Hundreds protest for Palestine

BY JESS MELVIN

MELBOURNE — Three-hundred and fifty people, most of them young, took to the streets on April 27, demanding Israel get out of Palestine.

"Palestine will be free — because there will never be a day in which we stop raising our voices and pointing the finger at Israel and its violation of human rights", Alex Koutab from Palestinians for Human Rights declared. "Our building blocks are not tanks or bullets but sheer will and we are still being heard. We are carrying the resistance with us."

Alaa Hasanein from the Palestine Solidarity Network read out a poem from an unknown Palestinian poe: "You want us to put our weapons down, while their weapons persist. For you — easy talk. For you — food, family and freedom exist."

"1,2,3,4, stop Sharon's bloody war! 5,6,7,8 Free the Palestinian state!" Resistance member Marcus Pabian called out, leading the protesters in the chant. "As you go out onto the street, take this message with you", he said. "Make it loud, and make it clear!"

As the march neared Parliament House the protest's militancy intensified — Israeli and US flags were burnt, protesters linked arms and a pregnant woman planted herself defiantly in front of a police horse, while the crowd sat down, blocking a main intersection.

Palestine supporters will be protesting again on May 1 (M1) and May 4. See the activist calendar on page 23 for details.

From Green Left Weekly, May 1, 2002.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 490