Key Points
- Thousands of people have attended pro-Palestinian rallies across the country on Friday and Sunday.
- Despite a large presence at a Sydney rally on Sunday, NSW Police said the demonstration concluded without incident.
- Over a million Palestinians in Gaza have been warned to evacuate, ahead of an expected ground offensive from Israel.
Protesters held signs calling for an end to the Gaza blockade and a ceasefire.
Victoria Police estimated more than 10,000 people attended a rally in Melbourne on Sunday. Source: SBS News / Phillippa Carisbrooke
“(Israel’s actions) are the very definition of collective punishment,” Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the Sydney rally.
“I’m not Palestinian, I’m not Arab, I’m just a human being,” she told the Australian Associated Press.
Gaza authorities say more than 2,300 Palestinians have been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded.
They did not enact extraordinary powers that would permit them to search any person or vehicle and disperse groups without reasonable grounds.
The Sydney rally had a strong police presence, with more than 1,000 officers deployed across the city. Source: AAP / Steven Saphore
In Melbourne, protesters holding Palestine flags and signs converged outside the State Library of Victoria and surrounding streets for a rally. Victoria Police said there were no “major incidents of note” or arrests.
Some members of the crowd became involved in a push-and-shove with police outside the town hall before the rally moved along Swanston Street and finished at Parliament house.
Protesters gathered outside the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. Source: SBS News / Phillippa Carisbrooke
In Adelaide, protesters gathered on the steps of the Parliament of South Australia.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said the demonstrations were disappointing, noting that the rallies took place “just days after the deadliest slaughter of Jews for 80 years”.
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