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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is pursuing a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after 90,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge calling for an end to the war in Gaza and as pressure builds within Labor ranks for recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Assistant Minister for Immigration Matt Thistlethwaite confirmed on Monday the call was being pursued, as Labor politicians backed the peaceful protest organised by the Palestine Action Group with at least three members of the federal caucus in attendance.
At least 90,000 people attended Sydney’s pro-Palestine march on Sunday.Credit: Dean Sewell
Backbenchers Ed Husic, Alison Byrnes and Tony Sheldon marched with protesters on Sunday, putting further pressure on Albanese to recognise Palestine.
Thistlethwaite condemned any forms of antisemitism or pro-Iran sentiments at the protest, telling Sky News people holding images of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was wrong.
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“A phone call [with Netanyahu] is being pursued. I don’t believe that people should have been displaying photos of the Ayatollah Khamenei. I think that’s provocative,” he said.
“Nonetheless, Australians have the right to protest and, as long as you do it peacefully and in accordance with the law, which is what occurred on the weekend, then every Australian has the right to protest.”
The government has repeatedly said that recognition of a Palestinian state is a matter of timing. Allies in France, Canada and the United Kingdom have all laid the groundwork to recognise the state at the next United Nations General Assembly in September.
Husic told ABC Radio National he hoped the government would immediately recognise a Palestinian state, arguing the protest sent a signal to Albanese that people want further action.
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“I think Australian politics has underestimated how strongly Australians feel about this issue … I think this is a moment, a sort of wake-up call for Australian politics,” he said.
“There was a lot of middle Australia there, and I think that’s something that can’t be ignored.”
Husic marched alongside Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, journalist Antoinette Lattouf, former Labor foreign minister and state premier Bob Carr, and Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi at the front of Sydney’s protest.
About 25,000 protesters marched at a concurrent protest through the Melbourne CBD.
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The chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, said the Palestine Action Group was extreme because it organised a protest immediately after October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered about 1200 Israelis.
“The fact that these people have now held yesterday’s rally and brought maybe tens of thousands of unwitting people with them who think they’re there for a cause of peace when truly they’re not, they’re being manipulated ... that’s what’s disappointing,” Ryvchin told Sky News on Monday.
Social Services minister Tanya Plibersek praised the behaviour of protesters and sympathised with their frustration.
“I think Australians do want to send a message that there has been too much death, too many people have lost their lives,” she told the Seven Network’s Sunrise program.
“We want to see the hostages return, we want to see humanitarian access to Gaza, we particularly don’t want to see children starving to death as a result of this conflict.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police attempted to block the Sunday protest, but on Saturday morning the Supreme Court ruled it could go ahead. The federal Coalition also argued against the protest going ahead.
NSW Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said on Monday it was inappropriate to close down a piece of critical infrastructure in Sydney for a protest.
“I have concerns, as did the NSW Police, in relation to the safety of that protest, and they were concerned about calamitous outcomes there, and it’s a good thing that that did not occur,” Kovacic told Sky News.
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