I, together with several hundred thousand others, banded together for a protest march over Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a coming together of people appalled by what has been happening recently in Gaza.
It was a large but peaceful and friendly demonstration. There were plenty of family groups, old people with wheelchairs and walkers, Palestinian groups, Jewish groups, trade unions, students etc.
Here is where people assembled at Lang Park –
The weather was not the best with frequent rain squalls.
The police decision to turn the group around part way over the Bridge seemed to cause a lot of confusion and crowding. Those of us with mobile phone had been sent a text from the police with this directive, but with all the noise from drumming and chants, I had not heard the text coming in. Then I heard the message from a rally organiser’s loud hailer. But many had not – so people were walking in both directions.
Here is a large group of us walking towards the city –
Police estimated 90,000 attended, but later crowd experts, looking at the TV footage, estimated 2 or 3 times this number.
There are a lot of people that are prepared to brave the rain and come out to show they care at what is happening to the people in Palestine.