Despite worst fears and weather, this was the day Sydney took a stand for humanity

3 months ago 22

Despite the worst fears of NSW Police and Premier Chris Minns, Sunday’s pro-Palestine protest on the Harbour Bridge will be remembered as the day Sydney turned out en masse to plead for humanity. Protesting against a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza has entered the mainstream.

There is no other way to explain the reported 90,000 people who braved horrendous wet weather to walk – or, for a large part, stand – to demand an end to a worsening famine in the occupied territory.

No one should suggest that the city had turned its back on our Jewish community. Rather, many ordinary Sydneysiders felt strongly enough about the crisis in Gaza that they saw it necessary to join the masses and cross the city’s most iconic landmark.

Undoubtedly, there would have been bad-faith actors who joined the massive crowd. Equally, the Palestine Action Group, led by serial protester Josh Lees, cannot take all the credit for luring tens of thousands of people into the city, although it could not have happened without them.

But the weekly PAG protests through the CBD, which Minns has previously said were a “huge drain on the public purse” and that police should have the power to shut down, morphed into a show of mass solidarity against the deteriorating disaster in Gaza.

Minns did (and will continue to) maintain that despite his earlier comments, which have been viewed by some of his own Labor MPs as anti-protest, he was worried only about the safety of the thousands of people who would descend on the city.

He stressed, belatedly, that he was not against people protesting. But he was against shutting down the “central artery” of Sydney. He stamped his foot and said it could not happen, the police echoing his protestations.

The NSW Police Commissioner asked the Supreme Court for a prohibition order to block PAG’s application to protest on the bridge. At that stage, 10,000 people were expected to turn up. The police were unsuccessful.

In her judgment, Justice Belinda Rigg said arguments that the protest would cause disruption were not enough to stop it. “It is in the nature of peaceful protests to cause disruption to others,” she said.

In the end, as police acknowledged, the protest did disrupt but it was peaceful and safe. The city’s transport system groaned under the crowds, but it held up. There was no crowd crush and there were no arrests.

The logistics put a huge strain on the police force. Some 1000 officers were deployed to make sure a feared crowd crush did not eventuate. But the police made no attempt to hide their catastrophising should Sydney consider another march.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Adam Johnson stressed he feared what could have happened, rather than what did. He said he had never seen a “more perilous situation” in his 35 years in the force. Meanwhile, Minns has been conspicuously quiet since the police followed his directions and tried to stop Sydney marching for humanity.