Brisbane, Australia
–
When Australia wants to host a show, it turns into a broader spread of Sydney Harbour, home to the Opera House, and an iconic bridge that connects the city with its northern suburbs.
Therefore, when organizers of the usual small pro-Palestinian protests held every two weeks since Israel’s 2023 invasion of Gaza, detected changes in community attitudes towards shattering conflicts at home and abroad, they chose the bridge to make a global statement.
“We thought the bold, somewhat bold idea of marching through the Sydney Harbour Bridge would capture the imagination of those who are terrified of what we are seeing,” said Josh Lees, the organizer of the protest.
The group was encouraged by artists who issued a pro-Palestinian statement in Glastonbury, the Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who was supported by some of the city’s Jews, despite criticism of Israel.
“We felt that in Australia too,” Lee said. “A real increase in fear and anger” has been translated into a pledge of support from members of Congress representing “a much broader part of society” than previously engaged in group protests.
Last Sunday, at least 90,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbor Bridge Bridge, which holds umbrellas, signs and flags bound by cold winds and heavy rain, according to police estimates. The organizers brought the numbers closer to 300,000. So many people were encouraging elements of the hurry-organized event – pregnant just seven days ago – suggesting that Australians want their government to act, Lee said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday that she was not surprised by the size of her turnout.
“We expected to see a march of this scale of the Australians with what is unfolding in Gaza, the devastating humanitarian situation, the deaths of women and children, withholding assistance,” she told ABC Radio National.
“They reflect the wider Australian community’s fear of what’s going on in the Middle East and their desire for peace and ceasefire, which is what the government wants.”
Pressure is growing to join other US allies, the UK, France and Canada, when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s labor government pledges formal recognition of the Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
Albanese and the senior minister have laid the foundation for public announcements in recent weeks, saying that the question is “not when” is a question.
Wong said consultations with the international community are being held on Tuesday ahead of UNGA as she emphasized the urgency of the situation.
“There is a risk that Palestine remains to recognize whether the international community is not moving to create a path to a solution for the two states,” she said.
The US is now increasingly alone from many of its closest western allies on the issue of recognizing the Palestinian state, denounces the UK, France and Canada’s moves. Awareness by Australia is added to its isolation.
The request for recognition of the Palestinian state was not on the list of four requests submitted by the Palestinian Action Group by Sunday March.
“What we marched on Sunday and we have been protesting for two years is not a perception of the nonexistent Palestinian state that Israel is wiping away,” Leeds said. “What we are asking for is for the Australian government to sanction Israel and stop the two-way arms trade with Israel,” the group also called for permission to aid Gaza, an immediate ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal.
The Australian government says it has not supplied weapons or ammunition to Israel during the latest Gaza War and at least the last five years. However, Australian companies are part of the supply chain that provides parts for the F-35, the type of fighter jet used by Israel to bomb Gaza.
“The Australian industry provides components and components, but the Australian government does not have a direct bilateral arrangement with the Israeli government in relation to the F-35 program,” a spokesperson for the Department of Defense said. The F-35 supply chain is centrally coordinated by Lockheed Martin and the US government, the spokesman added.
“When they go to the US, Australia has no control over them,” said Ian Palmeter, a research scholar in Arab and Islamic studies and a Middle Eastern expert in Canberra. “The Australian government can deny export permits for these components, but contributing to the production of the F-35 will almost certainly be covered elsewhere without any issues.”
So far, Australia has approved two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben Gwyr and Bezarel Smotrich, for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in June in a joint move with Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the UK. Previously, individuals were authorized for their involvement in violence by settlers in the West Bank.
But whatever Australia does accordingly, it won’t be close enough for Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to put pressure on the conflict to end.
“Frankly, it’s Trump (US President Donald) who is using Netanyahu,” said Kenneth Ross, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and visiting professor at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. “Only he could coordinate the sale of arms and military aid at the end of the mass atrocities committed in Gaza,” Ross told public broadcaster ABC on Tuesday.
Palmeter said Trump is ready to oppose Netanyahu, but “it’s very difficult to say if he is ready to hold back in Netanyahu, stop the war in Gaza and let as much aid flow as necessary to go to a ceasefire.”
They may be thousands of miles apart, but the conflict in Gaza has been deeply felt by members of the Australian Muslim and Jewish community.
Reports of both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have skyrocketed in Australia since October 2023, according to the offices of two separate envoys appointed to address the issue.
Last month, anti-Semitic envoy Gillian Segal presented a drastic plan to combat what she described as a “wave of hatred.” It included educational campaigns, police, immigration reforms, and penalties for public institutions, especially universities that failed to act.
At the time, the government said it would consider the recommendations as critics pointed out their potential threat to a country that values freedom of speech.
The scale of Sunday’s march was taken into consideration by a victory over attempts to silence criticism of Israel. A few days before the event, New South Wales police tried to stop the march at the Supreme Court on public safety after similar opposition from state authorities.
The bid failed when the judge decided that in a balanced way the prosocial nature of the event and the organizer’s experience meant that banning it would not ban it as thousands would still appear.
Police warnings for the crowd crash were not a coincidence, but there were so many people on the bridge that at one stage the officers issued text messages and orders from the helicopter speakers, ordering the protesters to stop and return to the city.
The recognition of the event ranged from an exhibition of soul-restoring public compassion to misguided attempts to withstand complex discussions with a cast of Hamas sympathizers.
“Obviously, we don’t support Hamas politically,” said Leeds, a Palestinian action group.
Australian media reflects opposing views on very different homepage treatments. The Western Australian headline, alongside the image of a woman in a headscarf, read, “Bloody Confusion: Baby Dolls smeared with fake blood and Baby Dolls where the Australian flag was burned when wild protests became our norm.”
On the same day, the Sydney Morning Herald, owned by rival media groups, ran the image of a crowd on the bridge with the headline “Sydney says “Sufficient””.
The march was noticed by Israel and urged Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to “wake up.”
“The distorted alliance between the radical left and fundamentalist Islam sadly drags the West towards the bystanders of history,” he wrote X in the image of a protester holding a photograph of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a statement, the Iranian Community Alliance in Australia also pointed out photographs and other images of the march, asking whether participants were “part of a movement seeking peace or amplifying the power to inadvertently expand it.”
Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of Australia’s Jewish Executive Council, said in a letter to an Australian newspaper that none of the protesters called for the release of Israeli hostages.
The day before the march, images of two weakened Israeli hostages were released by the group.
“If people want to see Israeli hostages return, they should also be fighting to end this genocide and get Israel out of Gaza,” Leeds said.
After the march, the Australian government supported Gaza in the Australian dollar ($13 million) totaling $130 million ($84 million) since October 2023, but was unable to grant any other requests.
Leeds says the group is planning a nationwide event on August 24th, hoping to build on momentum.
“I think keeping this like an immeasurable demonstration on Sunday helped us to see the trends changing for people all over the world.
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