VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
Hundreds of thousands around the world rallied in the streets of more than 90 cities demanding Israel immediately ends the genocidal bombardment and barbaric blockade of Palestinian Gaza.
The relentless carpet bombing and cutting off power, water, food and medicines into Gaza has left more than 3,500 Palestinians dead with numbers of dead and injured continuing to rise as Israel continues to pound Gaza and threatens military invasion and annihilation of Palestinians. Israel bombardment is targeting schools, hospitals, Mosques and Churches housing fleeing refugees from north Gaza.
Gaza is an open air prison of displaced and dispossessed Palestinian refugees evicted from their homes and country by the colonial Zionist Israel state with the full support of western imperialist powers. For 75 years Palestinians have fought for their liberation, resisting Zionist Israel’s ruthless oppression and occupation, backed by US imperialism.
Israel would never be able to maintain and escalate its brutal colonial occupation, expansion of settlements, the Gaza blockade, murdering thousands of Palestinians, without full political and financial backing from U.S. imperialism, pouring nearly $4 billion in military aid every year into Israel. Since 1948 at the establishment of Israel state and brutal eviction of Palestinians from their homes and country, the US has given Israel more military aid than to any other country.
Israel is a vitally important strategic economic and military base for US imperialism in the Middle East with huge oil and gas reserves in the Mediterranean sea bordering Gaza. The ordinary people of Palestine and Israel are hostages of the US and Zionist colonial and imperialist domination.
World Wide Solidarity
Solidarity with Palestinians struggle for national liberation is galvanising globally. The long struggles of Palestinians for national liberation resonates strongly with millions of people, especially those living under the heavy boot of colonialism and imperialism.
Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People identify with the Palestinian people’s shared history and experiences of dispossession, oppression, discrimination, and in their long struggle for self determination.
In Australia, since the start of Israel bombing of Gaza nearly 2 weeks ago protest rallies have been held in many Australian cities. On the weekend of 13 – 15 October thousands joined protest rallies across the country in most cities, and heard passionate and powerful speeches by Palestinians, First Nations peoples, Moslems, Jews, Christians and many others.
More rallies will be held on the weekend of 21-23 October.
Many peoples'organisations are releasing statements and petitions condemning Israel.
Australian Palestine Union Solidarity Statement https://auspalestine.org/our-statement/
Reports from around the country ...
Brisbane - Meanjin
Thousands marched through the streets of Brisbane on 13 October.
Canberra - Ngambri
Canberra held one of its biggest rallies attended by approximately 300 people. For a city populated largely by public servants and politicians it was a significant and militant protest.
Sydney- Gadigal
Despite threats, thousands rally in Sydney for Palestine
“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” Yoav Gallant, Israeli “Defence”
Minister https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-fighting-human-animals- defence-minister
After the Opera House sails and Australian Parliament displayed Israeli flag colours, NSW Premier
Chris Minns used media outrage about smoke flares and anti-semitism to undermine further Palestinian protests in Sydney.
Despite threatening potential protestors with new NSW anti-protest laws, more than 6000 came in defiance.
A speaker from Palestine Action Group told them, “For 75 years these horrors have been inflicted
upon us. This did not start last weekend. This has been ongoing for seven decades.”
He continued, “And what did the world do, when faced with images of the apartheid brutality in the
West Bank? Gaza has been under blockade for 16 years. What did the world do in years past? With
every single war on Gaza? The asymmetric death toll, Palestinians dead in their thousands?
“Because you cannot keep a people locked up, chained, subject to brutality and occupation and the
indignity of the military violence that Israel subjugates us with every single day, and not expect that
would somehow come crashing down.”
Beyond endurance
Professor Peter Slezak, the son of holocaust survivors and for decades a voice for sanctions on Israel,
said thousands of Jews are protesting in New York chanting ‘Not in our name’.
“It’s not anti-Jewish to protest the crimes of the state of Israel,” he declared.
“It was a desperate breakout from a concentration camp by the people of Gaza,” he continued,
saying this so-called ‘unprovoked’ attack came after the decades of attacks by Israel. “The world only
pays attention when Israelis are killed and Palestinians resist,” not when the opposite is true.
Professor Bezak said life in Gaza “is beyond endurance. What did Israel or the world community
expect? How can you trap over two million in Gaza, half of whom are children in the one of the most
densely populated places on the planet?
He condemned the officially stated Israeli policy, of keeping Gazans at starvation level, but still alive,
that Israeli leaders mockingly describe as ‘putting Palestinians on a diet’.
In one attack, “Israeli snipers lined up on a barricade and shot nurses, disabled people in wheelchairs
and hundreds and hundreds of unarmed civilians.”
There have been four military invasions since 2008. 70 percent of the population of Gaza are on humanitarian aid, 40 percent are unemployed, ten percent of the children under five have stunted growth due to malnutrition, 60 percent of Gaza’s school children are anaemic and 90 percent of the water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption.”
Current Israeli leaders have publicly abandoned the so-call two state solution
Al Jazeera gives the hourly toll of new horrors.
The Palestine Action Group speaker concluded, “My message to politicians is Palestine will be free!
And a day of reckoning is coming that a genocide was being perpetrated AND YOU DID NOTHING!
And that shame will live with you forever.”
Melbourne - Naarm
Justice and equality for all “from the river to the sea”. In Melbourne, on Sunday 15 October, 15,000 rallied and marched through the streets of Melbourne CBD calling for an end to bombing of Gaza and the blockade, end Israeli occupation and the slaughter of Palestinians.
The rally heard passionate and powerful speeches from Australia’s First Nations people, Palestinians, Moslems and Jews. Gary Foley, a veteran leader of the First Nations people told the rally that the First Nations people have stood in solidarity with Palestinian people and their liberation for a long time. He linked the Australian First Nations people’s struggle for land rights and self-determination with the Palestinian struggle against Israel colonialism and imperialism.
Nasser Mashni representing Australians for Palestine Advocacy Network, expressed his heart felt thanks to the thousands who came out in support of the Palestinian people. He said it was gratifying to see so many from people’s organisations at the rally. Mashni, son of Palestinian refugees evicted from their Palestinian home during the 1948 Nakba, pointed out the hypocrisy of the successive Australian governments and the media, silent for decades whilst thousands of Palestinians were being killed. Mashni told the rally to be proud for standing on the side of justice with the Palestinian people, and not be intimidated.
The large crowd enthusiastically welcomed a young Jewish speaker who condemned the occupation of Palestine and compared Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. Other speakers included representative of the Islamic Council of Victoria, Samah Sabawi (Palestinian poet and writer), Women for Palestine, Janet Rice (Greens) and socialists. Speakers called for end to apartheid, and justice and equality for all “from the river to the sea”.
The rally marched through the streets of Melbourne chanting “Free, Free Palestine”, “End the blockade and bombing of Gaza”, “Israel, USA how many kids did you kill today” and “In our thousands, in our millions we are all Palestinians.”
Statement by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (Melbourne -Naarm))
“We recognise that Israelis will never truly be free until Palestinians are also free; that for Israelis to be safe, there is no option but to achieve a robust political resolution with Palestinian that demands painful concessions on both sides, including recognizing the reality of the other´s permanency.”
Adelaide - Kaurna
In Adelaide about 4,000 people attended the biggest Palestinian rally for a long time. The rally marched from Parliament House onto North Terrace and to Victoria Square.
Imad Mahmoud called on Australian federal and state governments to stop being complicit in Israel's ongoing violent occupation of Palestinian territories.
"If there was no ongoing occupation, there would be no violence and you know that," he said. "If there was no daily brutal oppression there would be no violence and you know that.
Mike Khizam from Friends of Palestine group said only the people's movement in support of Palestinian people in Gaza could prevent Israel from escalating their aggression into a catastrophic war throughout the Middle East.
Another rally is planned for next Sunday 22 October.
Perth - Yagan
Perth rally was attended by 500 people calling for end to the bombing and blockade of Gaza.