For the 62nd consecutive week in a row, mass demonstrations against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ongoing occupations in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria took place in in major cities while smaller actions were held in some regional areas.
Speakers at the rally in Gadigal Country/Sydney on December 15 rejected the call by Jillian Segal, the Labor-appointed "special envoy to combat antisemitism", to ban the weekly pro-Palestine protests from city centres and her labelling of them as “intimidatory”.
They also derided Australia’s December 12 vote for a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza as belated and not supported by its other actions.
One of these speakers was outspoken anti-Zionist Jewish academic and activist Peter Slezak, whose mother was a survivor of Auschwitz.
He said Zionists were attempting to distract attention from Israel’s “indefensible” war crimes by launching a “hysterical campaign to combat an alleged rise in anti-Semitism”.
Slezak said the argument that criticism of Israel is antisemitic has a long history and was a deliberate “deception” by Zionists.
“It desecrates the memory of my parents and other real victims of antisemitism when it is weaponised to silence justified criticism of Israel’s crimes,” Slezak explained.
A surprise speaker at the rally was WA Senator Fatima Payman, who resigned from Labor earlier this year over the Anthony Albanese government’s refusal to denounce Israel’s genocide.
“‘Thank you for being the conscience of our nation. Thank you for speaking truth to power,” she told the crowd.
“When it comes to the genocide, there is no moral ambiguity. There is no confusion, this is a genocide and this government is 14 months too late from recognising it…
“Only now do they start to issue empty statements and [and vote for] all these UN resolutions … because they are scared of your power. They are scared because you have marched every single weekend, rain or shine,” Payman said.
“You have shown this government what it means to be on the right side of history.”
Other speakers included Emmy-nominated journalist Ahmed Shihab Eldin, Palestinian school student Noura Hussein and Associate Professor Jumana Bayeh from Macquarie University. The rally was co-chaired by Jana Fayyad and Damian Ridgeway from the Palestine Action Group.
Thousands marched in the hot sun from the State Library in Naarm/Melbourne for the 62nd consecutive week of protests in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Speakers, including Palestinian activist Tasnim Sammak and feminist author and activist Clementine Ford, discussed the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, connecting the hope of freedom for the Syrian people with Israel’s ongoing regional warmongering.
Sammak compared the systems of oppression used by the Assad regime to the systems used by the Zionist state of Israel, systems brought from above to control those below them, and expressed solidarity with the people of Syria and Palestine.
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Ford spoke of the ongoing horrors that have been witnessed throughout the “livestreamed” genocide, rallying against calls for her to “stay in her lane”. She said no “proximity to brutality” would make the deaths of children acceptable to her.
The protest took place under the additional threat of a Victoria Police imposed “designated zone”, which gives police powers to stop, search and move people on. There was also a small Zionist rally at Parliament House earlier that day.
Nasser Mashni, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president, as MC, shared with the crowd the importance of an inclusive movement that embraces diversity, ending with “if you are full of hate, piss off”.
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