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.
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