Pro-Palestine March closes the Port of Sydney Port Pont

A demonstration planned through the Port of Sydney bridge continued after being authorized by the Supreme Court one day before, in what the organizers called a “historic” decision.

Thousands of people proved to be for walking for humanity on Sunday despite the torrential rain.

The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, was spotted among the demonstrators, with other notable participants, notably the Federal MP Ed Husic and the former Prime Minister of the NSW Bob Carr.

The Sydney Harbor bridge was closed for the last time for a public assembly in 2023, when some 50,000 people walked on the emblematic roadway for world pride.

Two hours after the start of the walk, the participants received an SMS from the NSW police who said: “In consultation with the organizers, the walk must stop due to public security and wait for other instructions”.

They asked everyone on the bridge to stop walking north and turning to the city in a “controlled” manner.

The police have not yet provided an estimate of the figures attending the march.

The transport of South Wales has told motorists to avoid the city, warning major delays and disturbances through the road network and public transport in Sydney due to the event.

The activist organization based in Sydney, Palestine Action Group, filed a notice of intent for the march through the Sydney Harbor bridge last Sunday, in response to what it called “atrocity” in Gaza.

The police rejected the request on the grounds that there was not enough time to prepare a traffic management plan and warned against a potential boost and other security problems.

In a statement the next day, the Prime Minister of the NSW, Chris Minns, said that they could not allow Sydney to “go down in chaos” and could not support a protest of “this scale and nature” on deck.

Police also requested the Supreme Court of South Wales for a ban on the event, which was refused only 24 hours before the demonstration of the demonstration.

According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation Corporation, judge Belinda Rigg said that the security problems concerning walking were “well founded”, but the organizer of March Josh Lees of the Palestine Action Group had “convinced” convincingly the reasons why he thought there was an emergency for an answer to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

She said that there was no evidence that a ban would improve public security and ordered the closure of the Port de Sydney bridge to vehicles, in addition to the roads surrounding the proposed route.

The authorization of last hour hours means that participants will be protected under the summary offenses law, which means that they will not be billed for offenses specifically linked to the public assembly, such as blocking traffic.

The Council of Jewish deputies of Southern New Wales said that they were “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision to authorize the demonstration on the bridge of the Port of Sydney, in a press release published on their Instagram.

Australia underwent increasing pressure to recognize the Palestinian state, after France, Canada and the United Kingdom all indicated separately that they would do it with conditions at the next United Nations General Assembly in September.

Speaking on ABC program 7.30, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he wanted to see conditions that reach sustainable security for Israel before Australia is committed to recognizing a Palestinian state and that he would not be pushed to the decision by other countries.