BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — "Palestine yes! Slaughter no! Israeli troops have got to go." This was the chant that greeted shoppers and workers knocking off for the day as around 100 supporters of a free Palestine marched down George Street in the heart of Sydney en route to the United States consulate in Martin Place on November 24.
The rally and march was one of a number of actions held here last week to condemn the killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces, demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territories, and draw attention to the complicity of the US and Australian governments in Israel's illegal occupation. On November 26, protesters gathered outside Doltone House in Darling Harbour where Israeli Colonel Raanan Gissin was addressing a meeting of the Jewish National Fund.
Palestinian Human Rights Campaign (PHRC) activist Sari Kassis told Green Left Weekly that Gissin is a spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces and was previously a spokesperson for former Israeli defence minister and war criminal Ariel Sharon. "Speaking on an apparently innocuous subject, 'Water for the Galilee', Colonel Gissin is promoting the cause of illegal Israeli settlement in Palestine and the continued oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people", Kassis said.
The march and rally on November 24 was addressed by Kassis, Rami Meo from the Australian Council of Palestinians and Democratic Socialist Party member and long-time Palestine solidarity activist Jenny Long. Long told Green Left Weekly that the DSP initiated the rally to demand, in particular, that the Australian government withdraw its support for Israel and push for the implementation of the UN resolutions that recognise the state of Palestine and condemn Israel's occupation. "The action was also called to publicise the mass rally being planned for International Human Rights Day on December 10", Long said.
The rally aroused a lot of interest among passers-by, some of whom joined the march as it made its way noisily through the city. However, the action generated even more interest among various arms of the police force, which seem to believe their own propaganda about "Arab trouble-makers and terrorists". The NSW police refused the rally organisers' request for a permit to march and dark-suited Australian Federal Police observed the action from start to finish. On the day of the march, Australian Protective Security Force officers made a number of phone calls to rally organisers inquiring about the likely size and composition of the rally, the prospects of "trouble" and whether the organisers could guarantee that the protesters would not march on to the Israeli consulate. In the end, the 100 marchers were "escorted" by approximately 30 Tactical Response Group police, on foot and in trucks, who later lined the steps into the building housing the US consulate to block access. The only "trouble" was an attempted assault on one of the marchers by an anti-Palestinian passer-by.
For more information about the rally on December 10, phone the DSP on 9690 1977 or Sari Kassis on 0404 244 588. The Palestine Human Rights Campaign meets at 4pm each Saturday in the University of Technology tower block, Broadway. All supporters of a free Palestine are encouraged to attend.