NSW court to hear police bid to ban pro-Palestinian protests on October 7

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Pro-Palestinian rallies have been organised around the country this weekend as New South Wales police try to put a stop to Sydney’s demonstration.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, a three-hour hearing set down this afternoon in the New South Wales Supreme Court, where

00:07we'll hear from both New South Wales police and the protest organisers.

00:11The Palestine Action Group, as police try to get two events over Sunday and Monday shut

00:16down.

00:17That's the regular Sunday rally that's been happening in Sydney for some time, and a candlelight

00:21vigil that's been planned for Monday to mourn the loss of the tens of thousands of civilians

00:28in Gaza over the past year.

00:30Police have raised safety concerns about both of those events, but the protest organisers

00:35have disputed that.

00:37They say the attempts to shut down the protests are a threat to democracy in their view.

00:41They're vowing to go ahead with the events, regardless of what happens in court this afternoon.

00:46And as we've just heard from Minister Wong, similar sentiments that we've been hearing

00:51from politicians across the spectrum over the past few days, labelling the planned events

00:56disrespectful given the anniversary of that terror attack in Israel, which saw 1,200 people

01:02killed almost a year ago.

01:04Now, they're asking for protests to be cancelled around the country, really, but so far we're

01:10seeing protesters saying they're going to go ahead as planned.

01:14I don't think those protests should go ahead.

01:15I think the police are right to seek to deny them a permit to go ahead.

01:19I think it's incredibly reckless.

01:21I think the intent of the protesters has been made manifestly clear by their conduct last

01:25Sunday.

01:26I think it will only cause further social division and discord in Australia.

01:31And someone has been charged with displaying a terrorist symbol.

01:35Sorry, that was Liberal Senator Dave Sharma expressing those views yesterday.

01:40Certainly the focus is on New South Wales at the moment, though, as you say, still investigations

01:45going into the rallies that were held last weekend, where a small number of people at

01:50rallies in Sydney and in Melbourne were seen waving the flags of the terrorist group Hezbollah.

01:57There were calls for police to investigate.

01:59Police made a public appeal for information in New South Wales yesterday, which saw a

02:0319-year-old woman hand herself into police.

02:07She's now been charged with displaying the symbol of a terrorist organisation and is

02:12due to face court.

02:14Organisers from rallies in Sydney and Melbourne have asked people not to bring those flags.

02:20They say they are distracting from the cause, but of course, all these issues are causing

02:25a lot of anger in local Jewish community groups who say Monday certainly should be a time

02:30to mourn the loss of life a year ago.

02:34And Nicholas, as you've pointed out, these protests are planned not just for Sydney and

02:38New South Wales, but right around the country.

02:40What's planned for this weekend in Melbourne?

02:43Yes, similar to what's happening in Sydney, here at the State Library, we've seen a year

02:49of protests on the Sunday.

02:51They're regular protests, largely peaceful.

02:54Organisers from the Free Palestine Melbourne group say they will be going ahead, still

02:57calling for that permanent ceasefire and pushing for Australia to do more in its calls for

03:02de-escalation.

03:03They say they're not planning any events for the Monday, but a separate protest group is

03:07planning a vigil and a silent procession to Parliament House.

03:11Premier Jacinta Allen here in Victoria has also called for those protests to be cancelled,

03:18but she's stopped short of promising any changes to the protest laws in the state.

03:22We don't have the permit system that happens in New South Wales, so police don't have the

03:26same avenue to try and block protests from happening.

03:29The Victorian government says that is the right balance between free speech and community

03:34safety, but it's certainly a live issue ahead of what's planned this weekend and early next

03:38week.

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