Serial pro-Palestine rally organiser Josh Lees received Covid fines after campaigning to lock down NSW

Meet the man behind weekly pro-Palestine protests in Sydney for the past year. Socialist Josh Lees, from the Palestine Action Group also campaigned to lock down NSW during Covid, and was fined for breaking Covid rules.

• 5@5 BULLETIN: Serial protesters under government review

A protest firebrand who galvanises the pro-Palestinian rallies through Sydney’s CBD at a cost of $5.4 million to taxpayers this year is a serial activist who rallied against the government to lock down NSW during Covid, saying it chose “profits” over the safety of the working class.

Yet socialist Josh Lees, 41, a member of the Palestine Action Group, was slapped with two fines after he was found guilty of not complying with Covid rules in 2020.

Lees, who has lodged an application to NSW Police every seven days for 52 weeks to march through Sydney’s streets since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, has infuriated NSW premier Chris Minns who is reviewing the powers given to police to enable them to deny a request to protest if resources are scant.

Mr Minns said additional police resources at the CBD rallies has cost the tax payer more than $5.4 million this year in additional police resourcing.

Distinguishable by his man bun and often seen in a red Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, Lees, 41, from Newtown, in Sydney’s Inner West, has been a fervent activist for two decades, campaigning for LGBT rights, climate change, anti-racism and for Black Lives matter groups.

Protest firebrand who has galvanised weekly pro-Palestinian rallies through Sydney’s CBD at a cost to taxpayers of more than $5 million this year is a serial campaigner who has spearheaded demonstrations to lock NSW to zero cases during Covid 2021. Supplied

As spokesman for Lockdown to Zero Covid group, a socialist-run campaign to lock NSW to zero cases in 2021, the Sydney University graduate said allowing shops and workplaces to remain open was the “primary cause” of the virus spreading.

“It is a crucial fight for the lives of thousands of working class people and the poor in particular, against a right-wing, ruling class offensive aimed at supporting profits over our health,” he told Sydney Criminal Lawyers.

Serial activist Josh Lees, 41, was seen flicking the middle finger at a rally outside Thales Australia in Sydney, a subsidiary to French weapons manufacturer.

Lees has been active in the Refugee Action Coalition, which campaigns for the rights of refugees seeking asylum in Australia, and the Socialist Alternative, a fringe far left political party, whose newsletter Red Flag he has written for since 2004.

In October 2011 he was one of dozens of protesters arrested after camping overnight on Martin Place with “Occupy Sydney,” defined as “an assembly disaffected by the high-cost of living in Australia”.

That year he was charged for actual resist and hinder police officer in execution of duty – a charge later dismissed. He was also charged with fail to comply with terms of notice erected by council and a separate charge of assault office in execution of duty.

Both charges were also subsequently dismissed.

Josh Lees was active with the Lockdown to Zero Covid group, a socialist-run campaign to lock NSW to zero cases in 2021, and yet was slapped with fines for beaching Covid rules. Picture: Adam Yip

Two years later he protested at former prime minister John Howard’s speech when he said he had no regrets over Australia’s involvement in Iraq.

In his involvement with Iraq War Coalition, he accused former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher of pushing her successor Tony Blair, former US president George Bush and Howard of going to war in Iraq, in an interview with the Green Left publication.

More recently he clashed with RN breakfast host Patricia Karvelas over Palestine Action Group’s planned march on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks when she questioned the date for the vigil, telling her, “I wonder if you’re putting those same questions to those organising memorials for the Israeli victims?”

Palestine Action Group spokesman Josh Lees has been an activist for two decades campaigning for LGBT rights, climate change, anti-racism and for Black Lives matter groups. Picture: Jonathan Ng

In July he was seen flicking the middle finger at a rally outside Thales Australia in Sydney, a subsidiary to French weapons manufacturer, Thales.

Floating changes to protest permissions on Tuesday morning, Premier Minns said: “It’s my view that police should be able to be in a position to deny a request for a march due to stretched police resourcing”.

“I’m not talking about a union rally against the government over a wage deal, but when you’ve got someone putting in an application every seven days for 51 weeks to march through Sydney streets, this is costing millions of dollars, and I think taxpayers should be in a position to say we would prefer that money spent on roadside breath testing, domestic violence investigations, knife crimes, rather than the huge resources that’s going into the city and the community,” he said.

Josh Lees, a member of the Palestine Action Group, is pictured outside PM AnthonyAlbanese's office. Picture: Supplied

“It cost at least $5 million in 2024 in additional shifts. Ultimately, this is a huge drain on the public purse,” Mr Minns said.

Mr Lees said he supports the Palestine Action Group because “every human being, when they see a genocide, should oppose it — our movement is a movement for everyone,” he said.

“I believe he (Mr Minns) called me a serial protester. I’d rather be a serial protester than a serial killer, and right now we have Chris Minns backing the serial killer Benjamin Netanyahu, who has killed over 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

“We wish Minns was as concerned with stopping this genocide as he was with stopping people protesting against genocide and war,” he said.

He added: “But this isn’t about me, and any attempt to make it so is just another desperate distraction from the war crimes Israel is carrying out, with our government’s support.

“We are a mass movement and we will keep protesting to stop this genocide, and to stop Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.”

Josh Lees and Amal Naser address the media in Hyde Park in Sydney. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Originally published as Serial pro-Palestine rally organiser Josh Lees received Covid fines after campaigning to lock down NSW