Around 150 protesters defied heavy-handed policing to protest the opening of the Israeli Film Festival in Sydney on 21 August. The festival is funded by the Israeli embassy and organised by Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE). Founded by Benjamin Netanyahu, AICE has a history of campaigning against Palestinian rights.

The protest – organised by the Palestine Action Group (PAG) – was held despite NSW police obtaining a Supreme Court order banning a demonstration in front of the opening night venue. This isn’t the first time PAG has had to fight for the right to protest. In 2012, the police attempted to ban a protest commemorating Al-Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Israel. On that occasion, the police failed in court.

However, police will likely attempt to use the film festival case as a precedent to ban demonstrations in the future.

Determined not to be silenced by the decision, protesters gathered at Taylor Square on Oxford Street. Addressing the demonstration, Mona Abu Zalef, a Palestinian student at UTS and PAG activist, spoke of the importance of a boycott of the festival: “We are protesting because it is sponsored by the same people who are murdering our children in Gaza.”

Riot police stopped the protest marching as a group to the festival, but protesters evaded the blockade by running down alleys and side streets to reach the venue and protest in defiance of the court order.

Shaymaa Abdullah, an Aboriginal woman, was assaulted by four police officers. She told Red Flag, “This is Indigenous land and I should have the right to walk. I should have the right to walk on my own land, and the police are defending people who are killing Palestinians.”