Overview

• The NSW Court of Appeal convened an urgent hearing as police sought a prohibition order that would remove authorised‑assembly protections and expose marchers to broader criminal liability, including for blocking traffic.
• Assistant Police Commissioner Peter McKenna told the court the planned march could draw 40,000 to 100,000 people and has “disaster written all over it” due to ingress and egress constraints at the Opera House and along Macquarie Street.
• Barrister Felicity Graham, for the Palestine Action Group and Jews Against the Occupation, asked the court to accept that a genocide is occurring in Gaza or that organisers reasonably believe it is, arguing this underpins the protest’s urgency.
• Police counsel James Emmett SC argued the court cannot properly make a genocide finding, while a separate legal question asks whether Opera House Trust by‑law offences remain enforceable even if the march retains authorised‑assembly status.
• The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies was granted leave to intervene to oppose the rally, with the dispute heightened by the protest’s proximity to the two‑year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.