Organisers vow to push ahead with planned pro-Palestine rallies and vigils around the anniversary of the Hamas terror attack on Israel, despite widespread condemnation and a pending court ruling.
Evidence will be filed on Thursday before a hearing in the NSW Supreme Court to decide on a police push to declare scheduled rallies on Sunday and Monday should not go ahead.
A snap protest has been organised, with the Palestine Action Group Sydney calling on supporters to gather in the court precinct prior to the hearing.
“The application to ban demonstrations commemorating and mourning one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and now invasion of Lebanon is an attack on fundamental democratic rights,” the group said.
“We need to protest more than ever to stop this war and madness that is going on,” organiser Josh Lees told ABC Radio on Thursday.
“We’ll be going ahead with our protest on Sunday … regardless of what happens in the court.”
Similar events are planned in Melbourne and Adelaide.
Monday marks the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, during which about 1200 people were massacred and about 250 were taken hostage.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the date marked the greatest loss of Jewish lives in a single day since the Holocaust and was not a time for protest.
“It’s a day of grieving and a day of remembrance and should be honoured as such,” she told reporters.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the events represented a “celebration of death” and should be stopped.
Labor Friends of Palestine NSW member Louisa Romanous wrote to NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley on Wednesday urging her to intervene and “allow a peaceful rally and march to occur as planned”.
Weekly rallies had occurred peacefully throughout the year, including most recently following Israeli strikes in Lebanon despite a small number of flags for militant group Hezbollah being flown, Ms Romanous said.
“Notwithstanding the heightened emotions, at no time did the rally feel unsafe or violent,” she said.
Attempts to prohibit Sunday’s rally were “a profound attack on political expression and the right to protest”, Ms Romanous said.
Police cited safety concerns in a letter to organisers, including the crowd likely exceeding the predicted 2000 attendees and a potential safety hazard posed by the recent addition of a dozen planter boxes outside Sydney Town Hall.
Amnesty International Australia and the NSW Council for Civil Liberties were among 40 groups that urged police to back down, saying prohibiting the rallies was a serious departure from the state’s responsibility to uphold the democratic right of protest.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the majority of the Sydney pro-Palestine rallies had gone ahead without incident, but noted the first and most recent events involved serious breaches that could sow community discord.
Israel’s counter-attack in occupied Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, with the majority of its more than two million residents facing starvation.
Conflict has escalated in recent days with invasions into southern Lebanon and Iran firing missiles into Israel.
