For twenty-seven weeks, the drums, whistles and chants of protestors for Palestine have rung loud through the streets of Sydney. Yet the streets were eerily quiet on Sunday April 21, with protestors beginning the march in silence as a symbol of the inaction of government authorities in the face of an escalating genocide.
As protests enter their twenty-eighth week, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 34, 000, with almost 77, 000 wounded and nearly 2 million displaced.
Speaking at the rally before the march, Palestinian activist and co-chair Mohamed Zorob described the inconceivable loss the violence represents for him and his family. Zorob lost his father to cancer around five months ago, and “the thing that I will never forget and never forgive,” he said, “is that this colonising state of Israel denied me the dignified, humane right to bury my own father in my own country.” He described seeing a video of the cemetery where his father is buried, in which “Israeli bulldozers desecrated the entire cemetery and left nothing in it.”
Zorob also attested to the profound strength of the Palestinian resistance, telling protestors, “I vow to you that it’s going to be either me, or my children, or their children that will visit my father’s grave in a liberated Palestine”.
Speakers also emphasised the US’s complicity in the genocide. In particular, they criticised the US House of Representatives for its recent passage of a foreign aid package which includes more than $26 billion in military aid to Israel. They further criticised the US for vetoing a resolution to allow Palestine full UN membership.
Co-chair Josh Lee acknowledged the recent occurrence of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, marked each year on April 17. He referred to the approximately 9,500 Palestinians held as prisoners by Israel, and noted that 3,660 of these people are currently held on “administrative detention”, that is, detention without charge or trial. According to Al Jazeera, 200 of these prisoners are children, and 561 are serving a life sentence.
Lee further condemned the human rights abuses that occur within Israeli prisons, saying: “we know many Palestinian prisoners … are killed in those Israeli prisons, whether through deliberate neglect or, more viciously, through the systematic torture that goes on”.
Paul Keating, the Sydney Branch Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, spoke to the need to unite across racial and class lines. “Our diversity is our strength. Our power comes with the people,” he said. Keating also emphasised the importance of actively maintaining solidarity with the Palestinian cause, saying “Solidarity means action. Solidarity means that we will mobilise. Solidarity means that we will organise. Solidarity means that we will fight for the Palestinian people from the river to the sea until justice is served.”
The Founder of the Institute for Non-Violence, Hala Abdelnour, also addressed protestors. She shared her experience of Israeli violence as a child growing up in Lebanon. Abdelnour also shared details of the spiritual journey she has undergone in recent months, as she grapples with the violence in Palestine. She spoke of an ancestral wisdom which showed her that “we are all made of love. We come from love, we are love and we are the light.” She continued, “in a room that’s completely pitch black dark, even the smallest flickering candle is a victory over that darkness.”
The speakers demonstrated the importance of our collective and enduring efforts towards Palestinian liberation. Abdelnour concluded, it is vital that people gather around the world everyday “to stand for peace, to stand for justice and to stand in the truth of that light.”
Palestine Action Group’s next protest will occur on Sunday April 28, at Hyde Park from 1:00 pm.
