AARON PATRICK: Hamas lost the war but is winning the propaganda battle against Israel

The large protest march across Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday was a demonstration of popular support for the Palestinian cause that may reshape the debate over the war, embolden Israel’s critics and increase hostility towards Australian Jews.

An estimated 90,000 people endured one of the harbour city’s most miserable weekends this year to protest against the war. Some of the leaders at the front, holding a “March for Humanity” banner, hate Israel and will never concede its right to self defence.

The large number of protesters shows that Hamas, having lost the war, is winning the propaganda contest.

At the same time, Sunday’s march in Sydney, which was matched by a more violent affair in Melbourne, politically vindicates Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s and Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s gradual shift away from Israel over the past year.

They have not gone as far towards recognition as three founding NATO powers, by placing conditions on recognition that make such a step improbable. But, in a country with some eight times as many Muslims as Jews, the Albanese Government’s demands on Mr Netanyahu to wage a more humanitarian war now look electorally astute.

Celebrity marchers

Among the protesters was Ed Husic, a Muslim federal Labor MP and the son of Bosnian immigrants. He called for the Government to immediately recognise Palestine as a separate state, a symbolic but important step mainly taken by critics of Israel.

“I think Australian politics has underestimated how strongly Australians feel about this issue,” the former minister said. “This is a moment -- a sort of wake-up call for Australian politics.”

His fellow marchers included men and women whose reputations are being burnished through their opposition to Israel. They include Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis, former ABC radio announcer Antoinette Lattouf, sports presenter Craig Foster, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, Sydney mayor Clover Moore and organiser Josh Lees, who has reportedly led 85 protests since the war began.

Mr Lees is no middle-class peace seeker. He wants to end capitalism and the national structures he sees subjecting the weak, oppressed and colonised.

“There is no incremental progress in today’s world, if ever there was,” he wrote a year ago for Red Flag, a Marxist website. “We are surrounded by the rise of the racist and fascist right, climate destruction, falling living standards and genocide. Labor is on the wrong side of every question. Change, including Palestinian liberation, will come only through mass defiance of the whole system that Labor supports.”

Two years of violence

There was no similarly sized protest after October 7, 2023, when some 1200 Israelis were murdered, raped and taken hostage by Hamas, which hoped to spark a broader war that would lead to Israel’s destruction.

There was, though, a demonstration of support for the Palestinians, while the “massacre was still unfolding” by the same people behind Sunday’s rally, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

“Any genuine concern for humanity would have also included the forgotten people held against their will in Gaza, the tortured and broken innocents held underground for nearly two years,” co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said.

Despite the extremist elements, such a large gathering was primarily motivated by the images of starvation, desperation and almost two years of ceaseless violence in a war Israel did not begin but is determined to finish.

Among the persuasive images was a photo of Muhammad Zakariya al-Mutawaq, a one-year-old whose skeletal figure appeared around the world after being published on the front page of the New York Times ten days ago.

The newspaper later updated its article to acknowledge he suffered from pre-existing health problems that affect his brain and muscle development. Other media outlets reported he has cerebral palsy, which can make it difficult to swallow.

It is impossible to argue there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Among those caught are an estimated 20 Israeli hostages still alive. Among them is Evyatar David, a 24-year-old taken from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023.

Mr David appeared in a Hamas video on Sunday digging a shallow hole in a tunnel. Skeletal thin, he said: “What I’m doing now is digging my own grave. Every day my body becomes weaker.”

In Israel, Mr David’s treatment was immediately compared to the Nazi death camps of World War II.

Diplomatically Isolated

Through its fierce response, which seems to have included creating the circumstances where food and fuel supplies to Gaza were restricted, Israel has lost public support across the Western world.

As a consequence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government finds itself diplomatically isolated, with the crucial exception of the US. Britain, France, Canada and other important countries have bowed to internal pressure and are positioning to recognise a Palestinian state.

For the 100,000 Jews of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and the rest of Australia, the latest developments are miserable. They never sought war. They have no desire to kill Palestinians. Many are supporters of the arts, an industry now at the centre of anti-Israel sentiment. Some fear for their physical safety. Armed guards are required for their synagogues and schools.

They are retreating more to their own communities, fearing Australia is no longer the welcoming, safe and tolerant society they assumed it would always be. The outlook is not promising.

Sunday’s powerful display of hostility means that important supporters of the Jewish community, including NSW Premier Chris Minns, are less likely to visibly fight on their behalf.

Shy allies

Mr Minns, a Labor centrist who unsuccessfully resisted the protest, said he did not want other protests to shut down one of the city’s main transport routes regularly.

“Even those many people who were at the march on Sunday, and feel incredibly passionate about this issue, would accept that we can’t knock out the bridge every weekend,” he said on Monday.

“We’re not going to have a situation where the anti-vaxxer group has it on one Saturday, then the weekend after that, Critical Mass (a cycling group) takes over, then the weekend after that, an environmental cause.”

The Federal politician considered by the Jewish community as one of its strongest allies, Defence Minister Richard Marles, described the march as “a very powerful statement” and said Australians were “rightly appalled” by the Gaza war.

Mr Albanese, who has always accepted Israel had a right to attack Hamas under international law, made it sound like he sided with protesters. “It is not surprising so many Australians have been affected (and) want to show their concern at people being deprived of food and water and essential services,” he said Monday.

As politicians bow to the power of protest, the police, judiciary and media will feel society’s anger too. Although independent, they are not oblivious to what happens on the streets.

Such are the consequences of war. Whatever the legal, moral or military justifications for Mr Netanyahu’s decisions, the longer he allows starvation in Gaza to persist, the worse life will be for Jews around the world.