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Organisers and opponents of a pro-Palestinan rally in Sydney will have to wait overnight to find out if the NSW Supreme Court will allow the event to go ahead this weekend.
The Palestine Action Group has planned a march this Sunday, which will see thousands walk from Sydney’s Hyde Park to the Sydney Opera House forecourt.
Police have said the Opera House forecourt, which is mostly surrounded by water, is ill-equipped to handle the number of demonstrators organisers expect.
The court adjourned on Wednesday afternoon after a lengthy hearing and expert evidence from NSW Police and a Sydney Opera House executive.
Organisers originally estimated 10,000 people would attend the event, later adjusting that number to 40,000.
The NSW Supreme Court elevated the matter to the state’s appeal court for the hearing.
Palestine Action Group has been organising weekly rallies for two years since Israel’s military assault on Gaza began in 2023.
NSW has a permit system that allows protest participants to block public roads and infrastructure unless a court denies permission after a police challenge.
Premier Chris Minns is backing police, noting wild scenes outside the waterside venue in October 2023, when an Israeli flag was set alight and some protesters mouthed antisemitic chants.
Minns is urging the organisers of Sunday’s rally to choose another part of Sydney.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin described the rally as a gathering that would call for “the destruction of Israel”.
“And to incite yet more hatred against our community. And they will do so once again at a national landmark at great public expense,” he said on Tuesday.
“They will shred what little harmony remains in the society.”
Ryvchin said the past two years, since 7 October 2023, had seen “criminals posed as activists” and a “national blindness” which has allowed hatred to rise in the country.
“While we will never forget nor forgive what Hamas did on this day two years ago, and what it continues to do, we live in hope that the hostages will soon be free, that the anguish of the families will soon end, and they can all begin to heal.”
Palestine Action Group dismissed police concerns over public safety last week.
“The extraordinary measures police propose are racist, Islamophobic, and a deliberate attempt to intimidate our movement against genocide into silence,” it said in a statement.
“International human rights law guarantees the right to protest, the right to free expression, and the right to political assembly.
“The attempt to restrict our rally violates these rights and sets a dangerous precedent for all movements for justice.”
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
