It’s been six months of the war on Gaza. Israel’s invasion has taken over 33,000 lives, so many of them have been children.
We have witnessed half a year of brutal occupation and oppression – streamed into our homes across the world – yet the ‘western world’ does nothing to stop the genocide.
Instead, Labor governments across this country joined with the Liberals, to pass motions in our parliaments giving Israel moral cover and tacit permission to indiscriminately bomb Gaza.
So many of us cried out against this. We knew what this would mean.
You see, we’ve seen it before.
It’s the playbook of a modern day imperialist power as they manipulate people into thinking that ‘threat’ demands annihilation at all costs. It minimises the value of one life and elevates another’s.
But, so many of us see through these strong-man tactics and have chosen to march through the streets across the world. In Melbourne we have been rallying, protesting, blockading, and holding vigils for six months.
This peace movement now numbers in the millions, like when the world warned against the Iraq war.
We’ve seen through the platitudes and equivocations and the words that are too little, too late. We are calling for a permanent and ongoing ceasefire. We are calling for peace and liberation of the Palestinian people.
We haven’t fallen for the requests to stop bringing up the uncomfortable truths when the agitation of this peace movement clearly unsettles the consciences of some.
We’ve refused to accept the cowardice of our governments that would rather we stop chanting for justice, than join with those who’ve been oppressed.
The people of Melbourne have not relented and never will.
We will keep marching. We will keep chanting. We will keep holding them to account. We will not stop until Palestine is free 🇵🇸✊🏾
Show your solidarity: Palestine Events in Naarm
Transcript
We have to call for peace. We have to call for de-escalation, because what matters now are the lives of those innocent civilians in Gaza, in the West Bank, and everywhere. And we’ve got warmongers at the helms of our governments right across this world who are itching to escalate the conflict. But we know it’s millions of civilians that are going to suffer for decades to come.
This movement for peace is more important than ever. And thank you for being part of it.
Today is a very significant day. Today we’re going to see, right across the world, this movement for peace – making their leaders listen. We have the right to protest peacefully. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
What we’ve seen, what we’re going to see today, what we’ve seen over months across the world, with millions of people joining peaceful marches, is what happens when our governments don’t listen. Today’s what happens when Labor doesn’t listen. We are going to make them listen.
And the disruption that comes, the disruption that comes with protest activity pales in comparison to the devastation that people are experiencing right now in Gaza. And that’s what our leaders need to understand – today and for the months ahead, until we have peace. They will hear us. They will hear the Palestinians.
In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.
In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.
Thanks to everyone. They’re going to hear us today.