{"id":115129,"date":"2025-08-03T08:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T08:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115129\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T08:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T08:23:11","slug":"julian-assange-joins-pro-palestine-march-across-sydney-harbour-bridge-before-police-stop-rally-citing-safety-fears-sydney-harbour-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115129\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Assange joins pro-Palestine march across Sydney Harbour Bridge before police stop rally citing safety fears | Sydney Harbour Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine marchers, including Julian Assange, Bob Carr and Ed Husic, have marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge<\/a> in the rain to protest against Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza and to speak out about the children starving there.<\/p>\n

The world-famous landmark was closed to traffic at 11.30am on Sunday, with protesters gathering in Lang Park in the city centre in chilly weather before walking north to Bradfield Park across the bridge.<\/p>\n

The bridge filled with protesters. Photograph: Saeed Khan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

About 3pm, NSW police sent out a mass text message to phones throughout the city ordering the pro-Palestine march to stop due to safety concerns, with authorities turning protesters around at the north end.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMessage from NSW Police: In consultation with the organisers, the march needs to stop due to public safety and await further instructions,\u201d the message read.<\/p>\n

A police helicopter hovered overhead with instructions for the hordes of protesters to turn around and walk back towards the city.<\/p>\n

Police stop demonstrators from marching the entire way across the bridge. Photograph: David Gray\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A second text message read: \u201cAfter consultation with the protest organisers, we are asking that everyone stops walking north. As soon as the march has stopped, we will look at turning everyone around back towards the city BUT it needs to be done in a controlled way in stages to keep everyone safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowd estimates varied. A spokesperson for rally organiser Palestine Action Group said police had informed them 100,000 people were in attendance \u2013 but the spokesperson estimated the figure was closer to 300,000.<\/p>\n

The protesters from above. Photograph: Matthew Abbott\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Earlier, the Indigenous actor Meyne Wyatt and the former Socceroo and Australian of the Year Craig Foster were among tens of thousands of people marching in the wet weather, while the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi spoke passionately before the walk began.<\/p>\n

Faruqi, who has been an outspoken critic of the federal government\u2019s action in relation to Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza, commended protesters for \u201cdefying Chris Minns\u201d after the New South Wales<\/a> premier said: \u201cWe cannot allow Sydney to descend into chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for defying Chris Minns<\/a>,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a man who wants you to stay home and be silent in the face of a genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never about logistics. It was never about traffic. It was never about communications or anything else. It was always about stopping us and silencing us. It was always about protecting Israel and the Labor government from accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police had rejected an application from organisers for them to facilitate the march, arguing there was not enough time to prepare a traffic management plan and warned of a potential crowd crush and huge disruptions.<\/p>\n

But on Saturday the NSW supreme court ruled the march could go ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Sunday protesters turned out carrying pots and pans \u2013 to highlight the starvation in Gaza \u2013 while many carried Palestinian flags and signage along with their wet weather gear and umbrellas.<\/p>\n

One protester that Guardian Australia spoke to, a British man called Dan, held a sign reading \u201cGay Jews 4 Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of the many signs carried by people protesting in Sydney on Sunday. Photograph: Caitlin Cassidy\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a north London Jewish community, and I think there\u2019s a widespread Zionism that exists within the Jewish community that is difficult to separate from religion,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI think it\u2019s important for people within the community to stand up and raise their voice against the state of Israel because they\u2019re not representative of the Jewish community as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia also spoke to Philomena McGoldrick, a registered nurse and midwife, who has spent stints working in Gaza and described her heartbreak at images circulating of starving children.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnocent babies have no colour, no religion, no language. In this day and age \u2026 it\u2019s heartbreaking \u2026 But it\u2019s nice to meet people standing on the right side. The tide has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WikiLeaks founder was also spotted in the crowd, one of few public appearances since Assange arrived home in Australia after a decade-long extradition battle.<\/p>\n

Julian Assange and Bob Carr at the rally. Photograph: David Gray\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

He was photographed alongside Carr, the former NSW premier and federal foreign affairs minister who last week told Guardian Australia the federal government should sanction the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and move quickly to recognise Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n

Carr said it would send \u201ca message that we are turned inside out with disgust by what appears the deliberate starvation\u201d of Gaza.<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s call was echoed by Husic, a federal Labor MP and former cabinet minister, who joined the rally to march across the bridge alongside the five state Labor MPs who defied Minns.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople power has come out, I think, largely because they just cannot abide the treatment that has been seen of little kids,\u201d Husic told Guardian Australia after the march.<\/p>\n

He reiterated calls for the Albanese government to sanction Israel and join the UK, Canada, and France in recognising Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n

Labor\u2019s Stephen Lawrence, Anthony D\u2019Adam, Lynda Voltz, Cameron Murphy and Sarah Kaine were among 15 NSW politicians who signed an open letter on Thursday evening calling on the government to facilitate \u201ca safe and orderly event\u201d on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters in Melbourne\u2019s city centre, who had planned to shut down King Street Bridge in solidarity with the Sydney protest, appeared to have been blocked from crossing the bridge.<\/p>\n

Video shared on social media by the protest organisers showed police in riot gear and shields blocking the bridge with trucks.<\/p>\n

Victoria police were approached to confirm the bridge had been shut down; a spokesperson said a statement would be released at the end of the day.<\/p>\n

In Sydney<\/a>, Transport for NSW urged people to avoid non-essential travel around the central business district and northern parts of the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine marchers, including Julian Assange, Bob Carr and Ed Husic, have marched across Sydney…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-115129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114963874507983760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}