As Israel’s war on Palestine entered its 56th week, protesters demanded the Australian government expel the Israeli ambassador, impose sanctions on the rogue state and stop crucial weapons parts from being sent to abet its genocide.
The Israeli Knesset decision to declare the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) a “terrorist” organisation has ignited new fury.
UNRWA is the only aid organisation with any type of capacity to deliver even the meagre amount of basic aid to the besieged people of Gaza.
The UN General Assembly formed the UNWRA in 1949 to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel’s dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Zionist forces, between 1947 and 1949, made at least 750,000 Palestinians refugees — from a population of 1.9 million — and ethnically cleansed and destroyed 750 villages and cities and killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, in more than 70 massacres.
According to The Lancet on July 10, the accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the true death toll could reach more than 186,000 people: 38,000 direct deaths and 3-to-15 times this number in indirect deaths.
UNICEF — the United Nations agency for children — warned that the entire population of northern Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease and famine.
UNICEF reported on November 2 that its staff administering polio vaccines to children in Jabalia in northern Gaza had come under Israeli fire, which killed children near the vaccination clinic.
Meanwhile, US Democrats and Republicans continue to emphasise their support for Israel’s so-called defensive war days before the election. Without their political and economic support, Israel could not continue its genocidal war.
The European Greens on November 1 called on US presidential candidate Jill Stein from the US Green Party, the only party to oppose the genocide in Gaza, to step down.
“Europe needs Kamala Harris as President of the United States, to be a reliable partner and to take the urgent, decisive action needed on the climate crisis, and to bring about a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East,” the statement said.
Stein responded by saying the “establishment parties have failed us” and called on the European Greens to “stop supporting genocide in Gaza and suppressing democracy in the US elections”.
Green Senator David Shoebridge told the 56th weekly protest in Gadigal Country/Sydney on November 3 that outlawing UNRWA is “an obscene breach of international law”, removing the obligations of an occupying state against an occupying people”. He said if not now, “then when will Labor sanction the Benjamin Netanyahu government?”
Peter Boyle reports that Shoebridge urged Labor to throw out the Israeli ambassador and cancel the two-way armaments trade between the two countries. “Surely now Labor can see this extremist Netanyahu government has no interest in international law; it is engaged in an active genocide against the people of Palestine.”
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At least 2000 protesters marched on NSW Parliament demanding that Labor state and federal governments sanction Israel over its support for Israel’s Genocide, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and invasion of Lebanon.
At a brief sit-down outside Parliament House, Labor Premier Chris Minns was condemned for his attempts to ban Palestine solidarity protests.
The crowd was told to be prepared for action if the unofficial threats to deport nine recent refugees from Gaza move ahead.
Thousands marched also in Naarm/Melbourne on November 3 as part of the 56th week of protest against Israel’s genocide.
Protesters demanded that the “Australian government place sanctions on Israel, expel their ambassador and cut all military, political, economic and diplomatic ties”.
Aboriginal elder Uncle Robbie Thorpe, who filed charges against a Netanyahu adviser for advocating genocide, told the crowd “we’re never giving up on the fight against genocide”.
Lebanese activist Tahini said she was once “scared by public speaking”, but then began to witness the holocaust of the Palestinian people and is now “terrified of silence”.
Palestinian activist Khalid Abbas said “393 days of genocide ... 393 days of the erasure of neighbourhoods, of lives and of memories ... but it’s also 393 days of protests, encampments and of student mobilisation”.
Writer Jeff Sparrow, Imam Wazeem Razvi and Students for Palestine activist Jasmine also addressed the crowd.
Hundreds of Pro-Palestine supporters gathered on November 1 in Federation Square on Palestinian National Day, to honour Palestinian culture and heritage.
People enjoyed food and performances, including poetry, dance and music from Arabic band Tarab Ensemble.
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Protesters assembled at the Crown Street mall, Tharawal/Wollongong on November 2 for the weekly protest against the genocide.
Wollongong Friends of Palestine has also been organising to stop local steel manufacturer Bisalloy Steel from profiting from genocide. Bisalloy works with Elbit Systems, Rheinmetal and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, companies notorious for their support of genocide and occupation. A “No Illawarra Steel for Genocide” community picket of the Ferra Engineering company in Unanderra on November 15 aims to disrupt production of steel for parts used in the F-35 fighter jets that are being used to bomb Gaza.
A “peak hour for peace” protest in Corio Village Shopping Centre, in the heart of defence minister Richard Marles’ electorate, was organised in Djilang/Geelong on November 1. The weekly event is drawing good support. Palestine supporters are organising a “Picket for peace” every Wednesday outside Marles’ electorate office on 17A Yarra Street, Geelong.
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) organised a vigil on November 2 in Magan-djin/Brisbane to remember the killing of all journalists and media workers over the last two years.
The event was organised to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. “The war in Gaza has exacted an unprecedented and horrific toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape,” the MEAA said.
“At least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed — more journalists than have died in the course of any year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began documenting journalist killings in 1992.”
Also in Magan-djin, campaigners chanted: “It’s occupation that we fight, it’s only justice we demand” at a November 4 protest to #ShutDownFerra.
Justice for Palestine is also holding a public organising meeting on November 6 and a rally on November 10.
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Samah Sabawi presented the Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide on November 2. The annual event is organised by the Australian Friends of Palestine Association.
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