On Sunday April 14, the drums and chants echoed over Hyde Park at 1:30 pm on the dot as the speakers took their places in the Sydney sun for the twenty seventh consecutive week of protests organised by Palestine Action Group.
Photography: Valerie Chidiac
Contrasting the unity of the protestors, co-chair Damian Ridgwell denounced the fomented division from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who delivered an awful speech the previous week where he compared the Palestine protests to the Port Arthur Massacre.
Labor didn’t escape either, with Ridgewell calling out the hypocrisy of suggesting support for a Palestinian state and pretending to call for a ceasefire, whilst signing a $917M deal with Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems.
The speakers spoke to the different levels of detached killing including automated AI “Lavender” drones which identify people in their homes and statistically calculate the acceptable level of civilian deaths before destroying the whole building, under the framework of ‘collateral damage’.
Co-chair Jana Fayyad and speaker Amal Naser remembered the death in custody of activist Walid Daqqa who died of cancer recently in prison after 38 years of incarceration, despite calls for his release on humanitarian grounds. Even as he was dying, Daqqa was denied adequate medical treatment and suitable food, and prevented from saying goodbye to his wife. To add insult to the injury, the authorities attacked a funeral gathering at his house before his body had even been released to his family.
Jeremy Heathcote, Indigenous Community Engagement Officer at the University of Sydney and proud Aboriginal man from the Awabakal Nation, spoke to the strength of Indigenous solidarity with Palestine, and led many impassioned chants.
Dr Thalia Anthony, a Law Professor from UTS spoke next, noting that over half of the Israeli prison population, many women and children, were incarcerated for throwing stones at tanks, imprisonment being a tool of the occupation. Anthony noted the shocking reports of doctors routinely amputating limbs from brutal handcuff injuries from mistreatment in custody.
She noted the scholasticide of Gaza — the destruction of all the strip’s universities and their archives — wiping out the “future potential” of the crop of Gaza’s student population. Anthony reminded attendees that our own Australian universities are complicit,working with arms companies like Thales and partnering with Israeli Universities.
Anthony also spoke to UTS Staff 4 Palestine’s efforts to pressure the university to condemn Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom’s murder while on humanitarian duty in Gaza. Anthony then went on to say that they were not waiting for such a move from management and will continue to speak out as UTS staff on behalf of colleagues like Frankcom and all Palestinians.Rick Kuhn, ANU academic, anti-war activist since the 1970s and anti-Zionist Jewish organiser from PAG Canberra emphasised the protests as a global movement. Kuhn also reiterated that “states in general have no right to exist, only people” do. As a Jewish person Kuhn also highlighted the injustice of his personal right to “return” to Israel having never set foot in the country under Israel’s as opposed to the Palestinians who have claim under UN Resolution 194 which was a precondition of Israel joining the UN – but never honoured.
With the conclusion of the march, attendees marched around the streets of the CBD with the large Palestinian flags, the giant watermelon and a host of drums. There was a huge turnout today with a broad demographic of people winding around Hyde Park, down Market Street and around the QVB and back.
After the violent attack in Bondi Junction last Saturday resulting in the deaths of six people — five women and one security guard — the internet exploded with accusations of Islamic terrorism, calling for the Palestine protest due for the next day to be cancelled. These conclusions were false, and ultimately exposed the racism inherent in opponents of the marches.
With the brutality noted by the speakers and the continued bombardment of the Palestinians in full view of the world, the words of Walid Daqqa quoted by the first speaker are apt:“I do not need to prove my cause – it is self-evident.”
Palestinian Action Group’s twenty-eighth protest will occur on Sunday April 21, at Hyde Park North from 12:30 pm instead of 1:30 pm.
