Pro-Palestinian groups plan to shut Auckland Harbour Bridge in September
Auckland is bracing for a large-scale pro-Palestinian protest on September 13, when organisers intend to march tens of thousands of people across the iconic Harbour Bridge, echoing demonstrations held recently in Sydney and Brisbane.
Auckland Harbour Bridge Image: Wikipedia
The march, branded a “March for Humanity,” is being coordinated by the group Aotearoa for Palestine, a coalition of Palestinians and tangata whenua activists. Organisers are demanding that the New Zealand Government impose sanctions on Israel, reinstate UNRWA funding, and accuse Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
Police have confirmed that planning is already underway with partner agencies, including the New Zealand Transport Agency and Auckland Transport, to manage safety and disruption. Two northbound lanes of the bridge are expected to be closed to accommodate marchers, similar to the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti protest in 2023.
The protest follows mass rallies across Australia earlier this month, where up to 100,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and tens of thousands filled Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge. Organisers of the Auckland event say they want to replicate this trans-Tasman show of force.
While the demonstrations are framed by organisers as humanitarian marches, their political demands go far further. Calls for sanctions, the ending of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, and the reinstatement of UNRWA have been accompanied by accusations that Israel is deliberately starving Gaza’s population — claims which are both contested and politically charged.
Critics warn that such protests risk importing overseas conflicts into New Zealand and Australia in ways that polarise local communities. The accusation of genocide, in particular, has been heavily disputed by international legal experts. Israel has consistently argued that its military campaign in Gaza is aimed at dismantling Hamas — the group responsible for the October 7, 2023, massacre that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted over 250 hostages.
The planned march also raises practical concerns. The Auckland Harbour Bridge is part of State Highway 1, New Zealand’s busiest transport route. Authorities say they will work to mitigate disruption, but a shutdown of lanes on a Saturday morning could still cause significant delays.
For New Zealand’s Jewish community, which numbers fewer than 10,000, the prospect of tens of thousands rallying under the banner of “sanction Israel” is concerning. Similar marches in Australia have often seen Jewish identity conflated with the policies of Israel, with resulting spikes in antisemitic rhetoric.
The Auckland protest illustrates a broader trend: activist networks on both sides of the Tasman are increasingly coordinating, amplifying each other’s messaging, and adopting slogans and demands that frame Israel’s existence in the starkest moral terms. What remains to be seen is how New Zealand’s Government — and its wider public — will respond to a mass protest that invokes humanitarian language but advances highly polarising political objectives.
