Sydney Pro-Palestine protest, vigil to proceed after police drop case

A pro-Palestine protest planned over the October long weekend will proceed after NSW Police and rally organisers reached an 11th-hour agreement to avoid the Great Synagogue in the CBD, despite a senior officer warning Sunday’s assembly could be a “tinderbox”.

Protest organisers also said a candlelight vigil scheduled for 6pm on Monday at Town Hall would go ahead, despite the objections of the NSW premier and senior police. October 7 marks one year since the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Pro-Palestinian protesters outside Supreme Court in Sydney.Credit: Edwina Pickles

The negotiated settlement came amid a Supreme Court hearing in Sydney on Thursday where police sought a prohibition order to prevent the October 6 and 7 assemblies from occurring.

But just 20 minutes before the 5pm deadline designated by Justice Jeremy Kirk, lawyers for both parties indicated negotiations, which had been running in the background of the hours-long hearing, had been successful.

While rally organisers made several concessions, including altering the proposed route to avoid the Great Synagogue on Elizabeth Street, police ultimately dropped their push to ban Sunday’s protest, which they said could attract up to 15,000 people.

The agreement came 48 hours after NSW Police decided to block the Palestinian Action Group’s protest application.

The decision was backed by Premier Chris Minns, who warned there was a “high prospect of conflict” on Sydney’s streets if the events proceeded.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has backed the call to block pro-Palestine protests from proceeding this weekend.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Speaking outside the Supreme Court, PAG spokespeople Josh Lees and Amal Naser described the result as a “very good outcome” in which they obtained “everything we wanted”. The candlelight vigil on October 7 would still proceed, Lees confirmed.

“We’ve resisted that all along so we’ll be going ahead, and today we’ve got a very good outcome, which is everything we wanted, which is a mass protest through the city, Hyde Park, marching through town on the sixth of October,” he said, adding the amended protest would now move along Pitt Street.

The push to ban the pro-Palestine rallies followed outrage over the use of flags bearing the symbol of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia political party and militant group designated in Australia as a terrorist organisation, at last weekend’s protests.

Demonstrators hold Hezbollah flags and pictures of the late Hassan Nasrallah at the rally in Sydney last Sunday. Credit: AFP

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna told the hearing police believed the protests had become more aggressively charged energy since hostilities between Israel and Lebanon intensified.

The potential size of the crowd combined with the proximity to the Great Synagogue, McKenna said, created the potential for “provocation” and would be “hard for police to ensure public safety”.

“It places people in positions that would only take one or two passersby to say the wrong thing and it would be a tinderbox, and something significant we would have to deal with,” McKenna said.

Earlier on Thursday, Minns said he would attend a vigil for the Jewish community to commemorate the anniversary on Monday, as he reiterated it was inappropriate for the demonstration to be held on October 7, saying “surely one of the other 364 days of the year would be more appropriate”.

He said seeking a ban on the pro-Palestinian vigil was due to “genuine police scepticism” about the nature and likely attendance of the event.

“I think it’s reasonable in the circumstances for police to be highly sceptical that that would be a candle-light vigil in the middle of the CBD for 200 people on a Monday evening,” Minns said.

“That would be disputed by the organisers and the Palestinian Action Group, but I believe a reasonable person would suggest that’s unlikely to happen, that you would have thousands of people.”

The pro-Palestinian rallies received support from Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who called for police to drop their opposition to the assemblies.

“The City of Sydney Council has repeatedly expressed support for the right of peaceful assembly, and called for an end to pre-emptive and heavy-handed policing of protests,” Moore wrote on Instagram.

With Riley Walter and Frances Howe

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.