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 week for years now had a new target of dissent. Israel’s President Herzog had visited Bondi in the morning to comfort Jewish families bereaved in the 14 December shooting attack.

Accompanied by drum rolls, the crowd chorused “Arrest Herzog!” Posters declared ‘No war criminals here’, and ‘Good people don’t sign bombs’. Speakers recalled Herzog’s statement in September that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. People chanted “River to the sea, Herzog to the ICC”. Another placard addressed the President directly: ‘Evil Man Go Home!’

Turning from the President to Prime Minister Netanyahu, one protester declared him “Wanted for war crimes”, and another poster showed him with a Hitler moustache over the caption ‘War criminal’.

The usual chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” has now morphed into “Globalise the Intifada”, a statement which the Minns Government and the Jewish Board of Deputies want to ban. Variations at the Sydney rally included ‘Globalise the Enchilada’ and ‘Too late, it’s already globalised’. Refining the meaning of Intifada, another poster urged ‘Globalise the shaking off’.

Speakers against genocide on the Town Hall steps found vocal support from the crowd, where posters included ‘Genocide is never acceptable’, ‘It’s not radical to oppose genocide’, and ‘Nurses and midwives against genocide’. Another placard compared 70,000 dead Palestinians in Gaza to 800 IDF killed there. A lone picture of aid worker Zoni Frankom reminded fellow Australians of her death at the hands of the Israeli military.

Jews Against War Crimes asserted their right to protest, and the Jewish Council of Australia gathered close to 1000 Jewish signatures for a full page statement in the Sydney Morning Herald on 8 February. Their views were echoed from the side entrance to the Town Hall by Antony Loewenstein.

Demonstrators turned to Australia with a prominent poster urging ‘Clean Australian media’, showing the logos of all the mainstream organisations in a garbage bin. Another showed Albanese, Wong, and Minns with bloodied hands. Speakers accused Australian leaders of supporting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians through providing weapons components and intelligence to Israel.

Several white dove models were held aloft, and it seemed peace prevailed. Sydney and Hobart led 30 demonstrations in Australian towns and cities. They cannot be ignored, either by governments or by Herzog.

Only after I left were 30 arrests reported, and pictures appeared of people being wrestled to the ground by police. Palestine Action Group spokesperson Josh Lees, who had been prominent in organising the Sydney Bridge march, told the crowd that there would be more mass rallies following the anti-Herzog event.

We now know that the arrests were made before most of us arrived, when police surrounded Muslims at prayer, and other protesters seeking to march. Police horses and pepper spray were used, according to Joe Lauria of Consortium News, who photographed the scene. And even as Herzog was at the nearby Convention Centre telling members of Jewish associations to resist the sudden (inexplicable!) rise of antisemitism in Australia since October 2023, news broke that he or his namesake is listed among Jeffrey Epstein's friends.

It’s not Australia that has changed since Herzog’s father, a former president of Israel, visited in 1986, as Isaac Herzog claimed last night. It’s the behaviour of Israel. Our government will have a hard time explaining why Herzog, Israel’s head of state, should not be arrested and why they invited him.