Mayor slams Bondi rally

Waverley mayor Will Nemesh has weighed in on a pro-Palestinian rally planned for Bondi Beach on Father’s Day, describing the event as “deliberately provocative” and designed to cause division.

Nemesh, who is Jewish and is participating in the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s Mayors’ Summit on antisemitism this week, said he had received significant community representations about the proposed “solidarity with the Sumud Flotilla” rally scheduled for 10am on Sunday, September 7.

“I want to assure the community that this proposed event has not been nor will it be authorised by council,” he said this week.

Nemesh said he had alerted council staff, local members of parliament and local police about the planned event last week and made strong representations to the NSW government.

Posters promoting the rally on social media call for attendees to bring keffiyehs, banners, kites and kayaks to the iconic beach.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Michele Goldman last week described the planned protest as “a wildly inappropriate use of public space, designed to provoke and harass the many Jewish residents who call Bondi home”.

Meanwhile, another pro-Palestinian group was planning a demonstration outside Westmead Hospital this Wednesday as The AJN was going to print, calling for Western Sydney University to cut ties with the Israeli medical company Syqe.

The WSU4Palestine Collective scheduled the protest for 4.30pm at the hospital’s main entrance, accusing Syqe of supplying therapeutics to the Israel Defence Forces.

A flyer circulated online claims WSU is conducting research for the company and recruiting trial participants at Westmead Hospital.

The protest follows a recent student meeting where activists voted to demand WSU sever links with Syqe, which has developed a medical cannabis inhaler for treating PTSD and chronic pain.

Community members have expressed alarm on social media at the choice of location, with concerns the action could disrupt access to the major Sydney hospital.