Pro-Palestinian rallies have been organised around the country this weekend as New South Wales police try to put a stop to Sydney’s demonstration.
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00:00Yeah, a three-hour hearing set down this afternoon in the New South Wales Supreme Court, where
00:07we'll hear from both New South Wales police and the protest organisers.
00:11The Palestine Action Group, as police try to get two events over Sunday and Monday shut
00:16down.
00:17That's the regular Sunday rally that's been happening in Sydney for some time, and a candlelight
00:21vigil that's been planned for Monday to mourn the loss of the tens of thousands of civilians
00:28in Gaza over the past year.
00:30Police have raised safety concerns about both of those events, but the protest organisers
00:35have disputed that.
00:37They say the attempts to shut down the protests are a threat to democracy in their view.
00:41They're vowing to go ahead with the events, regardless of what happens in court this afternoon.
00:46And as we've just heard from Minister Wong, similar sentiments that we've been hearing
00:51from politicians across the spectrum over the past few days, labelling the planned events
00:56disrespectful given the anniversary of that terror attack in Israel, which saw 1,200 people
01:02killed almost a year ago.
01:04Now, they're asking for protests to be cancelled around the country, really, but so far we're
01:10seeing protesters saying they're going to go ahead as planned.
01:14I don't think those protests should go ahead.
01:15I think the police are right to seek to deny them a permit to go ahead.
01:19I think it's incredibly reckless.
01:21I think the intent of the protesters has been made manifestly clear by their conduct last
01:25Sunday.
01:26I think it will only cause further social division and discord in Australia.
01:31And someone has been charged with displaying a terrorist symbol.
01:35Sorry, that was Liberal Senator Dave Sharma expressing those views yesterday.
01:40Certainly the focus is on New South Wales at the moment, though, as you say, still investigations
01:45going into the rallies that were held last weekend, where a small number of people at
01:50rallies in Sydney and in Melbourne were seen waving the flags of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
01:57There were calls for police to investigate.
01:59Police made a public appeal for information in New South Wales yesterday, which saw a
02:0319-year-old woman hand herself into police.
02:07She's now been charged with displaying the symbol of a terrorist organisation and is
02:12due to face court.
02:14Organisers from rallies in Sydney and Melbourne have asked people not to bring those flags.
02:20They say they are distracting from the cause, but of course, all these issues are causing
02:25a lot of anger in local Jewish community groups who say Monday certainly should be a time
02:30to mourn the loss of life a year ago.
02:34And Nicholas, as you've pointed out, these protests are planned not just for Sydney and
02:38New South Wales, but right around the country.
02:40What's planned for this weekend in Melbourne?
02:43Yes, similar to what's happening in Sydney, here at the State Library, we've seen a year
02:49of protests on the Sunday.
02:51They're regular protests, largely peaceful.
02:54Organisers from the Free Palestine Melbourne group say they will be going ahead, still
02:57calling for that permanent ceasefire and pushing for Australia to do more in its calls for
03:02de-escalation.
03:03They say they're not planning any events for the Monday, but a separate protest group is
03:07planning a vigil and a silent procession to Parliament House.
03:11Premier Jacinta Allen here in Victoria has also called for those protests to be cancelled,
03:18but she's stopped short of promising any changes to the protest laws in the state.
03:22We don't have the permit system that happens in New South Wales, so police don't have the
03:26same avenue to try and block protests from happening.
03:29The Victorian government says that is the right balance between free speech and community
03:34safety, but it's certainly a live issue ahead of what's planned this weekend and early next
03:38week.