Participants in Sunday’s march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge say they numbered up to 300,000, far more than the 90,000 cited by police.
Officers on Sunday afternoon twice asked the pro-Palestine protestors to stop the procession owing to what they said were safety issues.
A local Northern Rivers group in support of Palestine had at least ten representatives marching in the rain after organisers received official court permission on Friday.
Northern Rivers Friends of Palestine member Chels Hood Withey said members were disappointed the federal government hadn’t responded to calls for sanctions against Israel’s government and a ceasefire.
The government was instead increasing aid funding ‘that isn’t reaching Gaza due to Israel’s blockade,’ Chels Hood Withey said.
Formerly detained Wikileaks founder Julian Assange also attended.
Police cite fear of crowd crush owing to huge numbers
Protestors were already well into the march and the bridge was full when police issued a request for the procession to stop in order to avoid a crowd crush at the bridge’s northern end.
Protestors were asked to turn around and walk back south toward Wynyard with police citing a risk of injury owing to huge crowd numbers.
Officers said they also wanted to avoid overwhelming Sydney’s public transport system.
The bridge was reopened around five o’clock in the afternoon.
Police later said they would normally require months of preparation to plan for the logistics of such a large crowd but that protesters were peaceful.
The comments came after the NSW Police Force’s failed court application against the march.
Earlier last week, organisers had said they expected around 10,000 to attend before increasing the figure to 50,000.
Meanwhile, NSW Premier Chris Minns spent much of last week telling the media he didn’t approve of the planned protest’s inclusion of the bridge march owing to its disruption of Sydney’s traffic flow and business as usual.
His visit to the Northern Rivers included surprise heckling at a community forum in the Tweed shire from some of the same locals to have attended the weekend’s march, including former Independent Byron Shire Councillor Cate Coorey.
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