BY GRANT COLEMAN
WOLLONGONG — Three-hundred people chanted "Free, Free Palestine" and "Shame, Shame USA" outside Wesley Church in the Wollongong mall in a "Vigil for a free Palestine" on April 27. It was the first pro-Palestine protest here since the current Israeli offensive began in late March.
Some had tears in their eyes as vigil-organiser Will Williams, a member of the Socialist Alliance, recounted the devastation of the Jenin refugee camp: "Up to 800 people are feared dead by the Jenin hospital and now Israel dare to try to postpone the downgraded 'fact finding' mission in fear that it will go beyond Jenin. Well it should."
A placard, carrying a poster produced by the Palestine Liberation Organisation after the 1982 massacres at Sabra and Shatilla, was marked with the ANZAC phrase "lest we forget".
Arthur Rorris, secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, pledged the council's support for the Palestinian cause: "We are calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal from the Occupied Territories."
"Are we going to have one law for the West and one rule for the rest? Or, are we going to have one law for the whole world?", he asked, pointing to the differing First World reactions to the September 11 attacks on New York as opposed to the massacre in Jenin.
Wesley Church's Reverend Gordon Bradbury attended briefly to offer his solidarity to the Islamic community. He told the protesters that it didn't matter "which god we served, as long as we are united in our support for Palestine".
"The media have us thinking it is hopeless to support the Palestinian people. But we won't sit at home in silence as they want us to", Cassie Harris from Resistance said. "We need to let people hear our message. People protesting helped end the genocide of East Timor, now we need to demand the withdrawal of the troops, the tanks and all other forms of Israeli terrorism. Only an end to the Israeli occupation will bring peace."
For information about the Palestine solidarity campaign in Wollongong phone Will on (02) 4226 2010.
From Green Left Weekly, May 1, 2002.
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