Pro-Palestinian protesters restrained after snap rally in Sydney

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Protesters have been restrained in Sydney's CBD during a snap pro-Palestinian rally. NSW Police say there were no arrests and the rally was an “unauthorised assembly”. About 400 people took part in the protest.

Transcript

00:00Those 400 attendees at last night's SNAP event were mainly made up of two organisations,

00:10Students for Palestine, as well as the Palestine Action Group, which some of our viewers may

00:15be familiar with here in Sydney particularly.

00:18They were the main organisers of the March for Humanity, which saw more than 100,000

00:23people cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge in solidarity with the Palestinian cause back

00:28in August.

00:29But this was part of a larger global movement known as the Block Everything movement, which

00:34is largely in response to the interception of that Freedom Flotilla, that Gaza-bound Freedom

00:41Flotilla in the early hours of Thursday morning.

00:45That was the main motivation, according to the demonstrators themselves, for last night's

00:50SNAP protest.

00:51As you were saying a little bit earlier, around 400 people took part.

00:54The majority of the demonstration took place on George Street and in footage that's been

01:00obtained by the ABC.

01:02You can see a number of demonstrators lying down on the road in what could potentially

01:07be an attempt to block traffic.

01:09But at the same time, we've also obtained footage which shows a number of police officers restraining

01:16those demonstrators, with some of those demonstrators even being forced to the ground during that process.

01:23Now, we've heard from the NSW police that they say, first of all, there were no arrests and the

01:29crowd dispersed at around 7.30pm.

01:32But they've also said that the demonstration itself was what they've described as an unauthorised

01:38assembly.

01:38Now, we've heard from the demonstrators as well.

01:41They say they were simply exercising their right to protest here in NSW.

01:47But at the same time, they've said that their motivations were mainly spurred by the interception

01:53of the Global Samud Freedom Flotilla in the early hours of Thursday morning.

01:58And as we were hearing from our colleague, Eric Torshek, just a few moments ago, in fact,

02:02there are hundreds of demonstrators who are currently detained by Israeli authorities.

02:07And those include a number of Australians as well, Mel.

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