Sydney Palestine Protest Sun 25th Aug - The Bank of Humanity
Week 46 - 322 days
Synopsis
🇦🇺🇵🇸❤️🪧📢 Pro-Palestine Rally Sydney Sun 25th August / Week 46 / 322 days #FreePalestine #IsraelWarCrimes
Another well attended march today on a balmy Sydney day on the edge of Spring.
Taking notes - lots of themes coming up this week that inspired me to write.
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Contents
🕎 Acknowledgement and thank you to Jewish protestors
Two speakers gave thanks in particular to Jewish protestors walking with us to great personal sacrifice often abused by their communities and the lobby noting in particular Jews Against the Occupation ‘48 (JOA) who have marched consistently and given speeches at various points.
A fair acknowledgement. Here was Vivienne Porzolt of JOA giving a wonderful speech back on 5th May:
I was able to express support and thanks myself - on the way to the rally I bumped into and had a chat with the wonderful Sarah Schwartz of the Jewish Council of Australia who was attending another event in Sydney that day.
Like shooting fish in a barrel…
Apologies for the analogy - these are my words not that of a speaker but all I could think of as they repeated some well known stats
178 journalists DEAD in Gaza - noting 69 journalists died during the entire course of World War 2
More bombing in the tiny area of Gaza than multiple wars combined - this would be horrendous enough if it wasn’t for the mass of humanity packed into that tiny area compounding the horror…
The Greens: the only Party with the decency to call out Israel in The Australian Parliament
And who is the ONLY political group with the decency to call out Israel in a Parliament stacked with Israel sycophants?… The Green Party, acknowledged by a speaker today.
But they are horribly abused and misrepresented - for having human decency.
Just last week Mehreen Faruqi led a sanctions motion on Israel Leaders in the Senate1 - as have other parliaments across the world including call from EU politicians. Noting Faruqi proudly wearing her keffiyeh in The Senate - actually banned in the Victorian Parliament, coincidentally home State of the pro-Isareli Lobby in Australia. To contrast - the keffiyeh is not even banned in the US Congress!
Faruqui’s sanctions call was perfectly reasonable and completely justified and yet the rebukes orchestrated between Labor and Coalition MPs ignored the matter and hand and noted “grandstanding”, “political gain” … and even “extremists”…..
These actors are trying to demonise the Greens at every opportunity for acting in good conscience - which is deplorable in itself - but this is NOT an attack vector. Let's look at their proposal. To sanction:
A) Netanyahu and Gallant - already:
the ICC after extensive investigation on 20th May 2024 requesting arrest warrants for the pair2
the ICJ confirming plausible case for genocide on 26th January 2024, and issuing two interim orders for Israel to protect the citizens of Gaza (ignored)3
in a separate ICJ historical case from 2022 - a 20th July 2024 ruling the actions of Israel Apartheid and brutal oppression - under their watch - to be illegal4
The ICC prosecutor two days ago reminded the Judges to accelerate their ruling5 having requested the warrants back on May 20th. The Judges themselves are of course under direct personal threat from personal sanctions on themselves AND their families should they issue arrest warrants - by a ridiculous law actually passed in the US Congress “The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act” …. you couldn’t make it up - except they actually did. So a Judge needs to weigh up if their grand kids can take that scholarship at an American Uni now or not…
B) Sanctions on Ben-Gvir… serious? Not even worth listing his BS. Anyone of good conscience protesting that?
C) Expulsion of Ambassador Amir Maimon - enabling the lobby, and you can't forget his early comment in-line with "intent" found by the ICJ calling Palestinians "animals" on 10th October:
Parliamentary Pro-Israel Sycophants opposing the motion
Telling who is speaking out against The Greens both in Parliament and out.
Ex-Labor MP Mike Kelly - co-founder - Labor Friends of Israel (one of ELEVEN Parliamentary "Friends of Israel" groups) called The Greens extremists. Kelly - a former defence minister - is now employed by Palantir Technologies - who provide AI for Israeli killer drones in addition to other controversial weapons.
Everyone speaking out has a vested interest whether political, ideological, financial - that overrides their ability to empathise with basic human rights.
If you blanket protest a sanctions motion given the reasoning above - you blatantly stand AGAINST humanity no matter what country it is. And it is a country and state Government - Israel - NOT - "all Jewish people" as it repeated time and time again by the lobby as an ad naseum tactic.
And just on that…
The coward’s way out
So the pro-Israeli Lobby keep issuing disgusting attacks on The Greens - essentially for having the humanity to call out Israel’s actions in front of their mates (literally) in Parliament.
This one today p1ssed me off …. from the CEO of the pro-Israeli ZFA:
So in one “noble” article he’s:
a) tried to broaden criticism of Israel to “Jewish community” and
b) demonised The Greens for having the decency to hold Israel to account in Parliament - "They are nothing but a Party of stunts, who promote division, hatred, and disunity to win votes”
Utterly tone deaf to the justified targeted criticism of Israel - it's a completely illogical, cold and calculating mindset.
I replied calling this out (without realising I was even replying to his personal account) - and his response? Blocked. Pathetic.
Close your ears mate when you're called out for your enabling BS.
Netanyahu - Lauded in Time but slow to correct…
Interesting point from a speaker today on Netanyahu.
After his repulsive sycophantic laudering in the US Congress on 22 July, Time Magazine interviewed him on 4 August back in Israel and printed a gushing interview.
It took them 9 days to fact check and follow-up with corrections on Netanyahu's "alternative reality" but of course by then the ship had sailed - all-conquering Netanyahu/US/Time Magazine Holy Trinity complete.6
🇬🇧 UK Free Speech Crackdown Continues
Utterly shocking shutdown of free speech in the UK continues - police monitoring FB posts, Twitter feeds, even retweets.
Independent journalist Richard Medhurst was arrested - for the first time in his life - for expressing the international legal right of Palestinians to resist, held for what 40 hours.7
Just ridiculous.
Closing with Peter Slezak
And closing again with our Jewish brethren, long term activist UNSW Associate Professor Peter Slezak gave an absolutely fantastic, impassioned speech - calling out the awful causality of Israel’s unconscionable actions and the hypocrisy surrounding the enablement of them very eloquently.
I will try to reproduce the video as it was a very poignant speech - common sense and dare I say it - human decency from a Jewish man whose parents survived Auschwitz.
A fitting close to the speeches ahead of regular march around the CBD.
As one of the speakers said - the Palestinians know we are with them from our marching. Even if they just feel we are with them in solidarity - that is enough.
RELATED ARTICLES
ICJ 26th January 2024 ruling of “a plausible case for genocide”
Comprehensive history and current Israeli breaches of international law:
Australian Pro-Israeli Lobby:
Sydney Pro-Palestinian Rally Sunday 11th August - the irony:
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REFERENCES
ICC Press Release 20 May 2024 “Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in the State of Palestine“ - https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state
ICJ Website Case 192 - “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel)“ - https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192
ICJ Website: Press Release on the advisory opinions on case 186 20th July 2024 - “The Court gives its Advisory Opinion and responds to the questions posed by the General Assembly“ - https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240719-pre-01-00-en.pdf
Euro News “ICC prosecutor insists court has power to issue warrants for Israeli leaders linked to Gaza“ 23 Aug 2024 - https://www.euronews.com/2024/08/23/icc-prosecutor-insists-court-has-power-to-issue-warrants-for-israeli-leaders-linked-to-gaz
Time Magazine August 13th 2024 “Fact-Checking What Benjamin Netanyahu Said in His 2024 Interview With TIME“ - https://time.com/7010486/fact-checking-what-benjamin-netanyahu-said-in-his-2024-interview-with-time/
Common Dreams Aug 21 2024 “'Can't Make This Up': Journalist Arrested Under UK Anti-Terror Law Hours After Criticizing It“ - https://www.commondreams.org/news/richard-medhurst