Students Against War (S.A.W.) and Stop War on Palestine organised a snap rally on Thursday 4 April at the Sydney office of Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in response to the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza, Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankcom. Zomi was amongst seven World Central Kitchen workers killed in their convoy by an Israeli military air strike, announced on April 2.
The rally was called to bring attention to Australia’s complicity in its military and diplomatic ties to Israel, and to highlight the hypocrisy of world leaders ignoring the deaths of over 32 000 Gazans since October, and only now calling on Israel to answer to them and to take full accountability for this incident.
The rally was chaired by Luke Ottavi from S.A.W. and Stop War on Palestine. Ottavi spoke to the need to disrupt business as usual and shouted out the recent Zim Shipping blockade in Port Botany, where protesters showed that they refuse to stand by as Australia continues trade with Israel. He criticised the police at the blockade enforcing Albanese’s policies and support for Israel, as they continued to do at this rally by maintaining a tight line between protesters and the DFAT building, pushing us into the rain.
Ahmed Abadla of Palestine Justice Movement spoke first, disputing the claim that Israel’s murder of these aid workers was a “mistake”, rather than the “systematic elimination of any means of help” for Gaza. He condemned this “vile tactic to maintain the forced famine,” and demanded accountability for the murder of all Gazans. Abadla called out the ABC’s David Speers for suggesting the attack on the aid convoy is the most significant tipping point of the current war on Gaza, ignoring Israel’s other crimes of targeting children, journalists, and hospitals. He asked “how dare you call yourself a journalist?”
Sara Shaweesh from Families for Palestine and the 24/7 picket outside of Anthony Albanese’s office in Marrickville condemned the recent announcement of Australia’s $917 million contract with Israeli manufacturing company Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems manufactures 85% of the Israeli military’s drone and land-based weaponry, including the Hermes 450 drone that was used to kill Zomi and her WCK colleagues.
Shaweesh decried the shame of Albanese announcing the details of Zomi’s death on Tuesday during a press conference at Rheinmetall Defence Australia manufacturing facility to discuss the government’s new $1 billion military deal with Germany. Despite Albanese framing the deal as a win for Australia, she said “this is not job creation, this is more death-coming”.
Ken Davis from Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA recalled his first time in Gaza to provide medical aid during the Second Intifada, where he saw a missile destroy part of Al Ahli hospital and later experienced the nearby bombing of Al Shifa hospital. He spoke about Israel’s crimes of killing civilians, 224 aid workers, 484 medical workers (excluding those in the recent siege on Al Shifa hospital), and 140 journalists during the current war on Gaza. Despite these ongoing war and humanitarian crimes, Davis highlighted Australia’s decisions to cut aid to Gaza, and to not speak out against the imprisonment of the head of World Vision Australia, Mohammad el Halabi, in 2016.
Matte Rochford of the NTEU and Unionists for Palestine read out a statement from Zomi’s high school friend, which celebrated Zomi as an “intelligent, brilliant person who always stood up for what she believed in” and whose death “should not be in vain.”
Rochford mentioned that Zomi had previously worked at the University of Technology Sydney. Mourning a fellow educator, he took the opportunity to highlight the fight of staff against the complicity of universities in their ties with weapons manufacturers.
Charlotte McSweeney from ASU Action for Palestine similarly stressed that the recently killed aid workers would not want to see “misplaced outrage” from Western governments, but to see “an end to the very human rights abuses they dedicated their careers to fighting.”
Noting the flurry of government and media attention for Zomi’s death, she asked where the same recognition for Zomi’s work under besiegement was while she was alive, or where the same outrage was when Yazan Kafarneh, a 10 year old boy with cerebral palsy, recently died of starvation in Gaza.
“Australia loves to praise nurses, support workers, community workers for our service, for doing the hard work, but we never seek to condemn the conditions that make that work hard. As long as there exists occupation, genocide, and famine, there will be Palestinian and foreign aid workers who work to provide food, shelter, medical work,” McSweeney said.
The rally ended with chants for an end to the war on Gaza, for the power of the “people united”, and condemning Israel’s targeting of civilians and hospitals.
“Children. Not a target. Hospitals. Not a target. Palestine. Not a target.”
Attendees were urged to come back in droves for another speak-out at the DFAT office this Thursday April 11 at 12pm, to call on the Australian government to cut economic, political and military ties with Israel; to comply with the ICJ ruling to stop the genocide in Gaza; to grant consular assistance to help Australian visa holders leave Gaza; and, to speed up processing visas for families of Australian citizens.
PJMS has created an email template to be sent to Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong and Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell, demanding that they save the Gazan families of Australian citizens.
Fliers and announcements were also circulated for the April 13 action at 1pm planned at the Quickstep factory in Bankstown, which manufactures key components of the F-35 fighter jets used to drop 900kg JDAM bombs on Gaza.
To find more information on these two upcoming rallies at the DFAT office on Thursday April 11 and at the Quickstep factory in Bankstown on April 13 at 1pm, visit the Students Against War Instagram page.
