UPDATED 5PM MONDAY (AEDT)

Protesters have lost their urgent legal challenge against extra powers given to police during Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s contentious visit.

The NSW Supreme Court ruling on the Palestine Action Group’s challenge shortly before 5pm on Monday (AEDT), less than an hour before their rally was due to begin.

“My conclusions have not been reached easily or lightly,” Supreme Court Justice Robertson Wright said.

He will given his reasons at a later date.

The declaration grants police sweeping extra powers to bolster officer numbers, search anyone in the declared event area and prevent them from entering ahead of the planned rally at Sydney’s Town Hall from 5.30pm.

Anyone who fails to comply with directions may face penalties, including fines of up to $5500.

Earlier on Monday, lawyers for the protesters told the court earlier on Monday that the government’s declaration was too broad and did not meet legal requirements because no participants or geographic area were specified.

Barrister Peter Lange SC used a hypothetical to illustrate the scope of police powers.

“A stereotypical barrister might happen to be searched without a warrant because he happens to be in the eastern suburbs,” he said.

“If he refuses to undergo a search … he may be excluded from the area in which he resides.”

However, government barrister Brendan Lim SC argued the scenario was not useful for adjudicating whether protesters were the intended target of the declaration.

“[It is] a distorting hypothetical that is of no assistance … there is no attempt to focus on the consequences for the plaintiff,” Lim said.

He argued the declaration was not made to suppress Monday night’s protest but rather to relocate it to Hyde Park, where Palestine Action Group has conducted hundreds of rallies.

Wright noted that evidence suggested that separating protesters from mourners and Herzog was the motivation.

Herzog arrived in Sydney on Monday morning, heading to Bondi for a wreath-laying ceremony at the scene of the massacre that left 15 people dead and more than 40 others wounded on December 14.

Herzog also placed a stone brought from Jerusalem at the memorial for the victims, in accordance with Jewish tradition representing “the endurance of memory” and “the unbreakable bond” between the living and the dead.

“The stones … will remain here at Bondi for eternity, a sacred memory of the victims and as a reminder that between good people of all faiths and all nations, we will continue to hold strong in the face of terror, violence and hatred, and that we shall overcome this evil together,” he said.

Herzog’s controversial visit has sparked plans for nationwide protests and prompted strong security arrangements – including helicopters and snipers – at Bondi.

“These demonstrations, in most cases, what you hear and see, comes to undermine and delegitimise our right, my nation’s right, the nation which I am the head of state of, of its mere existence,” he said at Bondi.

“Terror is what undermines all the availability of peace and the notion of peace in our region.

“It was always the case and is always the case, and, therefore, terror is unacceptable by any means.”

He will meet politicians – including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – and Jewish community leaders and is also expected to meet families of victims of the December 14 atrocity.

The NSW government passed laws following December’s Bondi Beach terror attack that restricted protections typically granted to authorised protests.

Those temporary powers – which can be extended for up to three months after a terror event – were fortified by the major event declaration announced on Saturday.

“The next time [NSW Premier] Chris Minns complains about protesters apparently being disruptive to our city, let’s look at the lengths the premier has gone to to roll out the red carpet for someone accused of genocide,” Palestine Action Group spokesperson Josh Lees said.

But Minns said the declaration had been mischaracterised.

“The bottom line here is we’ve got an international visitor who’s been invited by the commonwealth government,” he said.

“Reasonable people expect us to keep him safe and to keep the community safe.”

Minns incorrectly claimed the major events powers had previously been used when Sydney hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2007. In fact, the laws weren’t implemented until 2009, with separate specific legislation developed for the APEC event.

Herzog’s role is largely ceremonial, but he has sparked outrage for being photographed signing an Israeli artillery shell.

A United Nations inquiry found his comments after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 – in which he described Palestinians as an “entire nation out there that is responsible” – to reasonably be interpreted as incitement for genocide.

Rallies against Herzog’s visit are scheduled across Australia on Monday night.

Anyone who fails to comply with NSW police directions will face penalties that include fines of up to $5500.

-with AAP