People's Struggle in Australia for Palestinians Continues

Written by: Ned K. on 28 July 2024

(Above: Adelaide rally 280724  Source: AFOPA on X)

On this latest weekend of 27-28 July 2024, demonstrations in support of Palestinians in Australians were again held, as they have been since Israel's bombardment of Gaza intensified last October.

Numbers of people attending such demonstrations and those able to attend varies from week to week and fortnight to fortnight but their cumulative impact should not be underestimated.

The latest weekend's demonstrations were supplemented by demonstrations outside the NSW state ALP conference and also inside the conference itself. 

In smaller cities like Adelaide and Canberra, the organizers of the demonstrations have been able to provide many different speakers, some with recent first-hand experience of the current situation in Gaza and some Palestinians who lived in Gaza before having to flee for their lives.

In Adelaide this last weekend, the 1500 people at the demonstration listened to a young Palestinian person who fled Palestine with his parents when he was just nine years old. He calmly recalled his memories of what it was like living in the apartheid-like conditions in the West Bank, with endless checkpoints, scarcity of food, electricity, fresh drinking water, destruction of Palestinian homes one by one by Israeli settlers and resulting homelessness. He finished speaking by saying that the Western Governments, not Hamas, were responsible for what happened on 7 October last year, as these governments had supported for decades the colonial invasion of Palestine by Zionist Israeli regimes.

It is the voices of thousands of people in Australia that the Australian Government has been unable to stop. 

Now the Government is fearful of losing Seats in western Sydney due to its pro-Israel position. So, we see Foreign Minister Wong announce last Thursday, three days before the NSW state ALP conference, that the Australian Government was following the USA in placing sanctions against seven Israeli individuals and a youth group, Hilltop Youth, for assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank,

Wong said the sanctions included revoking of visas, travel bans into Australia and seizure of any property or assets held by the individuals or youth group in Australia. 

These measures are like hitting the Israeli Government with a feather duster with three feathers in it!

Wong said the assaults by these Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank "increased tensions and further undermines stability for a two-state solution".

However, she and her Prime Minister Albanese do not support Palestinian statehood and still parrot the USA's line of "Israel has the right to defend itself"!

However, she and the Albanese Government do not support the right of Palestinians to defend themselves against an imperialist backed Zionist invading regime.

This is coming back to bite them, especially as it may contribute to the end of their existence as the executive committee of the imperialists in Australia at the next federal election in 2025!

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