Tens of thousands of Australians joined pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, amid increasingly tense ties between Canberra and Jerusalem, with demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza and sanctions on Israel.
Recent weeks have seen strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state and the revocation of an entry visa for Israeli far-right MK Simcha Rothman.
More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “Free, free Palestine.”
Queensland senator Larissa Waters told the crowds in Brisbane that there were “so many people here calling for peace, calling for sanctions on Israel just like we have on Russia, and calling for an end to the two-way arms trade,” according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“I think after the Sydney march just a couple of weeks ago, which saw the government change position, I’m really hopeful that with the amazing turnout today across the country, the government will feel the pressure,” she said.
In Canberra, senator David Pocock told crowds that Australia could and must “be doing more,” ABC reported. “People care. People care deeply, and they want a government that’s actually going to listen and then act,” he said.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the umbrella group for Australia’s Jews, told Sky News television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”
The protests follow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, over the latter’s government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain and Canada.
The August 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas terrorist organization launched its deadly cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people in Israel and abducting 251.
Tensions deepened further last week after Rothman’s entry visa into Australia was revoked just before he was set to depart Israel to speak to Jewish communities in the Oceanic country.
In response, Israel revoked the visas of Australian diplomatic representatives to the Palestinian Authority, a move that was criticized by the Australian government.
Following Australia’s actions, Netanyahu launched a personal attack against Albanese last week, calling him a “weak politician who betrayed Israel” and “abandoned” Australian Jewry, in an English-language post on his official X account.