An event seeking to promote the use of the slogan “Globalize the intifada” went ahead in a park in Sydney after the city’s mayor blocked it from taking place at a state council-owned venue.

The event, which was officially canceled on Monday after fears that it would spark violence, attracted just about 150 people and was held without major incident, according to local news reports.

‘It’s a must that we globalize the intifada,” local political figure Ahmed Ouf told the crowd. “We have to break the internal chains and invite others.”

The forum was intended to defend the phrase against efforts to ban it, and had drawn strong criticism from politicians and Jewish leaders. Australian lawmakers have sought to proscribe the slogan in public debate since the deadly terror shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration at the city’s Bondi Beach in December, which killed 15.

In a statement on social media yesterday, Mayor Clover Moore said the event risked “contributing to hostility and fear.”

But the organizers, a group known as the Stop the War on Palestine group, defied the order.

“We reject the implication… that our meeting risks public safety and respect for members of the community,” the organizers wrote on Instagram announcing the change of venue.

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