The images coming out of Gaza are horrific. Each morning we wake to news of the rapidly rising number of Palestinian people murdered and maimed by the Israeli state. Israeli bombs target hospitals, ambulances, schools, bakeries and journalists. Israel is attempting genocide of the Palestinian people with the complicity of the governments of the global north, including our own.

It has been a busy few weeks for activists in Melbourne. The Australian government forced a humanitarian crisis with its cruel treatment of refugees and asylum seekers held as political prisoners on Manus Island. Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton’s starvation and dehydration tactics and denial of medical aid did not deter the courageous resistance stance of the prisoners who refused to be moved to another prison camp on Manus Island. The minister resorted to brute force.