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. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Nick Dobrijevich from the Peoples Dispatch (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Hundreds of thousands rallied on Sunday, August 3, calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people marking one of the largest political mobilizations in Sydney for decades. Organized by the Palestine Action Group (PAG), organizers estimated that 300,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge – one of the most recognizable landmarks in Australia.

video of the march

The State Premier of New South Wales (NSW), Chris Minns, publicly opposed the action earlier this week saying it would, “allow Sydney to descend into chaos”. The NSW police also attempted to shut the protest down by challenging organizers in the Supreme Court. NSW has one of the harshest restrictions on the right to protest introduced under recent anti-protest laws.

Starting in Lang Park in Sydney’s CBD, the rally was addressed by Palestinian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah and refugee rights advocate, Craig Foster. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was also in attendance.

Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the rally, “they [the government] parroted Israel’s propaganda. They demonized anyone who stood up and spoke out…Now because of your pressure, because of you protesting week in, week out, they are moving inch by inch. We cannot stop now.”

Jewish writer and journalist Antony Loewenstein said, “we are the majority, not the people who support what is happening in Palestine today. The only way this will stop is isolation for Israel. There is only one way: sanctions, boycotts and divestment.”

Growing opposition to Israel

Since October 7, 2023, there have been weekly rallies in Sydney and across Australia. Yet Sunday saw broadener sections of the population mobilize in support of Palestine. Historic numbers of community groups, trade unions and political organizations endorsed the action while a number of NSW politicians – including from the Minns government – backed the historic “March for Humanity”.

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In the lead-up to Sunday’s action, images of Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinians in Gaza featured regularly on Australian mainstream media. The government’s staunch and ongoing backing of the Israeli regime further pushed a groundswell of support for Palestine.

Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong made minor criticisms of Israel and followed other imperialist countries in backing a future Palestinian state. Finance Minister Jim Chalmers was widely quoted saying, “from an Australian point of view, recognition of the state of Palestine is a matter of when, not if.”

This came after minor sanctions on far-right extremist politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in June. However, the Australian state has so far failed to adopt any of the movement’s demands including an end to all military ties with Israel, immediate sanctions, an end to weapons manufacturing – particularly deals with Elbit Systems and production of parts for F-35 fighter jets – and the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador.

Pushing forward

In recent decades, Australia has seen large mobilizations in support of progressive causes at home and against imperialism abroad. Some of these campaigns have forced the government to capitulate to the demands of the movement.

The 1960s and 1970s Moratorium Movement, for example, forced an Australian military withdrawal from Vietnam while the movement for East Timor’s independence forced the Australian state to abandon its decades-long backing of the Indonesian military government in the 1990s. Large rallies against the US invasion of Iraq and Australian involvement in that, however, did not succeed.

It remains unclear whether the Australian state can be pushed to abandon its unequivocal support of Israel’s genocidal war and force Wong and Albanese to adopt concrete action instead of empty slogans. Sunday’s rally is a clear indication of the broadening opposition to Israel’s genocide among broader sections of the Australian population This growing momentum could force further political changes.

Nick Dobrijevich is an Asia Pacific solidarity activist, translator and researcher based in Sydney, Australia.

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