Nick Everett, Canberra
On May 2, 60 people attended an eyewitness report on Palestine co-sponsored by Green Left Weekly and Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine. The forum was addressed by James Crafti, a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance who had just returned from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Mustafa Qadri, who visited the territories last year.
After providing a short history of the theft of Palestinian land by the Zionist movement since the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, Qadri described the Gaza Strip as the "largest concentration camp in the world".
He provided the audience with photographs that graphically illustrated the hardship endured by Palestinians living in both Gaza and the West Bank. A photo taken at Qalqiliya, the starting point for the construction of Israel's illegal apartheid wall, showed how spy cameras and sniper towers located along the wall served to intimidate the Palestinian population. After the town of Qalqiliya was surrounded by the wall, Palestinian shops were forced to close, Qadri said.
Crafti outlined the history of the Palestinian struggle since the first intifada in 1989 and the Oslo Accords that followed in 1993. He described the impact of the Israeli settlements and the wall in further robbing Palestinians of their land and making their daily life hell. He described the role of the International Solidarity Movement and the current dynamics of the struggle following the defeat of the Fatah party by Hamas in the January 25 Palestinian elections.
Crafti stated that the Oslo Accords, negotiated with Israel by the Fatah leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, although allowing the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, had forced Palestinians to live in enclaves separated by Israeli-only roads with the airspace and water resources of the West Bank totally under the control of Israel. The apartheid wall, he explained, had further stolen Palestinian land, cutting off 16% of the West Bank's 5640 square kilometres of land from Palestinians. In addition the "Jewish settlements" - Israeli colonial and paramilitary outposts in the West Bank - were continuing to be expanded. These contain up to 100,000 Israeli settlers, most of whom have come to the West Bank as a result of generous incentives from the Israeli government. Those located in Hebron and other West Bank towns are heavily guarded by the Israeli Defence Force.
Crafti explained how conflicts were often initiated by the most rabidly Zionist of the settlers (sometimes children) and the IDF consistently acted in defence of the settlers. He explained that under Israel's apartheid-style laws, Palestinian children as young as 10 could be prosecuted, while Israelis could not be prosecuted unless they are at least 13 years old.
Supporters of Palestine in Canberra will be holding a protest on May 15 to mark the anniversary of Al Nakbah ("The Catastrophe", when Palestinians were expelled from their lands in 1948). See the Activist Calendar on page 23 for further details.
From Green Left Weekly, May 10, 2006.
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