The world stands in solidarity with Palestine

August 1, 2014
Issue 
Protesters at the Melbourne rally on July 26. Photo: Ali Bakhtiarvandi.

This was a speech given to the rally for Palestine in Melbourne on July 26.

***

Over the past few weeks we have seen two major horrific events. Firstly Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 shot down over the Ukraine and 298 innocent people were killed.

This horrific event has been thoroughly condemned by many world leaders. Many of the Western world leaders have called for retribution against the Russian separatists and for retribution against Russia.

Many Western leaders want embargoes against Russia some from the US Senate and Congress even want war with Russia.

The Western media has been covering every aspect of it, from cover to cover

But nobody suggests that the shooting down of the Malaysian flight was intentional.

Meanwhile the other catastrophic event is the slaughter taking place in Gaza as we speak. So far more than 850 people have been killed and more than 5000 injured.

We have seen a hospital bombed. A school bombed. A mosque bombed. Four kids murdered while playing on a beach, in fact hundreds of kids killed

All the world’s leaders, all the world’s media and even the Israeli leadership itself all agree that this massacre is intentional. Unlike the accidental shooting down of flight MH17, this massacre of Palestinians is totally intentional.

Yet the western world leaders are silent. They call for bans and some for intervention into Russia yet with Israel they stand back and say next to nothing. They don't condemn Israel for this massacre, they don't call for embargoes and they don't call for intervention, so the massacre continues. In fact they continue giving Israel aid while they carry out this massacre.

While Ban Ki Moon has the courage to call for an inquiry into Israel's war crimes, both the US and Israel oppose the suggested UN inquiry stating that it would be "unhelpful".

Meanwhile the intentional massacre continues.

But the people of the world are not fooled. Hundreds of thousands of people are marching for the people of Palestine and against the brutal massacre being carried out by the Israeli Military.

Thousands have marched in Vienna, in France, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and a massive rally in London where tens of thousands of people marched.

We have seen huge rallies in the Middle East, Jordon, Beirut and rallies in Morocco, Thailand and many other countries.

We have also seen mass rallies in Washington and thousands of Jews in New York marched against the massacre carrying a banner that said "Not in our name".

They are calling for the massacre to stop. They are calling for their own countries and their leaders to intervene. They are calling for Israel to be held responsible for the massacre and for the Israeli government to be charged with war crimes. They are calling for the liberation of Palestine.

The rallies need to continue and to be built bigger and broader with greater support from the unions, from community groups, from political parties if we are to stop this massacre.

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