Protesters denounce Israeli terrorism and Australian complicity on 50th week of protest

The 50th week of continuous protests against Israel’s genocide came days after Israel’s terrorist attacks on the people of Lebanon by means of exploding devices such as pagers and walkie-talkies.

At least 25 people were killed and more than 600 wounded on September 18 in Lebanon when electronic devices “exploded without warning”, according to Democracy Now. Some of the blasts came at funerals for some of the 12 people killed the day before along with thousands more who were left with “gruesome injuries”.

“This has been widely reported in the Western press as a sophisticated campaign that targeted alleged [Lebanese resistance group] Hezbollah operatives,” journalist Lara Bitar told Democracy Now. “But the reality is that, for the most part, these explosions were occurring in civilian areas,” she said.

Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah are connected to their genocide against the people of Gaza since Hezbollah is acting in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Israeli spokespeople have confirmed that the attacks on Lebanon are a “new phase” of the same war.

By September 23, Israel had launched hundreds of airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon, killing more than 100 people and wounding more than 400.

This vindicated the September 19 claim by Bitar that “the Israeli government has already taken a decision to escalate, to wage full-scale war on all of Lebanon”.

Justice for Palestine organiser, Phil Monsour, opened the September 20 rally in Magan-djin/Brisbane saying “I struggle with the idea that someone could say ‘push that switch now, let's blow 3000 people up’”.

Monsour described the pager explosions as “state terror” and said that “we march as human beings who will not accept state terror, will not accept occupation, will not accept apartheid”.

Nasser Mashni from the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) told the same rally that “we are at week 50 and we are still going, unbroken and unconquered like the heroes in Palestine”.

“The fight for Palestine is an anti-racist, anti-colonial movement, it's a fight for a world of tomorrow where we all belong,” he said.

He condemned the “terrorist state of Israel” as it exists today “with impunity to kill, to crush, to booby trap”. He said that when Israel “set those pagers off” they could not and did not know “if somebody was picking up their kids from school” or “if a kid would pick up a beeper from a table and look at it and die as did two children in Lebanon”.

The rally also came two days after the Australian government failed to vote at the United Nations against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

Justice for Palestine organiser and Greens’ Moreton candidate Remah Naji told the September 20 rally that “Labor apologists” will claim that this was the right decision, however, that these will all be “weasel words”.

“The Labor Party does not have a moral backbone,” she said. “They sold us, and threw us under the bus.”

The weekend rallies also came less than a week after the Gaza Ministry of Health released the names, ages and Israeli-approved identification numbers of 34,344 people who were killed by Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza as at August 31. A further 7,613 people have been declared dead on arrival at Gazan hospitals but have not been identified.

The first 14 pages of names – 710 babies – were listed as age 0, meaning they were killed before they reached their first birthday.

Naji and Mashni also spoke at a forum on Grassroots Movements and Electoral Politics on September 21.

Thousands of people joined the weekly protest in Naarm/Melbourne on September 22, marching from the State Library to Parliament House, reports Jacob Andrewartha.

Speakers at the protest included Meriki Onus from Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance who made comparisons between the settler-colonial history of Australia and the struggle for a Free Palestine.

Onus added that achieving a victory for Palestine would lay the basis for the “freedom of all First Nations and oppressed people from settler-colonial states all around the world”.

Palestinian activist, Iman Hassayen, spoke a week after the protests against Land Forces and condemned the role of weapon’s manufactures who profit from the “genocide of Palestinians”.

“Our demands are clear, Israel must be sanctioned and an arms embargo must be imposed,” they said.

 

Thousands marched through the centre of Gadigal Country/Sydney on September 22 to protest Israel's terrorism and genocide in Lebanon and Palestine, Peter Boyle reported.

The march was organised by the Palestine Action Group Sydney. Powerful street theatre has been part of 50 weeks in a row of large protests against Israel's war crimes in all major cities in Australia but you won’t see reports of these in Australia's mainstream media.

“This silence shows their criminal complicity in the Gaza Genocide,” Boyle said.

Chloe DS reports that a rally was held in solidarity with Palestine on Dja Dja Wurrung Country/Castlemaine on September 22.

High school student and Disrupt Land Forces (DLF) protester Arlo briefed the crowd about the anti-weapons protest held the previous week in Naarm/Melbourne. He spoke about militarism having deep ties to colonial oppression, including the oppression of First Nations.

“Militarism and colonialism is killing people,” he said.

Arlo also mentioned the unfair media coverage of the DLF protest that depicted protesters as “violent” when it was the police who were armed and violent towards protesters.

“I was happy to be part of this festival of resistance,” he said.

Jen from Naarm/Melbourne, who chaired the rally, pointed to Labor's inaction and hypocrisy.

“I'm tired of your words Penny and Albo. You have the power to sanction Israel and you do nothing,” she said.

She told the crowd that these rallies give “hope” that people power can collectively “make change”.

Rowan, also part of organising DLF, spoke about how “we need to build the narrative that militarism should not be pushed in our society”.

He also encouraged people to mobilise to protest against the Avalon air show next year: “it's like Land Forces, but this time, it's Air forces”.

Rowan helped the kitchen team at Mission to Seafarers to make food for the protesters during DLF.

He mentioned that many people from the local area were proud to be involved in some of the “amazing organising” of the DLF events such as the Anti Military Motorcade, the vigil for Gaza and the Red Rebels die-in.

Mira who was also part of DLF, spoke about the truth telling circle at Camp Sovereignty to launch the DLF mobilisation. She also gave a report on the Vigil for Gaza where volunteers had folded and displayed over 16,000 paper kites: one for every child martyred in Gaza.

In 2011, the children of Gaza broke a world record for the most kites flown, during the campaign to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip.

“This was a beautiful tribute to the children of Gaza,” she said.

Tina from Free Palestine Central Vic promoted a “Mount Alexander Meet the Candidates” to be held September 29 where the candidates will be asked direct questions from over 13 community groups, including Central Victoria Climate Action, My Home Network and Castlemaine Pride. They plan to raise questions around climate, housing and social justice and publish the answers, so people can make an informed decision when they cast their votes in the upcoming council elections.

In Unanderra/Wollongong, a 100-strong protest against Bisalloy Steel was organised by Wollongong Friends of Palestine on September 19. Bisalloy Steel produces steel products, including one used in Israeli tanks.

The rally in Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide on September 22 highlighted Israel’s daily war crimes and atrocities. Jordan Ellis reported that “this last week, footage emerged of Israeli soldiers pushing dead bodies off a rooftop in the occupied West Bank”.

Other actions in Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide included a community fundraiser on September 22 and a protest outside Caltex on September 15.

Socialist Alliance national co-convenor, Sam Wainwright, condemned the Australian government on September 23 for refusing to vote for Palestine’s motion at the United Nations.