Supporters of justice for Palestine made their views on United States President Donald Trump’s “deal” on Palestine and Israel known at a February 7 protest by holding up a large banner that read: “Palestine Not for Sale: Deal of the Century = Steal of the Century!”.
According to the Palestine Action Group, which organised the rally, the Palestinian people reject Trump's “deal”.
In a leaflet handed out on the day, the group said: “Trump’s so-called deal is a huge attack on Palestinian rights. It gives the green light to Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank, and the entirety of Jerusalem.
"Under this plan, Palestinians would have no control over their borders or airspace, no sovereignty, and no right to defence. It is a blueprint for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
Protesters called on the Australian government to reverse its announced support for the deal.
Palestinian-Australian activist Khaled Ghannam told the rally: “The Trump deal is a new imperialist conspiracy against Palestine. Trump and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu are liars.
"We will continue our resistance until we win our freedom. The Palestinian people urgently need our solidarity now.”
Vivienne Porzsolt, speaking on behalf of the anti-Zionist group Jews Against the Occupation, said the plan is a “calculated insult” to the Palestinian people.
“It is an agreement between two colonial powers, Batman and Robin, on the distribution of the spoils of war," Porzsolt said. "It has nothing whatever to do with a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis ... but expands, yet again, the conventional colonialist framework of possibilities.”
She said the deal is so bad that “even mainstream commentators see it as having no chance of success”.
There has been increasing disaffection with Israel among younger Jews in the US and Australia and this plan is deepening that “alienation” from “their impossible dream of Israel”, she said.
“The machinations of the two criminals, Trump and Netanyahu may well wake them up from this false dream.”
Porzsolt added that because the US-Israel deal “is designed to fail, it empowers Israel to take what it wants. Only full-blown apartheid from the river to the sea can result.”
“This is why we need to renew our solidarity with Palestinians until there is justice for the Palestinians and peace and security for the peoples of Palestine/Israel,” Porzsolt concluded.