‘Monumental’: 90,000 halt city with march across Harbour Bridge

At least 90,000 pro-Palestine protesters walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and into history through the pelting rain, as a larger crowd than expected used the landmark as a symbol, bringing the city to a standstill and leading police to sound the alarm of a potential crowd crush.

In the face of the sheer size of the protest against the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, which organisers say drew between 200,000 and 300,000 people, police were forced to ditch plans for the march to end at North Sydney and redirected the crowd.

About 2pm, it was decided that large numbers of protesters be directed to turn back to the CBD to catch trains, while others were encouraged to keep walking northwards to North Sydney. By 3pm, protesters were told to halt and wait for police to direct them off the bridge in stages as scores of protesters were still at Wynyard waiting to begin the march. The bridge reopened for traffic at 5pm.

Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees said the march was “even bigger than we dreamt of” after people travelled from across the country to attend. He called the event a “monumental and historic” success.

Lees’ estimate of between 200,000 and 300,000 protesters was considerably higher than police estimates.

“Today was just a huge display of democracy,” he said. There were “no plans” for another demonstration over the landmark, he said.

NSW Police acting deputy commissioner Peter McKenna said the march came “very close” to a “catastrophic situation” and that officers had been forced to make a snap decision to turn tens of thousands around to avoid a crowd crush as people exited for North Sydney.

“We had to scramble. We had to make snap decisions. We had to really think about how we could get people safely out of that confined space and back into the city safely, because it came very close to us having almost a catastrophic situation,” he said.

McKenna said part of the problem was that the organisers’ application to march stated 10,000 people were likely to attend, not the 90,000 people the police estimated turned up.

He said any future march should be organised with much more time than the seven days provided by the organisers ahead of Sunday’s protest. The plan to stage the event dominated NSW politics last week, and the decision to allow the protest to proceed came down to a Supreme Court ruling on Saturday morning.

PAG spokeswoman Amal Naser said efforts by Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police to stop the event from going ahead fuelled the huge turnout by members of the public.

“The reason why that number quadrupled was because the police and the premier issued a co-ordinated campaign to attack the right to protest, and people took the emergency to come out today. [Minns and NSW Police] gave us more publicity than we could have ever asked for,” she said.

McKenna would not specify how much time police required before allowing another march across the bridge of a similar size. About 1000 police were deployed, including mounted police and police helicopters.

The last major march across the bridge was 25 years ago, when 250,000 people marched in support of reconciliation.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Sunday night committed a further $20 million to the humanitarian response in Gaza, taking Australia’s total contribution to about $130 million.

The latest funding, which will support humanitarian organisations to provide food and medical supplies, is delivered in co-ordination with Britain.

“Australia has consistently been part of the international call on Israel to allow a full and immediate resumption of aid to Gaza, in line with the binding orders of the International Court of Justice. The suffering and starvation of civilians in Gaza must end,” Wong said.

“Australia will continue to work with the international community to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages and a two-state solution – the only path to enduring peace and security for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.”

After the march began at Lang Park near Wynyard station, the bridge’s road lanes were turned into a sea of umbrellas, signs and chanting protesters opposed to the Israeli government’s military action in Gaza. The throng of people spanned more than two kilometres.

Protesters chanted, “Netanyahu/Albanese you can’t hide. Stop supporting genocide” and protesters carried signs calling for a ceasefire and the end to the starvation of children.

Behind a large banner, protesters at the front included WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, former NSW premier Bob Carr, former federal government minister Ed Husic, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and human rights activist, former Socceroo Craig Foster.

Carr said the march had attracted “ordinary people” because of outrage over the “policies of starvation”.

“There are a lot of very ordinary people here who wouldn’t have been to a demonstration even any time in their lives, and they’re outraged by policies of starvation enforced by the IDF,” he said.

Despite Minns’ opposition to the march, many Labor figures braved the rain, including state MPs Jihad Dib, Anthony D’Adam, Cameron Murphy and Lynda Voltz, and federal politicians Tony Sheldon and Alison Byrnes.

Husic said Minns couldn’t ignore the public sentiment towards the conflict in Gaza. “I think we had a turning point in the mind of middle Australia. They just don’t want kids to be killed,” he said.

Federal Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi and the party’s state MP Sue Higginson were also in attendance. Higginson said the march was a “remarkable moment in our history”.

Minns had opposed the protest, saying it would be “disruptive” and would cause “real public safety concerns”.

There were fears the march would not go ahead, but in an urgent decision on Saturday, the Supreme Court rejected an application by NSW Police for a prohibition order over the protest.

The order would not have banned the event, but it would have exposed protesters to potential criminal liability for blocking or obstructing traffic and pedestrians.

Justice Belinda Rigg’s decision meant protesters had a limited range of immunities from criminal sanction.

Rigg said the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech ultimately outweighed any inconvenience caused by the protest. She rejected a police submission that the court would be “condoning violent scenes, traffic gridlocks, ambulances not getting to where they need to go, and other undesirable consequences”.

Rigg said police still had “extensive powers”. NSW Police said ahead of the event they would be targeting unlawful and anti-social behaviour.

Liberal MP and shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser, a Jewish Australian, said his concerns went beyond traffic disruption as he issued a statement condemning the Sydney protest.

“The Harbour Bridge is more than just a road. It’s a symbol of unity for our city and our nation and should not be turned into a stage for protests that seek to divide us,” he said.

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