekend.

The Premier also confirmed he would be attending a vigil held by Sydney’s Jewish community on Monday in the city’s east.

In response to questions about whether his attendance at the event displayed a one-sided support for the Jewish community, Mr Minns disagreed saying many Muslim leaders had also condemned the October 7 attacks at the time.

“There were many Muslim leaders in NSW that issued a public condemnation of the terrorist activity on that day, were concerned about it and saw it as a crime,” he said.

“So some of them may expect me to be there.”

Palestinian Action Group spokesman Josh Lees said the group would fight the police application in the courts.

“We will be protesting on Sunday 6 October regardless of any court outcome as we have done for 51 weeks, in opposition to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the war on Lebanon,” he said.

“However, we are also confident we will win in court, as there is no basis to police’s opposition to our rally.”

Originally published as Pro-Palestine vigil to go ahead without police authorisation