Melbourne Protests the Israeli aggression

On sunday 30th July, 2006, about 3000 Melbournians rallied on the streets of Melbourne CBD against the Israeli aggression on Palestinians and Lebanese.

People came from all sorts of backgrounds, we even had a number of people from the Jewish faith protesting against Zionism. All media was present. However, most media chose to say that the "Lebanese community" or "Islamic community" rallied. While there was a good muslim presence in the rally, they still were not more than 50%. So the media representation was off the mark.

What was interesting was that one of the speakers (member of the Jewish faith) had the backbone to clearly say that Hizbollah and Hamas are not terrorist organizations but rather resistance forces. That was an eye opener for me.

The Age chose to show a picture of a group of muslims in what looked like an aggressive pause. Selective publishing of images can sometimes do the job for the media. The intent is clearly to show that this rally was only attended by a group of violent aggressive muslims who are against poor Israel.

Every TV channel reported the rally and none of them failed to follow it with a report of a Jewish Public meeting in Melbourne that condemned Hizbollah.

Disturbing Images on SBS world News

Watching the SBS news last night (Tuesday 25th July) at 6:30pm, I was very distrubed to see the images of the bombed red cross and ambulance vehicles and the image of the mother on the boat who was seperated from one of her children.

From the images, it appeared that the evacuation officer took a mother and two of her children leaving one child on the port platform. The mother (in Hijab) was screaming and pleading to the officer on the boat to return to pick up the child but to no avail. In what looked like an uncontrolled reaction, she started kissing his hand and touching his face in a very heart-wrenching way of saying "I beg you". The boat left the child.

I don't know what I would have done in her situation. Leave one child behind to save the lives of the other two on the boat. Jump off the boat to go the other child and leave the two others on board to go to Cyprus or whereever the destination was? A difficult question.

Mr Annan has indicated that Israel has intentionally targeted the UN location, which killed four UN staff. Pictures of the red cross vehicle appeared on TV with a gaping hole right in the centre of its roof and many other smaller bullet holes on the roof.

To me, Israel is a symbol for agression, occupation, in-humanity and all bad things that a human can do to another human.

Hezbollah's Adventure

There is no question in my mind that the Israeli response to the capture of the Israeli soldiers was not only disproportionate but viscous and is typical of the Zionist entity. However, has Hezbollah's action been irresponsible?

Hezbollah's leader claimed on an Aljazeera interview that he has indicated earlier this year to some members of the Lebanese government that he would have to capture Israeli soldiers in order to be able to get back the captured Lebanese and that these members did not argue with him. However, Hezbollah has essentially acted without the approval of the Lebanese government and has engaged the whole country in a war without their choice. Would Hezbollah have had any other options though to get it's captured members back? I suspect not. However, it remains responsible for engaging Lebanon in this war and for this it must be answerable to the people of Lebanon after the war is over. For now, the Lebanese people are trying to act in unity in response to the Israeli aggression and to the human crisis at hand.

Dr Rice has been negotiating for a NATO peace keeping force to be deployed in south Lebanon for a period of two to three months. After which, the Lebanese forces be trained by the NATO forces to take control of south Lebanon. To me, this spells civil war in Lebanon. May be this is something that the Israeli and USA governments want anyway.

I believe that the Occupation of Palestine and issues with Palestinians can't be disengaged from the Lebanese issues. The US and Israeli governments are trying to split the issues in order to present Hezbollah's action as unprovoked, whereas in actual fact, it is seen by many as a response to the events in Gaza. Contrary to their argument, the root of the problem is not Hezbollah or Hamas. The root problem is the occupation that the Israeli government is exercising on Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian Land. A problem which started in 1948.

The occupation has been the trigger for the formation of many resistance movements in the middle east. This single issue has acted as the glue that strengthened these organizations on a single goal and that is to stop oppression and occupation. Hezbollah has made a gamble. If Israel wins the war and destroys or disarms Hezbollah, and that is unlikely, then that could be fatal for Hezbollah. On the other hand, if Israel fails to accomplish its mission, then there may be a significant power shift in the middle east where Hezbollah, Iran and Syria become key players in the region.

Israeli Agression - Rally speech - Melbourne

Melbourne 15th July

Peace be with you all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, brothers and sisters: As we speak today, one of the world’s most powerful military machines is pounding civilian areas in Palestine.

As we speak now, people including little children are dying in Gaza.

As we speak, international laws are being broken and collective punishment is exercised against the Palestinian people.

We gather here today to demand our government to seek to stop the Israeli military assault on the Palestinian civilians. It is a shame to see the double standards when comparing the response to the North Korean missile launch with the devastating Israeli assault on Palestinians. The silence of our government on the Palestinian issue is deafening.

We gather here today to demand an end to the economic blockade of the Palestinian people. The Israeli and the US governments are punishing the Palestinian people for their democratic choice.

We gather here today to demand respect of the democratic choice of the Palestinian people and to free the detained elected representatives.

We gather here today to make a stance of courage and justice and to say enough is enough to the injustices against the Palestinian people and the occupation of Palestine.

People talk about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. I say there is no Palestinian/Israeli conflict …. but…. an Israeli occupation of Palestine.

I will not forget the picture of the little girl Huda running in a heart wrenching anguish between the bodies of her father, mother and five siblings who were lying on the beach of Gaza. Unwittingly, Huda became a symbol of Palestinian pain and suffering. I will not forget her shrieking screams as she calls her father to wake-up……. I ask myself: what has Huda done for her young life to be scared in such a way? What is sadder is that there are thousands more like her.

I remind you that this event as well as a series of other assassinations of civilians occurred before the capture of the Israeli soldier and not after. None of them attracted anywhere as much media attention. Indeed our media has been playing with words and calling the capture of the Israeli soldier kidnapping and calling the kidnapping of the Palestinian MP’s arrest to appease the Zionist lobby.

The ongoing assault of the Israeli military on Palestinians has been going on despite a 12 months fire seize by Palestinian factions including Hamas. Nobody is asking what was that soldier doing in the supposedly Palestinian autonomous area anyway?

Approximately 20% of the Palestinian population have been in Israeli detention at one or more times. Many are held without trial in what is known as “administrative detention” and are not even given access to the Israeli justice system, let alone held under conditions which would satisfy international law. According to Israeli NGO Btselem, in January of 2006 over 8200 Palestinians were held in Israeli custody. According to Defence of Children International (DCI): As of last month (June 2006) there were 388 Palestinian children in Israeli detention. Over 3000 children have been through Israeli jails since September 2000, the majority held only for allegedly throwing stones. In the past weeks (May 2006) DCI has reported a West Bank child as young as five years old snatched from his father’s arms and held in detention for six and half hours – allegedly for throwing stones. 5 year old detained for throwing stones.

The people of Palestine now have no electricity, no hospitals, no schools, no food, isolated from international aid, isolated from the world and if this is not enough, they are being bombed by F16’s. All of this is happening under the watchful eye of the world.

The soldier, who is a prisoner of war and not a kidnapped citizen, was used as a pretext / an excuse to cripple the elected Palestinian government. If Israel’s real intention was to free the soldier they would have accepted the prisoner exchange offer made by the Palestinians, but instead they elected to use military power.

What the Israeli government is doing is illegal and is state terrorism….Israel is a state with an agenda of war and mischief.

The issue of the occupation of Palestine has gone beyond being a Palestinian issue only, it has gone beyond being a middle eastern issue only. It is also not just an Islamic issue as Palestinians are both Muslims and Christians. Both are at the receiving end of the Zionist military machine. The occupation of Palestine is now an issue for the conscience of humankind. It is a sore spot in the conscience of humanity.

It is time for us to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people and say enough is enough to the Israeli aggression.