SYDNEY: Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday, closing the world-famous landmark.
Assange, who returned to Australia last year after his release from a high-security British prison, was pictured surrounded by family and marching alongside former Australian foreign minister and New South Wales premier Bob Carr.
France, Britain and Canada have in recent weeks voiced, in some cases qualified, intentions to diplomatically recognise a Palestinian state as international concern and criticism have grown over malnutrition in Gaza.
Australia has called for an end to the war in Gaza but has so far stopped short of a decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
But in a joint statement with more than a dozen other nations on Tuesday it expressed the “willingness or the positive consideration… to recognise the state of Palestine as an essential step towards the two-state solution”.
The pro-Palestinian crowd braved heavy winds and rain to march across the bridge, chanting “ceasefire now” and “free Palestine”.
New South Wales police said it had deployed hundreds of extra staff across Sydney for the march.
Mehreen Faruqi, the New South Wales senator for the left-wing Greens party, told the crowd gathered at central Sydney’s Lang Park that the march would “make history”.
She called for the “harshest sanctions on Israel”, accusing its forces of “massacring” Gazans, and criticised New South Wales premier Chris Minns for saying the protest should not go ahead.
Dozens of marchers held up banners listing the names of thousands of Palestinian children killed since the Gaza war broke out after an October 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Labor backbench MP Ed Husic attended the march and called for his ruling party, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to recognise a Palestinian state.
Assange did not address the crowd or talk to the media.
New South Wales police said up to 90,000 people had attended, far more than expected. The protest organiser, Palestine Action Group Sydney, said in a Facebook post as many as 300,000 people may have marched.
Israel is under mounting international pressure to end the bloodshed that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The Harbour Bridge is over a kilometre long and was opened in 1932.
Since then its twin parabolic arcs have become world famous, a symbol of both Sydney and of Australia.
Meanwhile, mass protests took place in cities and capitals around the world, as thousands of demonstrators denounced the ongoing Israeli assault and starvation war on the Gaza Strip and expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Rallies were held in Paris, France; Oslo, Norway; Manchester, United Kingdom; Berlin, Stuttgart, Bremen, and Wolfsburg, Germany; Milan, Italy; Aarhus and Copenhagen, Denmark; and Helsingborg and Stockholm, Sweden, drawing large crowds demanding an immediate ceasefire and the urgent entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and held signs condemning the atrocities committed by Israeli forces, particularly those targeting civilians and children. Calls echoed across the demonstrations for an end to double standards in international responses and for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes and acts of genocide.
Chants and speeches throughout the protests emphasized the need for justice, human rights, and international intervention to stop the mass suffering in Gaza.
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians protested in the occupied West Bank’s major cities against the war in Gaza and in support of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
One of the largest marches took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority located just north of Jerusalem, with hundreds gathering at the main square, waving Palestinian flags.
Many protesters carried photos of Palestinians killed or imprisoned by Israel, as well as photos depicting the hunger crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where UN-backed experts have warned that a “famine is unfolding”. “My son is in (Israel’s) Megido prison and he suffers from many things, such as the lack of medicine, the lack of food,” Rula Ghanem, a Palestinian academic and writer who took part in the march, told AFP. She told AFP that her son had lost 10 kilograms and suffered from scabies in jail.
The number of Palestinians jailed by Israel skyrocketed after the start of the war in Gaza, some for violent acts, but some also for posting political statements on social media, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees´ Affairs says.
The commission´s spokesman Thaer Shriteh told AFP: “The international community is a partner in all this suffering, as long as it does not intervene quickly to save the Palestinian people and save the prisoners inside the prisons and detention centre.” A group of protesters dressed as skeletons and carried dolls around to symbolise the Gaza war’s dire effect on children, who are most at risk of malnutrition.
Protests were held Sunday in other major Palestinian cities such as Nablus in the north and Hebron in the south, with many government employees receiving a day off to attend the demonstrations.
While there have been somewhat regular demonstrations against the war in Gaza, they are rarely coordinated across various cities in the West Bank.