Court greenlights Gaza protest on Harbour Bridge

By Zac Nikolovski, Caitlin Maloney and Sarah Goff-Tunks

Up to 50,000 people are expected to march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge tomorrow in support of Palestine and to denounce the ‘ongoing starvation’ of the civilian population by Israel, after the Supreme Court this morning ruled in favour of the protest.

The decision came after the police attempted to block the rally by refusing to guarantee the safety of participants, and NSW Premier Chris Minns said he would allow it under no circumstances.

The ‘March for Humanity’, organised by the Palestine Action Group Sydney (PAG), will demand an end to Israel’s occupation of Gaza and support Australian and international boycotts, spokesman Josh Lees said.

Over 500 people tuned in to watch Justice Belinda Rigg hand down her judgement on Saturday morning, in which she declined to make a prohibition order over the march.

NSW police sought a prohibition order for the march which would not ban the event but would remove the legal protections that are afforded to protesters such as protection from offences including obstructing roads and traffic. 

“Lees’ evidence established that PAG will work with police to facilitate a safe and peaceful event for the proposed march on Sunday,” said Justice Rigg.

“Acting Assistant Commissioner Johnson confirms that the Harbour Bridge will have to be closed for vehicles, for public safety, whether the event is authorised or not authorised.”

It will send a strong message to the international community that we, the people, care. We walk together to voice and show and display our despair, and also our hope that there is a different way.

This week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification revealed the proportion of households in Gaza experiencing extreme hunger has doubled from May to July 2025, saying “the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip”.

The World Health Organisation has also reported 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza in July, including 24 children under five.

PAG formally submitted a Form 1 to NSW Police last Sunday, notifying their intention to hold a protest expected to draw 10,000 people. Despite wet weather conditions forecast for Sunday, Lee has since said an estimated 50,000 people are now expected to turn out for the march.

The planned route begins at Lang Park in the CBD at 1pm and crosses the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the US Consulate in North Sydney. 

The bridge was chosen to maximise global visibility and underscore the protest’s moral urgency. In a statement on social media, PAG said:  “As Australia’s most iconic symbol, a mass march across the Harbour Bridge will send a powerful message, to the world, to Gaza, to Israel, and to our own government, that we are determined to stand up for humanity.”

 

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, a long-time environmental lawyer and human rights advocate, is among a number of prominent political figures backing the march. She told Central News marching across the Bridge carries both symbolic and political weight. 

“The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a global icon,” she said. “It’s a part of the built environment that is our social and political identity.”

Higginson said the power of the protest lies in the visibility of the site and the scale of the moment.

“Imagine, on the world stage, witnessing an event where tens of thousands of people come together and march on that bridge,” she said.

“It will send a strong message to the international community that we, the people, care,” she said. “We walk together to voice and show and display our despair, and also our hope that there is a different way.

“Because we know pressure works.”

Despite opposition from police and the NSW Government, support for the rally grew rapidly, with nearly 300 organisations, including Amnesty International, the Jewish Council of Australia and the Arab Council Australia, as well as 15 current or former NSW MPs, publicly backing the event. Of these MPs, 11 have confirmed they plan to attend.

In a statement, Labor Friends of Palestine NSW urged the NSW government to assist in safely facilitating the event or to agree to another date. 

“We do so to signal in strong terms our disapproval of the ongoing starvation of Palestinian people and the destruction of Gaza and our commitment to the right to protest against it.”

 

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) also backed the march citing their support for freedom of expression.

“MEAA supports the public’s right to peaceful protest, even when disruptive or inconvenient,” the MEAA said in a statement.

A petition urging Minns not to block the march gained significant traction, gathering more than 21,000 signatures in under a week. Launched by organisers on Megaphone, the petition called on the NSW Government to allow the protest to proceed safely and respect the public’s right to demonstrate. 

Lees addressed the media outside the NSW Supreme Court before proceedings began on Friday, where he said members of the public were likely to march despite the ruling.

“We know that our march over the Harbour Bridge will send the most powerful message that we possibly can to Israel to stop this genocide and to Gaza so they know that the whole world has not forgotten them,” said Lees.

What we’re seeing here, and the activity of the police taking these proceedings, is they have made the decision to not facilitate the safety and the orderly conduct of this march.

Earlier in the week, Minns said the disruption of the proposed march would create public safety concerns.

“I can’t close down the central artery for a city as big as Sydney,” Minns told the ABC on Tuesday.

The premier said that “common sense” needed to play a role in the decision to close the Harbour Bridge.

“When it’s been closed in the past, and you can count on one hand over the last decade when it’s happened, it’s been months and months and months in the preparation,” he said.

In 2023, the Bridge was closed in January to film a car-chase scene in the movie The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and again in March for World Pride, where more than 50,000 walked across to support LGBTQIA+ rights and equality.

Previously, the Harbour Bridge was closed for the Walk for Reconciliation in 2000, and in 2009 when it was covered in turf for the picnic event ‘Breakfast on the Bridge’.

The Bridge is also scheduled to close again on August 31 for the Sydney Marathon, which has been run across the Bridge every year since 2000, with the exception of 2020 when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Higginson said the Minns government’s stance on this weekend’s protest was part of a broader pattern.

“What we can see from the current New South Wales government is a consistent pattern of behaviour since they came to power two years ago,” she said. 

“We’ve seen the Minns Labor Government pass new tranches of anti-protest laws through the Parliament – including some rushed through late into the night.”

She added that the Premier had previously spoken “in very intolerant terms” about those protesting the war in Gaza. 

“He has made efforts to stop or suppress them – and those pro-Palestine rallies have been an incredibly important element of the community voicing rigorous opposition to what’s happening in Gaza.”

Higginson said some in positions of power, such as politicians, have attempted to justify the crisis in Gaza, calling them “the enemy of our humanity”.

She also criticised the NSW Police for pursuing legal action to block the demonstration, calling it a deeply concerning move in a democratic society. 

“It’s so disappointing that the police have commenced proceedings once again against the people of New South Wales, who merely seek to exercise their freedom, their political right to protest, to assemble and march together,” she said.

“What we’re seeing here, and the activity of the police taking these proceedings, is they have made the decision to not facilitate the safety and the orderly conduct of this march” she added.  

However, NSW police acting deputy commissioner Peter McKenna said that “months and months” of planning was required to organise the Bridge closure for the Sydney Marathon.

“It is very very significant to try and close that piece of infrastructure to the city… It would be a public safety risk that we cannot manage at this point in time,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday.

McKenna said the police have worked with PAG to facilitate over 100 protests, including negotiating alternative routes.

“I think we’ve given them a really fair go. We understand there is some angst at the moment about what’s happening overseas. We understand and are sympathetic to that. But the NSW police decision around this has to be first and foremost about public and police safety,” he said.

Last year, PAG successfully challenged a police attempt to block a protest that coincided with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel in the Supreme Court. 

Police had cited the presence of Hezbollah flags at the previous week’s protest as a risk for the October rally.

 

The court ruled that the protest could be held on October 6, and a vigil held on October 7. The route of the protest was altered to start at Hyde Park, away from the Great Synagogue on Elizabeth Street. The NSW government has since rushed through amendments to protest laws, giving police the power to shut down rallies and arrest protesters in the vicinity of places of worship.

In 2022, amendments to the Roads Act 1993 and the Crimes Act 1900 saw the the introduction of legalisation to prevent illegal protests on major roads, bridges, tunnels, public transport and infrastructure facilities with a maximum penalty of $22,000 and two years imprisonment. 

When the amendment was first announced, then acting premier and minister for police, Paul Toole said: “Illegal protesting has no place in our state and this new legislation demonstrates that we are committed to cracking down on this selfish, economic vandalism.”  

In 2023, climate change activist Violet Coco successfully appealed a 15-month jail sentence after blocking a singular lane of traffic for 25-minutes on the Harbour Bridge as part of a Fireproof Australia protest.

Higgins said people on Sunday will have the ongoing conflict and starvation in Gaza at the front of their minds.

“What we know is people right now are concerned most about our humanity, the starving and dying children in Gaza, the future of our humanity, and what people can do about that,” she said. 

Main image by Bernard Spragg.NZ/Flickr and Central News.