Shortly before 2pm, the crowd stopped outside Flinders Street Station, where protesters chanted, “in our thousands, our millions, we are all Palestinians” and “Israel out of Palestine”.
The crowd marching stretched from the steps of Parliament, past Flinders Street Station and as far as Melbourne Town Hall. There were families with kids, people in wheelchairs, and schoolteachers marching under their school banners, along with dog-walkers with their labradors along for the walk.
There was a relaxed and almost festive feel to the rally, with the Riff Raff Radical marching band playing trumpets and another group strumming guitars and belting out John Farnham’s You’re The Voice.
Sunday’s demonstration is the 97th consecutive Pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne and part of numerous rallies being held across the country supporting Palestine and Gaza, as part of a national day of action to protest Israel’s attacks on the beleaguered enclave.
Protests are also taking place in Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, as well as in regional cities, including Warrnambool and Geelong.
The City of Melbourne voted this week to advocate to the state and federal governments to limit any disturbance caused by the weekly pro-Palestine rallies in Melbourne, but that did not deter Greens councillor Dr Olivia Ball from joining the march walking alongside former councillor Jamal Hakim.
Ball said the council’s position was outrageous and the right to protest should be protected. “It’s a very positive, very peaceful, very heartfelt movement that is expressing their views on the streets of Melbourne, and that’s our human right,” she said. “It’s anathema to the right to protest for any government to suggest they can dictate when and where people may protest.” Ball said it would be near impossible to dictate to the thousands of people who attended today’s rally that they had to protest in a certain place or way. “It doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
In Geelong, the Nationwide March for Palestine began at 11am as protesters gathered at Corio Rowing Club for a march “from the river to the sea”, starting at the Barwon River and ending at Corio Bay.
The regional city’s speaker line-up for the march includes Torres Strait Island woman Julie Saylor Briggs, Lebanese Iraqi activist and social worker Noor Al-Assafi, Gunditjmara, Waddawurrung and Arrernte man Jordan Edwards, and Christian Palestinian-Australian and human rights worker Nicole Azzam.
Footage by Free Palestine Geelong posted on social media shows a crowd of several hundred people gathering at the boat sheds while setting up for the march.
“Geelong, we are marching from the Barwon River to Eastern Beach Sea to protest IsraHELL’s ongoing genocide and brutal occupation in Palestine and Australia’s continued participation in this through weapons contracts, inaction and empty words,” organisers posted. “We march for the martyrs. We march for those being intentionally starved. We march for justice, for liberation, and for truth.”
Protesters were asked to bring flags, keffiyehs and signs. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” Free Palestine Geelong posted.
The national protests also included a march in Brisbane’s CBD after a court order found that a proposal for demonstrators to cross the Story Bridge was unsafe.
Queensland’s chief magistrate ruled that the protest posed a significant risk to public safety. Organisers then vowed to take a different route after the court blocked the Story Bridge plan.
The court ruling failed to deter crowds, which stretched back several blocks from Queens Gardens on Sunday before moving over the Victoria Bridge. Federal Greens leader Larissa Waters addressed the protesters, along with ousted Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather and representatives from unions, and community and faith leaders.
The protests come days after the world’s peak hunger monitor warned that almost a quarter of the Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing famine, and the number of those suffering is likely to surpass 600,000 within weeks.
Protesters gathering for the march in Sydney.Credit: Getty Images
The formal warning on Friday from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system, which is backed by the United Nations and major aid groups, came as Australia steps up criticism of the Israeli government in a rebuke over its plans for a controversial settlement in the West Bank.
The organisation said 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – were experiencing famine. It predicted the figure would rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the famine was a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself”.
The famine warning came the day after Australia joined a global statement accusing Israel of violating international law with a major plan to divide Palestinian territories east of Jerusalem, amid Israeli claims it will “erase” the prospect of a Palestinian state.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong signed up to a statement from 20 nations to condemn the plan to build thousands of Israeli homes in the so-called E1 project in the West Bank, after it gained formal approval from authorities.
Sunday’s nationwide demonstrations come weeks after at least 90,000 pro-Palestine protesters walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, bringing the city to a standstill following a Supreme Court ruling to allow the rally to take place on the Australian landmark.
More to come.
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