Denied permission to march, thousands still gathered in central Sydney to protest the visit of Israel’s president. The demonstration revealed both the scale of public anger and the state’s increasingly fraught response to dissent.

Unlike the pro-Palestine march across Sydney Harbour Bridge in August 2025, which was permitted by the Supreme Court, the same court refused demonstrators’ application to gather at Sydney Town Hall and march to the Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park – the site of many pro-Palestine events in the past. Instead, thousands gathered in the space between the Town Hall and the Cathedral, with more overflowing into George Street.

A win for the Minns’ government and his newly-appointed Police Chief Mal Lanyon, encouraging panicky reporting by the conservative media. They deployed 500 police, some on horseback. As in August, rain was expected.

But by 5.30 pm the sun had been out for hours and the crowd between the Town Hall and the Anglican Cathedral outnumbered police by about 50:1.

I saw no disturbance of the peace, and no arrests. Police, if alert, were not alarmed. The mood was convivial, Palestinian flags were waving, and the crowd who had rallied every........

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