In a change of scenery, Palestine Action Group held their thirty-first consecutive protest at Belmore Park, where speeches were held before a historic march to the USyd Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
Co-chair Jana Fayyad opened the proceedings by calling out “the so-called” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who “seems to have an issue with all people living from the river to the sea”, in reference to the ongoing contention in the media surrounding the use of the slogan. Fayyad then asked the crowd to “show him what we think”, with the crowd responding by chanting their demand, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
“We have reached a catastrophic moment, the moment we all feared and dreaded”, said Fayyad about the heightened attacks on and looming invasion of Rafah, the city where Palestinians were told it would be a ‘safe zone’.
She noted that 1.4 million people, mostly orphaned children, are sheltering in an area smaller than Parramatta, which typically hosted 100,000 people prior. Fayyad continued by naming this military escalation as a “genocide within a genocide” where western, eastern and central Rafah, as well as northern Gaza, are being bombed.
Sunday’s protest coincided with the celebration of Mother’s Day, so Fayyad paid special tribute to the Palestinian mothers who remain in mourning.
“Palestinian mothers define fortitude… to every mother out there, the blood will not go in vain, nor be forgotten. You are our moral compass, you are the propellers of resistance” said Fayyad.
USyd Students for Palestine organiser and protest co-chair Jasmine Al-Rawi spoke to the “monumental encampment” currently taking place on the Quad lawns. Al-Rawi told attendees that we are meeting one day after the two-year commemoration of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s assassination, noting the ban of the leading news station in communicating the genocide to the world. She referenced the recent CNN report about the torture of Palestinians prisoners in the Naqab desert and called for “equality for all people in Palestine…for the end of apartheid, for justice, the right of return, an end to the genocide” and to the “violence inflicted on Palestinians for the past 76 years.”
Al-Rawi noted the same rhetoric and language being used by vice-chancellors and politicians like Albanese and Jason Clare, in a unified effort “to crush our demonstration” and “demonise us as violent”. She then stated that regardless of the weather, or university management and government responses while “pro-Israel thugs” attack protestors across Australian encampments without condemnation, “we will build a movement they cannot ignore.”
The first speaker was Nick Riemer, President of the NTEU Branch at USyd who identified collective power and solidarity movement as the seed for an end to the genocide and occupation of Palestine.
“Every week for seven months, we have planted the Palestinian flag in the centre of the city”, Riemer proclaimed, in addition to blocking traffic and costing the government money in police overtime.
He observed that it is the people who “show us what a movement for justice and peace looks like” and not “the faces of the politicians with their hypocrisy and equivocation.”
Speaking to the 93% vote in favour of a full institutional academic boycott of Israel at the USyd NTEU branch, Riemer emphatically declared, “don’t let anyone tell you that Palestine is not union business”. He also reiterated his willingness to assist other NTEU branches to do the same.
Riemer then called upon Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott to end USyd’s collaboration with arms companies and cut ties with Israel universities “as Palestinians have been asking us to for decades”. He stated that Scott must assume his responsibility as the head of an institution which is “supposed to tell the truth about the world, especially when it’s not welcome to political power”.
“Zionists have the effrontery to tell us what we mean… and they want to tell us we mean something different. How dare they and how dare the Vice-Chancellor concede an inch to them?”
Riemer continued by stating that they are desperate to get into bed with the “big boys weapons industry” and it is important that the community show up at the May 25 Port Botany protest against the ZIM shipping line.
Fayyad returned to the microphone, and spoke to the continuous threats on Gaza and Lebanon , including “taking it back to the stone age” and making “Beirut like Gaza”. She noted the 1982 siege of Beirut, and the current state of Gaza indicating that it can be done while “US imperialism allows “this deranged behaviour to continue with impunity.” Fayyad also referenced the time when American President Joe Biden said in 1986, “if there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.”
Dr Aziz spoke next, having just returned from Gaza after a two-week medical mission. He mentioned only a fraction of the horrific scenes he faced, eliciting emotion from himself and the crowd. He revealed that he saw more children arriving dead than alive at medical centres, and often without multiple limbs. He mentioned having shown them images of Australian encampments, saying that they smiled as if it provided them another “lifetime”, and concluded that “we’ve got to continue…. the truth is the most powerful weapon against the status quo and occupation.”
The final speaker was Said Al-Fayyad from Arrabeh, Jenin, in the West Bank who reiterated the meaning of intifada as an “uprising” or “shaking off.” He also noted that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is referred to as an intifada in Arabic. Al-Fayyad then praised all the countries who are cutting ties and divesting with Israel, and called out Australia’s Labor government for not doing the same.
Before the procession began, Al-Rawi reiterated that University management are looking for reasons to shut down the encampment. She reminded protesters that they must embody the peaceful values of the Palestine solidarity movement, and comply with instructions from Palestine Action Group marshals, USyd security and police.
Chants included, “Gaza, Gaza you will rise, the whole world is by your side”, “every time the media lies, a Palestinian village dies”, and “Starbucks, Starbucks, you can’t hide, you make drinks for genocide” when passing Starbucks Central Park.
Honi Soit arrived at the encampment minutes before the protestors entered via University Avenue, and the encampment organisers were pleasantly surprised by the energy of protestors, their chants clearly audible from the Quad lawns. The crowd was met by a sea of photographers and media crews waiting to capture the momentous occasion, and even as co-chairs Fayyad and Al-Rawi wrapped up proceedings, many people stayed behind to chat with one another.
Follow Honi Soit’s coverage on Instagram and Twitter, and look to Students for Palestine Sydney Uni and Students Against War for encampment updates.
