The global streets’ response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that Israel will seize Gaza City has been more protests, including in London, Turkiye, Amsterdam, Madrid, Geneva, Kuala Lumpur, Oslo, Karachi, New York, Skopje and Geneva, among others.
Protesters also took to the streets in Gadigal Country/Sydney and Naarm/Melbourne, cities which are gearing up for an August 24 national day of action demanding Labor sanction Israel.
After Netanyahu approved his security cabinet’s plan to ostensibly free the hostages from two Hamas strongholds in Gaza City, one of the biggest protests took place in Tel Aviv. Organisers estimated 100,000 people, but media reports said “thousands”.
Another sign the pressure is mounting on Netanyahu is the letter by retired security officials to US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza. “It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,” they said.
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz took many by surprise with his August 9 announcement that Germany was suspending its large amount of arms exports to Israel. It had increased its weapons’ exports to Israel from 32 million Euros in 2023 to 303 million in November 2023.
Germany was Israel’s second-largest arms supplier, providing approximately 30% of its arms. The United States is the largest supplier, accounting for approximately 69% of Israel's major conventional arms imports between 2019 and 2023.
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Meanwhile, Australian defence minister Richard Marles continues to assert that weapons’ parts, as part of Lockheed Martin’s bigger supply chain, did not constitute supplying arms to Israel. “Let’s be clear — we don’t supply weapons to Israel”, he asserted to David Speers on the ABC Insiders program on August 10.
“We’re an F-35 country and we have been that for a couple of decades,” Marles said, going on to argue that selling armoured steel for armored vehicles was not “supplying weapons”. He said that “there is no step that we can take here which has any impact in relation to the activities of Israel”. Marles has been widely rebuked and ridiculed for his comments which blatantly ignore the Geneva Convention among other Genocide Conventions and international laws.
Meanwhile, Israel has killed five more Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, including including correspondent Anas al-Sharif, in a targeted strike on their media tent outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Hani Mahomud reported: “Israel has not only confirmed the attack and the killing of Al Jazeera crew members in Gaza City, but it is threatening publicly that this is scoring a victory, by targeting and killing journalists on the ground.”
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) said Israel had attempted to smear the journalists as “terrorists”. It said Israel’s targeting of journalists is a war crime.
The MEAA said at least 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
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Jacob Andrewartha reports that a Palestine solidarity rally in Dandenong, Victoria, on August 9 drew more than 200 people.
Protesters marched from the markets to Labor MP Julian Hills office and then to Harmony Square, demanding sanctions on Israel.
The rally was organised by Free Palestine Dandenong and South East Action. It condemned the Dandenong City Council for adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which had been used to silence independent pro-Palestine councillor Rhonda Garad.
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Speakers included Leyan, a Palestinian child from Gaza and Dr Muhammad Mainul Khan, who had worked at one of the last remaining hospitals in Gaza. Both highlighted the horrors of Israel’s forced starvation of Palestinians.
Bosnian woman Amela Ademi, who survived the genocide that took place during the war in Bosnia, highlighted the parallels between the two genocides and said “we have to keep protesting for Palestine”.
Socialist Alliance member Chloe DS, who organised the rally, condemned Labor’s role in the genocide and why their push to recognise a Palestinian state is a distraction from imposing sanctions and ending arms sales.
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About 3000 people marched in wet and windy conditions in Gadigal Country/Sydney on August 10, reports Rachel Evans.
Speakers included Judith Treanor from Jews Against the Occupation, Arthur Rorris from the South Coast Labour Council, Palestinian activist Dalia Qasem and Roula, a Palestinian from Gaza and community educator for Palestinian refugees.
Speakers encouraged people to attend the August 24 national day of action.
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Palestine Action Group Canberra held one of its biggest rallies against Israel’s genocide on August 9, with at least 1000 people attending.
Hundreds banged pots and pans to highlight Israel’s starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, and marched behind a lead banner which read “Stop Arming Israel”.
Thousands of high school and university students across the country joined the student strike for Palestine on August 7. Rallies were held in many cities, with students condemning the complicity of their university’s in Israel’s genocide.
Alex Bainbridge reports that an August 8 press conference held by Palestine activists in Magan-djin/Brisbane announced plans to march over the Story Bridge as part of the August 24 nationwide march for Gaza.
Following the success of the Harbour Bridge march in Gadigal Country/Sydney, organisers hope this will be the biggest Palestine solidarity protest in Magan-djin so far.
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