{"id":36760,"date":"2025-08-11T10:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=36760"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:54:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:54:55","slug":"australia-pro-palestine-demonstration-shuts-down-sydney-harbour-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=36760","title":{"rendered":"Australia: Pro-Palestine demonstration shuts down Sydney Harbour Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .<\/p>\n

An article by Nick Dobrijevich from the Peoples Dispatch<\/a> (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands rallied on Sunday, August 3, calling for an end to Israel\u2019s 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 \u2013 one of the most recognizable landmarks in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"\"video of the march<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

The State Premier of New South Wales (NSW), Chris Minns, publicly opposed the action earlier this week\u00a0saying it would, \u201callow Sydney to descend into chaos\u201d. The\u00a0NSW police\u00a0also 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\u00a0anti-protest laws.<\/p>\n

Starting in Lang Park in Sydney\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the rally, \u201cthey [the government] parroted Israel\u2019s propaganda. They demonized anyone who stood up and spoke out\u2026Now because of your pressure, because of you protesting week in, week out, they are moving inch by inch. We cannot stop now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jewish writer and journalist Antony Loewenstein said, \u201cwe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing opposition to Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 \u2013\u00a0including\u00a0from the Minns government \u2013 backed the historic \u201cMarch for Humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n

(continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nQuestion related to this article:<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n 
\n How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?<\/a> <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(continued from left column)<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to Sunday\u2019s action, images of Israel\u2019s deliberate starvation of Palestinians in Gaza\u00a0featured\u00a0regularly on Australian mainstream media. The government\u2019s staunch and ongoing backing of the Israeli regime further pushed a groundswell of support for Palestine.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong made\u00a0minor criticisms\u00a0of Israel and followed other imperialist countries in backing a future Palestinian state. Finance Minister Jim Chalmers was\u00a0widely quoted\u00a0saying, \u201cfrom an Australian point of view, recognition of the state of Palestine is a matter of when, not if.\u201d<\/p>\n

This came after minor\u00a0sanctions\u00a0on 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\u2019s demands including an end to all military ties with Israel, immediate sanctions, an end to weapons manufacturing \u2013 particularly deals with Elbit Systems and production of parts for F-35 fighter jets \u2013 and the expulsion of Israel\u2019s ambassador.<\/p>\n

Pushing forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The 1960s and 1970s Moratorium Movement, for example, forced an Australian military withdrawal from Vietnam while the movement for East Timor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether the Australian state can be pushed to abandon its unequivocal support of Israel\u2019s genocidal war and force Wong and Albanese to adopt concrete action instead of empty slogans. Sunday\u2019s rally is a clear indication of the broadening opposition to Israel\u2019s genocide among broader sections of the Australian population This growing momentum could force further political changes.<\/p>\n

Nick Dobrijevich\u00a0is an Asia Pacific solidarity activist, translator and researcher based in Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n

– – – – – –<\/p>\n

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. 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\u2019s genocidal war against the Palestinian people marking one of the largest political mobilizations in Sydney for decades. Organized by the … Continue reading Australia: Pro-Palestine demonstration shuts down Sydney Harbour Bridge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,74,14],"tags":[32,8],"class_list":["post-36760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-east-asia","category-mideast","category-tolerance","tag-east-asia","tag-mideast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}