BY NIKKI ULASOWSKI
PERTH — Ali Kazak, the head of the Palestinian delegation to Australia, spoke to over 200 people during his recent visit to Western Australia.
Organised by the NoWar Alliance, the tour enabled Kazak to explain firsthand the implications of the so-called road map to peace. He addressed student meetings at the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University, as well as two well-attended public meetings in Fremantle and Perth.
At the Perth public meeting, Kazak outlined the cost paid by the Palestinian people for their opposition to the Israeli occupation of their homeland. He said 2661 Palestinians have been killed during the last three years alone (86% of them civilians); 3600 more were wounded with 10% of those crippled for life; 7300 have been arrested.
He noted that a staggering 53,000 Palestinian homes and buildings, and 930,000 olive and citrus trees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, have been destroyed by the Israeli army. The effect on the Palestinian economy has been devastating, with some towns experiencing unemployment levels of between 60% and 100% (he reminded the audience that during the 1930s Great Depression unemployment stood at about 30% in the US and Australia).
Kazak explained how over the past eight months a 500-kilometre-long "security wall" has been erected by Israel. The wall has been deliberately constructed along a route that excises the best agricultural land from Palestinian townships, as well as placing major underground water reserves under Israeli control.
Kazak asked: "Is this the action of someone who wants to have peace with their neighbours?"
He said the "road map will be judged by its ability to solve the Palestinian question with justice and peace" and that this would mean "achieving the right of return for refugees, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and the right of compensation".
Kazak said that international solidarity with the Palestinian struggle needed to be built to force Israel to end its discrimination against the Palestinian people.
From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.
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