Nick Everett, Canberra
More than 60 people rallied outside the Israeli embassy on May 1, including supporters of Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine and a delegation of Palestine solidarity activists from Sydney.
Anglican bishop of Canberra and Goulburn George Browning addressed the crowd, describing Israel as "judge, jury and executioner". He said that "history will treat the West and the US in particular with contempt. Peace will only come with justice."
Keysar Trad from the Lebanese Muslim Association discussed how media censorship is part of the injustice towards Palestinians, and claimed that if other Australians knew what was really going on in Palestine they would also be attending the rally.
"Before [Prime Minister John] Howard praises Israel and [Israeli PM Ariel} Sharon, he should go into the Occupied Territories and see the injustice for himself", Trad told the rally. He also talked about the hypocrisy of locking up Muslim Australians and accusing them of terrorism when some 50 Jewish Australians have enlisted in the Israeli armed forces to kill innocent people in Jenin and elsewhere n the West Bank.
Catholic Bishop Pat Power said that "if the assassination of two Hamas leaders is not enough, support for those extrajudicial killings by the US in the name of self defence is outrageous", adding that "there can only be peace when it's based on justice. It can never come about by beating people into submission."
Former Israeli Avigail Abarbanel explained how the West Bank is fragmented by large Israeli colonies, removing the basis for a two-state solution. "The US endorsed this, sealing the fate of nearly four million people."
ANU lecturer Rick Kuhn and well-known community activist Diana Abdul-Rahman also addressed the protest.
From Green Left Weekly, May 5, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.