A great crowd gathered quickly under rain clouds on Sunday 27 April in Hyde Park, a week out from the Australian federal election, to protest the support of Israel by both the Liberal and Labor parties. This protest was organised by the Palestinian Action Group, a “Sydney-based activist organisation committed to supporting Palestine and opposing Israeli Apartheid”, the organisation which has relentlessly organised large protests within the CBD of Sydney for more than a year now. It was chaired by Josh Lees of PAG, a self-styled “serial protester”.
The rally was held explicitly as a pre-election protest, and every speaker emphasised the need for electoral action to demonstrate the line in the sand when it came to voters’ issues on Palestine. Speakers urged the necessity of electing independent candidates or minority parties which represent these issues, and many signs with independent and minority candidates’ faces could be spotted easily in the crowd, including signs for Socialist Alternative, the Greens, and Muslim Votes Matter.
Lees began with a series of chants emphasising complicit actions of Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza, stating that this cannot be forgotten or forgiven. After this, he stated that Aboriginal liberation is linked to the Palestinian fight for freedom. He followed this with assertions on Israel’s treatment of Palestinian citizens, stating that Israel is deliberately starving “not just Gaza, but all the West Bank”, that it controls 70 per cent of Gaza, and repeatedly bombs designated safe areas. Lees also highlighted attacks on protestors of ultranationalist Israeli settler and convicted supporter of terrorist organisation Kach, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who recently travelled to New York. Chants of “death to Arabs” were shouted in such attacks. Lees concluded stating that it is necessary to fight for a free Palestine in this election, and that such a fight is a fight against racism.
A spokesperson from the independent party Muslim Votes Matter performed an Acknowledgement of Country following Lees’ speech. They spoke on the formation of Muslim Votes Matter, stating that it is 100 per cent grassroots, and is “for and from the community”, created on the backdrop of inaction from major parties over the genocide in Palestine. She continued to blast both major parties, stating that neither have condemned war crimes documented by Amnesty International. She stressed the necessity of action, saying that an acceptance of the status quo ignores the necessary fight for humanity at the heart of such issues. Her focus turned to actions Muslim Votes Matter take, stating that they are against all forms of hate. She also highlighted Muslim Votes Matter vote cards which are designed to “crack the two-party system”, and then finished with chants of “Labor/Liberal Party hands are red, tens of thousands of children dead”.
Amal Naser, PAG member and lawyer, followed Muslim Votes Matter, emphasising that the Australian government, while continuing to claim that Australia is not a player within the Middle East, still sends weapons to Israel. Naser continued to lambast both Labor and Liberal approaches, highlighting Penny Wong’s “delegitimisation of international law” through her inability to state if Australia would arrest Netanyahu in event of a state visit. She also emphasised the necessity for Australia to break with the United States, a connection she stated that the liberal party wishes to deepen. While she criticised Albanese heavily, she stressed that Dutton actively and vocally wishes to deepen the connection of Australia with both Israel and the United States. Her address ended with an iteration of the need to “vote with Palestine at the top of your line” so that you can “force Labor to act”, accenting the necessity of resistance from all oppressed people to authority.
Mehreen Faruqi, Senator with The Greens NSW, was the next speaker. Her speech accentuated the priority of a unity of justice, that there can be no social, economic, or climate justice without racial justice. She also underlined the ability of voters to make change, and that voters must act so that we may “wake up next Sunday with a new wave of people who refuse to be silenced”. She said this was a necessary part of political action, and that major parties want to keep people politically unengaged. She then stated that such voting would enable Australia to expel the Israeli ambassador, end aid to Israel, and commit to arresting war criminals. She then focused on the moral dimensions of the election, stating that it is one “about moral courage” and that “if you wish to end genocide you must vote for those who have stood on the right side.”
Lees returned to the microphone, urging that such a fight will not be decided at the ballot box, and that further action was needed to uproot a system which “needs to be brought down and smashed”. He wished the best to all those running within the election and stated that Liberal and Labor are a “unity ticket for everything rotten in this world”. Finally, he highlighted future protests from the Palestinian Action Group, specifically one to mark the Nakba on 15 May at Town Hall.
The final speaker of the event was Jasmine Al-Rawi of Students for Palestine. Her speech focused on resistance to protests, highlighting incidents with university encampments such as USyd’s own, and the recent attacks on students and activists protesting the war criminal Ben-Gvir. She stated that Albanese, if re-elected, will continue to give support to Israel, and that Dutton would be much worse. She cited Australia’s inaction at condemning the recent murder of aid workers within Israel. Ultimately, she concluded with an assertion that every single complicit institution must be torn down.
The protest then began a march down St James Road, Elizabeth Street, and through Market Street. As the body of the protest came into the main commercial centre of Sydney, protestors chanted slogans such as “while you’re shopping, bombs are dropping” to onlookers, who gathered on the streets and came outside of shops to observe the source of the noise. The body of the protest continued onto Town Hall. From there it moved off down Park St, chants ringing through the city.
