Palestine Rally speech 1/2/2023
I am a Palestinian, we are resilient people, and we will not allow the silencing of Palestinian voices to be the status quo anymore. For over a month, we have witnessed one of the worst upsurges in violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory for many years. The grave escalation in Jenin’s Refugees Camp follows days of clashes in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, including at the Haram al-Sharif / Temple Mount. The murder of eleven Palestinians in Jenin Refugee Camp in the north of the occupied West Bank last week brings the toll on those killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the turn of the year to 36, following on from last year, when more Palestinians were killed than in any year since 2005. We condemn Israel’s brutal attack on Palestinians in Jenin and in all Palestinian territories.
36 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank this month, including eight children and an elderly woman. Last year, there were 230 martyrs. These include 59 children and 16 women and girls, geographically distributed 170 martyrs from the West Bank, and 54 from the Gaza Strip, in addition to 6 martyrs in the Palestinian towns inside Israel. In many cases, human rights groups deemed that those killed did not pose an explicit threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers when they were killed. This list includes not only Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers, but also run over by Israeli settlers. It also includes Palestinian political prisoners who died inside Israeli prisons due to “direct medical negligence,” or those who died while resisting Israeli apartheid and colonialism, and are thus considered “martyrs”.
The Zionist official Itamar Ben-Gvir was appointed Minister of Internal Security in the current Israeli government, which places him over the Israeli prison service. Ben-Gvir immediately announced his plans to worsen the conditions for Palestinian prisoners in an attempt to suppress the prisoners’ movement. Palestinian political prisoner leaders replied: The coming days will include many measures taken by heroic prisoners in occupation prisons…including hunger strikes, return of meals and dissolution of organizations.” Itamar Ben-Gvir has gone too far in ordering police in East Jerusalem to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces and arguing they display an identification with terrorism. Ben-Gvir, a far-right firebrand known for his anti-Arab rhetoric, drew widespread international condemnation when he visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on 3rd January.
The Israeli government is responsible for what is happening today, because of its practices that undermine the two-state solution and violate the signed agreements. Israel’s far right government is making its intentions clear, to intensify its attacks on Palestinians and continue its violations of international law, knowing that it will be granted impunity by international governments, such as the Australian government. We would like to emphasize that as long as the State of Israel remains the occupying power, it has an obligation to ensure the protection, security and welfare of the Palestinian people living under its occupation. However, what we are witnessing is the contrary, from dehumanization, demonization and collective punishment of Palestinians, which is specifically prohibited under international humanitarian law, constitutes a war crime.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: The US administration opposes any action by either side that makes the two-state solution, to which President Joe Biden is committed, difficult to achieve. This includes settlement expansion, legalization of settlement outposts, demolition and eviction of homes, disruption of the status quo of holy sites, and incitement and acquiescence to violence regarding the side behind it or the perpetrators. Palestinians have been saying this for years. But for us, as for our allies demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians, Palestine Action Group Sydney condemns Israel’s brutal murder of Palestinians in Jenin and in all Palestinian territories. We are calling upon the Australian Government to end its complicity with Israel’s ongoing criminal violation of Palestinian rights.
