Thousands of people joined Pro-Palestine rallies across Australia on the eve of the first anniversary of a terrorist attack in Israel, which sparked chaos in the Middle East.
Large crowds gathered at Sydney’s Hyde Park shortly after noon on Sunday before heading towards St James Road as similar scenes unfolded in Melbourne.
Sydney rally organiser, Amal Naser said the CDB march was the beginning of action to mark one year since the Oct. 7 attacks and Israel’s subsequent violence in Gaza.
“We stand here in, I think one, of the biggest rallies we have ever seen,” Naser told the crowd.
“It is not us who supports terror, it is our government.
“Every time we thought it couldn’t get worse, Israel showed us it could get worse—12 months in, there is no sign Israel will slow down.”
One man was arrested in Sydney after holding up an Israeli flag with a Nazi swastika in the position of its Star of David.
Demonstrators were warned not to display the flag, symbols or portraits of Hezbollah, which is a designated terrorist group in Australia, or “play out” the conflict in the Middle East through racial slurs or “threats to public safety.”
Some individuals were carrying flags with green and yellow, which are the colours of Hezbollah’s official ensign.
One man holding a green and yellow flag, which appeared to show a masked man holding a weapon, echoing the design of the Hezbollah flag, was quizzed by police.
In Melbourne, AAP observed a group of men in black waving green and yellow flags as thousands gathered outside the State Library in the CBD.
Last weekend, protesters in Sydney and Melbourne drew condemnation for waving the flag of Hezbollah at a similar march.
One protester AAP spoke to said some in the group had family links to Hezbollah, as it has seats in Lebanon’s parliament.
He said the colours symbolised resistance and they would have waved the flags even if the use of Hezbollah flags hadn’t been criticised during the week.
Men in the group were also seen waving a flag with an image of Iran’s current and former leaders.
Australian Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni told the Melbourne crowd Israel should be condemned for its offensive on Gaza, in the wake of Oct. 7.
“Will anyone speak of the dead children, dead women and dead men,” Mashni said as protesters prepared to march to Flinders St Station.
“It’s shameful that we’re being asked to be respectful when we’ve had 365 October 7s in this period.”
The crowd then marched down Swanston St towards Flinders Street Station, chanting phrases including “all Zionists are terrorists” while some waved solid yellow or green flags.
Victoria Police had a visible presence and quickly led a man away when a scuffle broke out.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the protests were “deeply regrettable.”
“The anniversary of Oct. 7 needs to be about Oct. 7 and what happened on that day,” he told the ABC.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said it was “deeply inappropriate” were being held the day before the anniversary.
Rallies were also held in Perth and Adelaide where hundreds came out in support of Gaza.
More than 1,200 people were killed during the Oct. 7 attack and 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas, according to the Israeli government.
In response, Israel unleashed a bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza, killing almost 42,000 people, displacing 1.9 million, and leaving another 500,000 with catastrophic levels of food insecurity, the Hamas-controlled local health ministry sources report.
