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The NSW Supreme Court will not block a pro-Palestine march across the Harbour Bridge, paving the way for thousands to walk on the global landmark in protest over the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, including claims of mass starvation and the destruction of the city’s hospital system.
NSW Police Commissioner had sought a prohibition order in the Supreme Court against the Palestine Action Group’s planned march of up to 100,000 protesters on Sunday, arguing it was unprecedented in scale and posed a threat to public safety on one of the city’s major arteries.
A pro-Palestine protest at Hyde Park in Sydney in October 2024. Credit: Janie Barrett
“The application by the commissioner should be refused,” Justice Belinda Rigg said in her judgment on Saturday.
Justice Rigg said the inconvenience caused by the march to commuters across the Harbour Bridge was not a reason to refuse it on legal grounds.
“The fact that a protest could cause inconvenience is not enough to justify an order,” she said. “It is in the very nature of the right of peaceful protest that disruption will be caused to others.”
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Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees said the iconic bridge was critical to the planned march as it would send “an urgent and massive response” to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Justice Rigg said she accepted Lee’s argument about the timing of the protest being critical to its purpose.
The protesters planned to gather at Lang Park on Sunday afternoon, regardless of whether the court approved the march.
Palestine Action Group activist Rachel Evans said the group would not rule out marching on the bridge again after Sunday’s protest.
“The tide is turning,” Evans said after the court’s decision. “We need to push and push further. Once we’ve taken the Harbour Bridge, we might take it again.
“We want all ties with Israel broken.”
The court’s decision means protesters will now have the legal right to occupy the bridge and streets leading to it in the Sydney CBD on Sunday.
The decision follows a week of political upheaval for the state government after five Labor MPs defied Premier Chris Minns to sign a letter endorsing the march.
The letter called on the government to work with protest organisers to facilitate a safe march and detailed “in strong terms our disapproval of the ongoing starvation of the Palestinian people”.
Premier Chris Minns does not want the protest to go ahead.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Minns said on Friday that he recognised the outpouring of community anger over the humanitarian situation in Gaza after images of starving Palestinian children shocked the world.
“They want to be able to protest. I accept that,” he said. “The last thing we want, and the last thing police want, is chaos in Sydney streets.”
The bridge was closed in 2000 for 200,000 people to march for Indigenous reconciliation, and again in 2023 for WorldPride march for LGBT rights. It has also been closed repeatedly to film Hollywood and commercial productions.
The Israeli government has denied claims that there is starvation in Gaza after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused it of breaching international law by stopping food from being delivered into the 13-kilometre-wide strip, which has 2.1 million people squeezed into an area half the size of Canberra.
The World Health Organisation said there had been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza last month, including 24 children under the age of five – up from 11 deaths total the previous six months of the year.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims 82 people died last month of malnutrition-related causes, including 24 children and 58 adults, taking Gaza’s death toll from the war, which began in 2023 after Hamas militants killed more than 700 civilians in southern Israel, to more than 60,000.
Albanese has also called on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages taken as part of the attacks on October 7, as Jewish-Australian leaders raise fears the protests will fuel anti-semitism.
“I vehemently support the right of free protest, but like all rights, it’s not unlimited,” said Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. “Because [the protesters are] extremist by nature, they try to exploit every right to the extreme.”
An application for a counter-protest in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel by fringe pro-Israel group Never Again is Now was withdrawn on Friday morning.
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