Thousands of activists gathered at Hyde Park to protest Israel’s escalating genocide of Palestine on 26 November. This rally was the seventh consecutive weekend protest hosted by the Palestine Action Group.
The rally was chaired by Palestinian activists Assala Sayara and Jenna Fayad, with Sayara opening the protest with a series of chants condemning the Israeli state and complicit governments, including the Albanese Labor government.
Sayara spoke on the ceasefire saying, “We don’t want 93 hours to catch a breath. We want the liberation of the sea to the river of the whole of Palestine.” Despite this, Sayara told the crowd to “feel a sense of victory,” with hostages being released from Israeli prisons.
Carolyn, a First Nations activist and rapper, was critical of the response to the occupation in Australia, saying, “Shame on the ABC. Shame on the people in Canberra because I can’t call anything else. Shame on them for supporting Zionism.”
They extended solidarity to Palestine as an Indigenous Australian person. They said, “We’ve got to give land back to Palestinian people. I’m just so tired of seeing how colonisers just keep doing the same thing in many different places.”
Co-chair Fayad expressed her pride as a Palestinian, “Being Palestinian has been the greatest accomplishment of my life…You’re born with a depth of sorrow that is unique to its land.” Fayad also read tragic stories from Gaza of parents losing their children saying, “We are here to be the voices of the beaten, the voices of the murdered.”
Suzan Wahhab, President of Palestinians Christians in Australia, shared her story, “My grandmother asked if she could see the home and walk inside it for a few minutes…she missed her home and she never forgot her home but the Israeli man refused. He asked us to leave and shut the door in our face.”
“We have to focus on telling our stories. We have the truth and the truth is our Nakba,” said Wahhab.
Hilmi Dabbagh, Founder of BDS Australia, spoke on the importance of taking action, “In 2005, 170 civil society organisations launched what is called BDS…They have asked for the citizens around the world to support by cutting, divesting from, and sanctioning Israel.
“My friends, I do have a hope, with your support, with your support for BDS that I will have the chance to go and see my Jaffa, the city I come from, feeling proud and dignity in free Palestine.”
The final speaker of the protest was a 10 year-old girl, Salma, who recently came back from Al Khalil in the West Bank. She said, “Children of Gaza, I am sorry. I am sorry that the world ignores your cries for help but I’m privileged and you’re oppressed. I wake up to an alarm, and you wake up to bombs.”
“We will remember you as they beg for help underneath the rubble. We will remember your illegal occupation. We will remember the number of cells in 23. We will never forget, never forgive. Not today, not tomorrow, and never in the future. Breathe, breathe Palestine!”
After the speeches concluded, protesters marched around the Sydney CBD chanting, “Ceasefire, now,” and other slogans in support of Palestinian liberation.
