Pro-Palestinian advocates have vowed to push ahead with weekend protests amid an attempt to stop them and have hit back at criticism against the planned rallies, saying they are "not provocative".
Evidence will be filed on Thursday before a hearing in the NSW Supreme Court to decide on an application from the state's police force that on the anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 attack against southern Israel. Police say they should not proceed due to safety concerns.
About 1,200 people were killed in the attack, according to Israeli tallies, and about 250 people were taken hostage. Israel's subsequent bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry, and plunged it into a deep humanitarian crisis.
Protests have been held in Sydney and Melbourne every Sunday since broke out — but the federal government believes rallies on and around the one-year anniversary are inappropriate.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Thursday echoed earlier remarks from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who had said it was not a time for protest.
"October 7 was the greatest loss of Jewish lives in a single day since the Holocaust. It's a day of grieving and a day of remembrance and should be honoured as such, and I would hope that Australians would ensure that it can be honoured with respect and solemnity," Wong told reporters on Thursday.
"It is a solemn occasion. It's not an occasion for protest."
A rally and vigil are also planned in Melbourne on the same days, but unlike Sydney, a permit is not required to hold such events. Still, the Victorian government has said that organisers should "think twice" about holding rallies.
Josh Lees, a spokesperson for Palestine Action Group Sydney, told the ABC on Thursday the protest would proceed "regardless of what happens in the court" and said Monday's event would be a "small candlelight vigil".
"It's mainly about the chance for Palestinian and Lebanese people to come and grieve for the thousands of people who have died, and for their loved ones," Lees told ABC Radio National.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says 7 October is not a time for protest. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
On Wednesday, a 19-year-old woman was charged with publicly displaying a prohibited terrorist organisation's symbol at a rally in Sydney last Sunday.
Police said she had presented herself to officers on Wednesday after a public appeal and had been granted strict bail.
Lees said organisers would advise attendees against bringing Hezbollah flags because "they could be deemed illegal, and because we don't want people to face arrest of legal troubles".
"I personally would not fly that flag, I don't politically agree with Hezbollah, but we defend people’s right to hold pieces of cloth, yes, and I don't think that the way it's being talked about is at all reasonable in the media.
"As I said, there’s no discussion of banning the Israeli flag, whereas that is a state that’s actually carried out far greater acts of terrorism and is right now starting another war on Lebanon, the fourth invasion of Lebanon in Israel’s history."
Countries, including Syria, Türkiye and Lebanon, have accused Israel of state terrorism, while Pope Francis, after the killing by the Israeli military of two Christian women who had taken refuge in a church complex in December, suggested Israel was using "terrorism" tactics in Gaza.
In response to the Pope's comments, the military said: "The IDF only targets terrorists and terror infrastructure and does not target civilians, no matter their religion."
Pro-Palestinian rallies have been held in Melbourne and Sydney every Sunday for the past 51 weeks. Source: Getty, AFP / Saeed Khan
Israeli troops on Tuesday in what it claimed was a "limited, localised and targeted" operation.
Asked to respond to Albanese's remark that 7 October was "not a time for protest", the president of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, Nasser Mashni, rejected concerns the rally would be "provocative".
Mashni said protests over the past 51 weeks had been "absolutely peaceful".
"Millions of Australians have come out, it’s not provocative at all," he told ABC News Breakfast.
"What's provocative is the fact that our government isn’t listening to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of Australians, who have signed petitions, called their MPs, have done everything they’re supposed to do within this democratic framework to say 'enough.'
"If my neighbour was beating his dog, I can’t keep saying [something] — at some point, I'm compelled to jump the fence and grab his hand."
With reporting by the Australian Associated Press and Reuters.
