Support for Palestinians on New Year's Eve
Written by: Ned K. on 3 January 2024
(Above: original photo by Asbjorn Kanck)
On New Year's Eve 2023 in Adelaide, thousands of people gathered at Elder Park on the banks of the city's Karrawirra Pari ("River Torrens" is the colonial name) to see in the New Year.
At the same time, thousands more walked across the footbridge of Karrawirra Pari on their way to watch the Big Bash cricket game.
These two events occur every year, but this year was different.
As people walked to both events they were greeted by over 300 people walking along the river bank path and over the footbridge carrying flags and banners in memory of the Palestinians in Gaza who had been killed by Israeli Defence Force missiles, bombs and gunfire since 7 October 2023.
The Palestinian supporters were led along the path and over the bridge by a Palestinian woman read out the names of individuals killed and a short summary of their lives cut short.
The action organized by Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) was deliberately a solemn protest with the wording on banners and placards "doing the talking".
The response from the people crossing the bridge on their way to the cricket was more than the organizers of the action could have wished for. People going to the cricket made comments such as "good on you", "we support you" to several stopping and clapping to how their support.
Perhaps people connected this peaceful action with the pro-Palestinian stand taken by opening batter for Australian cricket men's Test team Usman Khawaja?
Actions in support of the Palestinian people both in the Israeli Occupied Territories of Gaza and the West Bank and all round the world have varied. Even the most desperate, violent actions by some individuals or groups have their root cause in the colonial occupation of Palestinian lands through the establishment of the Zionist state of Israel.
Even the Zionist leaders are aware of this. For example, Avraham Burg, the former head of the Knesset and former head of the Jewish Agency, wrote "Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israel escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated." (from Conversations With Tariq Ali)
There was a pre-colonialism time when Palestinians lived together peacefully. Some were Moslem, some Christian, some Jewish but no Zionists backed by colonial or imperialist powers.
As one Palestinian said at the New Year's Eve action, Palestinians whatever their faith are going to stay on their land.
Print Version - new window Email article
-----
Go back
Independence from Imperialism
People's Rights & Liberties
Community and Environment
Marxism Today
International
Articles
Would Albanese call Pemulwuy a “terrorist”? |
CPA (M-L) October 7 Statement |
Zionist genocide and its Nazi character |
US, Japan and the Indo-Pacific Strategy |
Vietnam complicit in Zionist genocide |
DFLP calls for arming West Bank Palestinians |
Inspiring Speakers At Free Palestine Rally In Adelaide |
Message from the "Department of Foreign Affairs at DFLP": Aggression on the West Bank |
Pacific Islands Forum beset by problematic scenarios. |
Turkey: Freedom for the Prisoners of the Kobanê Case! |
DFLP statement on "educational genocide" in Palestine |
US Indo-Pacific Strategy heightens Korean Peninsula tensions |
Statement of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine |
Bangladesh: Eradicate Hasina-Awami-Indian fascism completely and utterly. |
ICOR statement: Full solidarity with the workers and the broad masses in Kenya! |
The Proletarian Party of Purbo Bangla (Bangladesh) -statement on current crisis |
Condemn the murder of Ismail Haniya |
We will resist the occupation. We will defend the soil of Kurdistan! |
People's Struggle in Australia for Palestinians Continues |
Salute the heroic comrades of the Rojava revolution. |
-----