Why you should march for Palestine this Sunday

The Melbourne Palestine movement is taking the streets this Sunday, 12pm at the State Library, to protest the federal government’s decision to invite the Israeli president to visit Australia, to demand an end to the Gaza genocide and occupation of the West Bank, and to defend our right to protest.

The Gaza genocide continues. Israel has violated the so-called ceasefire nearly 1,000 times in less than three months. At least 418 Palestinians have been slaughtered. All those people, with hopes and dreams that will never be fulfilled.

According to the United Nations, 1.6 million people in Gaza, including 800,000 children, are suffering acute food insecurity. That is more than three-quarters of the entire population. Gaza is buried under at least 50 million tonnes of rubble, making it impossible for the Palestinians to rebuild their lives. Meanwhile, Israel continues to tighten its suffocating blockade, banning essential construction materials, energy resources and humanitarian aid.

The Gaza genocide has also given cover for Israel to rapidly advance its colonisation of the West Bank. Early last year, the military launched a full-scale assault in the north, displacing 40,000 Palestinians—the largest ethnic cleansing since 1967. Recently, in Tulkarm, hundreds of Palestinian families were again expelled from their land as the Israeli military bulldozed scores of homes.

Amid these atrocities, the Australian political establishment is weaponising the Bondi massacre to crush Palestine solidarity. How dare they.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley slandered our movement, linking it to the massacre, arguing: “First they came for the Opera House, then they came to the Harbour Bridge, now they’ve come for Bondi”. Her lies were echoed by a chorus of politicians, journalists and the business elites.

These people have been crusading against the Palestine movement for the past two years. People like veteran racist Pauline Hanson, who has repeatedly called for Palestinian refugees to be deported back to Gaza. The ghouls from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry who slammed our rallies for disrupting business as usual. The media outlets, from the Age to the ABC to the Herald Sun, that lined up to defend Israel’s crimes against humanity.

They are using the post-Bondi moment to claw back lost ground. Mass opinion has shifted in favour of the Palestinians and against Israel, which put the Australian political establishment on the back foot. Now, they are on a massive offensive. Chris Minns, the New South Wales Labor premier, has banned protests and criminalised pro-Palestine phrases like “globalise the intifada”. Just last week, a woman was arrested for wearing a shirt with the slogan, which refers to supporting the Palestinians rising up against their oppression.

Our movement has rightly put the political establishment on notice for their complicity in genocide. The Labor government has helped arm Israel, supplying the barrel cannons for their F-35 fighter jets. A death-machine designed to fire over 3,000 bullets per minute. How dare they accuse us of stoking violence when they are up to their necks in this genocide.

Anthony Albanese has personally invited Israeli President Issac Herzog to address the federal parliament. This man has blood on his hands for the Gaza Holocaust, justifying the slaughter of Palestinian civilians, arguing: “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible” (for the 7 October 2023 attack).

In a just world, Herzog, along with the entire political establishment here and around the world, would be tried for war crimes. But in this capitalist hellscape where profit and power rules, human life is expendable.

Supporters of Palestine must redouble our efforts to build the solidarity movement and stand up to the ruling class offensive. The road to a free Palestine is a long one, but the past two years have given us a glimpse of hope—from the global Freedom Flotilla to the general strike in Italy.

We have faced down attacks on our movement because we know that we stand on the right side of history. This moment is another test; we must rise to the occasion.