Australia could be a part of greater than a dozen different nations in recognising the state of Palestine.
Tens of 1000’s of demonstrators have marched throughout the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, calling for peace and support deliveries within the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the place a humanitarian disaster of synthetic hunger has been worsening because of Israel’s punishing blockade.
Professional-Palestinian protesters braved heavy winds and rain on Sunday to march throughout the bridge, chanting “Ceasefire Now” and “Free Palestine”. A few of these attending the march, which the organisers dubbed the “March for Humanity”, carried pots and pans as symbols of the compelled hunger wracking Gaza.
Demonstrators together with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (third from left, sporting purple tie) cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge throughout a pro-Palestinian rally in opposition to Israel’s actions and the continued meals shortages within the Gaza Strip in Sydney, Australia on August 3, 2025 (David Grey/AFP)
The protest got here lower than every week after a joint assertion by Australia and greater than a dozen different nations expressed the “willingness or the constructive consideration … to recognise the state of Palestine as a vital step in direction of the two-State answer”.
France, Britain and Canada have in current weeks voiced, and in some instances certified, intentions to diplomatically recognise a Palestinian state as worldwide concern and criticism have grown over the starvation disaster in Gaza.
No less than 175 individuals, together with 93 kids, have died of hunger and malnutrition throughout the territory since Israel launched its struggle on Gaza after the Hamas-led assaults on southern Israel in October 2023, based on the most recent Gaza Well being Ministry figures.
Australia has referred to as for an finish to the struggle in Gaza, however has to this point stopped in need of a choice to recognise a Palestinian state.
Police mentioned that as much as 90,000 individuals had attended the protest whereas the organiser, Palestine Motion Group Sydney, mentioned in a Fb put up that as many as 300,000 individuals could have marched.
Marchers ranged from the aged to households with younger kids. Amongst them was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who didn’t tackle the gang or converse to the media.
Demonstrators cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge throughout a pro-Palestinian rally in opposition to Israel’s actions and the continued meals shortages within the Gaza Strip in Sydney, Australia on August 3, 2025 (David Grey/AFP)
Mehreen Faruqi, the New South Wales senator for the left-wing Greens get together, addressed the gang gathered at central Sydney’s Lang Park, calling for the “harshest sanctions on Israel”, accusing its forces of “massacring” Palestinians.
Antony Loewenstein, writer of The Palestine Laboratory, a guide on the Israeli arms and surveillance trade, who spoke on the rally, instructed Al Jazeera that protesters are “outraged” not simply by what Israel is doing in Gaza, but in addition by the Australian authorities’s “complicity”.
Loewenstein mentioned that Australia has, for a few years, together with for the reason that begin of the struggle, been a part of the worldwide provide chain for the F-35 fighter jets that Israel has been utilizing in attacking the besieged territory.
“A number of Australians are conscious of this,” he mentioned. “We’re deeply complicit, and individuals are indignant that their authorities is doing little greater than speak at this level.”
