Tens of thousands of Australians marched in pouring rain in Sydney to call for increased aid to Gaza, in what appears to be the largest of a number of such demonstrations around the world on Sunday.
The “March for Humanity” across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge was larger than what organizers and police anticipated. City officials had attempted to prohibit the march, citing crowding, but a top court ruled that it must be permitted.
While police said the march was peaceful, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council called attention on social media to several demonstrators displaying antisemitic messages or ones that it said were designed to incite violence. One woman held a sign that said “Zionists are neo-Nazis,” with a swastika inscribed in a Star of David, while another wore a sweatshirt that said “Death to the IDF” and had a red triangle, a symbol associated with Hamas.
“Behind the slogans of ‘humanity’ were signs celebrating dictators, terrorists, and antisemitic hate,” the group tweeted. “This isn’t a cry for justice – it’s propaganda that dehumanises Israeli victims and reframes perpetrators as victims.”
The march came amid a flurry of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests around the world as concerns about a humanitarian crisis in Gaza have skyrocketed and as both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have backed away from ending the nearly two-year-old war there.
In New York City, 20 people were arrested during a Brooklyn demonstration organized by the Democratic Socialists of America, a leading critic of Israel. Among those arrested was Marcela Mitaynes, a state assemblywoman, according to accounts from the scene. A different protest, organized by the hardline group Within Our Lifetime, snarled crowds at Grand Central Terminal on Saturday.
Demonstrations took place over the weekend in Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa and the United Kingdom, in an resurgence of the popular protests more common earlier in the war.
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