At least 100,000 pro-Palestine marchers, including Julian Assange, the former foreign minister Bob Carr and the government MP Ed Husic, have marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in the rain to protest against Israel’s conduct in Gaza and to speak out about the children starving there.
The world-famous landmark was closed to traffic at 11.30am on Sunday, with protesters gathering in Lang Park in the city centre before enduring heavy rain as they walked across the bridge.
The march began at 1pm, with demonstrators eventually stretching the entire length of the 1.2km Harbour Bridge.
“It’s even bigger than my wildest dreams,” one of the main protest organisers, Josh Lees, told Guardian Australia while at the front of the march. “It’s a mass march for humanity to stop a genocide, our politicians have to now listen to the will of the people and sanction Israel.”
The march was supposed to end at the US consulate. But about 3pm NSW police sent out a mass text message to phones throughout the city ordering the pro-Palestine march to stop due to safety concerns, with authorities turning protesters around at the north end.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
“Message from NSW Police: In consultation with the organisers, the march needs to stop due to public safety and await further instructions,” the message read.
A police helicopter hovered overhead with a loudspeaker delivering instructions for the hordes of protesters to turn around and walk back towards the city.
Police sent a second mass text message saying they had consulted with the organisers and were turning everyone around.
Crowd estimates varied. NSW police said initial estimates put the crowd at 90,000. A spokesperson for rally organisers the Palestine Action Group said police had informed them 100,000 people were in attendance – but the spokesperson estimated the figure was closer to 300,000.
The NSW police acting deputy commissioner Peter McKenna told reporters that the protest was the largest he and an assistant police commissioner had seen in their time in the force in Sydney.
“Gee whiz, I wouldn’t like to try and do this every Sunday at that short notice,” he said. “At points today, we were really concerned about a crowd crush.”
The acting assistant commissioner Adam Johnson said: “I can honestly say in my 35 years of policing, that was a perilous situation. I’ve never seen a more perilous situation.”
‘It’s time for a fundamental change’
At the front of the march were a number of high-profile Australians holding a sign that read “March for Humanity Save Gaza”.
Among them was Assange. It was one of the WikiLeaks founder’s few public appearances since he arrived home in Australia after a decade-long extradition battle.
He was photographed alongside Carr, the former NSW premier and federal foreign affairs minister who last week told Guardian Australia the federal government should sanction the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and move quickly to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Carr said it would send “a message that we are turned inside out with disgust by what appears the deliberate starvation” of Gaza.
Federal Labor MPs also joined the march, including former minister Husic, the member for Cunningham, Alison Byrne, and Senator Tony Sheldon.
“People power has come out, I think, largely because they just cannot abide the treatment that has been seen of little kids,” Husic told Guardian Australia after he reiterated calls for the Albanese government to sanction Israel and recognise Palestinian statehood.
Also at the front were five NSW Labor MPs who announced before the march that they would defy their premier, Chris Minns, and attend: Stephen Lawrence, Anthony D’Adam, Lynda Voltz, Cameron Murphy and Sarah Kaine.
More NSW Labor MPs were spotted in the crowd, including two of Minns’ ministers, Penny Sharpe and Jihad Dib, and MPs Bob Nanva and Peter Primrose.
Lawrence told Guardian Australia that it was time for the world, and Australia, to act.
“It’s time for Australia to sanction Israel,” he said. “The people have spoken today. They want more action from the Australian government to stop the genocide in Palestine.”
Asked about the premier not commenting since the supreme court on Saturday authorised the march, Lawrence said: “It’s time for a fundamental change of position in the Labor party on the right to protest – and our approach to this question of Palestinian protests.”
It had been touch and go whether the protest would, lawfully, be able to go ahead. Protest in Australia is not in itself unlawful, with the constitution holding the implied right to freedom of communication.
But the protesters applied to police for legal protections and support, facilitating what they estimated to be a protest attended by 10,000 people. Minns said, during the week, that he would not support the protest, warning it would cause “chaos”.
A march across the bridge would have fallen foul of a law against “obstruction” of major roads. Protesters could have faced a maximum two years in prison or a $22,000 fine for blocking the major road under draconian anti-protest laws passed in the state in 2022.
The police rejected the application and then challenged the protesters in the supreme court. Just over 24 hours before the protest was due to start, the court sided with the protesters.
‘It was never about traffic’
Before the march, the Indigenous actor Meyne Wyatt and the former Socceroo and Australian of the Year Craig Foster spoke to the crowd alongside the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi.
Faruqi, who has been an outspoken critic of the federal government’s perceived inaction on Gaza, commended protesters for “defying Chris Minns” after the NSW premier said: “We cannot allow Sydney to descend into chaos.”
“Thank you for defying Chris Minns,” she said.
“This is a man who wants you to stay home and be silent in the face of a genocide.
“It was never about logistics. It was never about traffic. It was never about communications or anything else. It was always about stopping us and silencing us. It was always about protecting Israel and the Labor government from accountability.”
Protesters turned out carrying pots and pans – to highlight the starvation in Gaza – while many carried Palestinian flags and signage along with their wet weather gear and umbrellas.
People of all ages were in the crowd, including children who came along with their families wearing ponchos and keffiyehs.
One protester, a British man called Dan, held a sign reading “Gay Jews 4 Gaza”.
“I grew up in a north London Jewish community, and I think there’s a widespread Zionism that exists within the Jewish community that is difficult to separate from religion,” he said, adding: “I think it’s important for people within the community to stand up and raise their voice against the state of Israel because they’re not representative of the Jewish community as a whole.”
Guardian Australia also spoke to Philomena McGoldrick, a registered nurse and midwife, who has spent stints working in Gaza and described her heartbreak at images circulating of starving children.
“Innocent babies have no colour, no religion, no language. In this day and age … it’s heartbreaking. But it’s nice to meet people standing on the right side. The tide has changed.”
In Melbourne, pro-Palestinian protesters who had planned to shut down King Street Bridge in solidarity with the Sydney protest, appeared to have been blocked from crossing the bridge.
Video shared on social media by the protest organisers showed police in riot gear and shields blocking the bridge with trucks.
Victoria police were approached to confirm the bridge had been shut down; a spokesperson said a statement would be released at the end of the day.
In Sydney, Transport for NSW urged people to avoid non-essential travel around the central business district and northern parts of the city.
