Palestinian Motion Group’s Josh Lees on Israel’s Gaza Bloodbath

As 1000’s gathered in main city centres throughout each continent during the last weekend, the overwhelming groundswell of world assist for the Palestinian folks was one thing we’ve by no means witnessed earlier than in regard to the apartheid state of Israel and its ongoing repressions.

And regardless of the media onslaught condemning native protesters, tens of 1000’s took over the streets of Sydney’s CBD final Saturday, and organisers, the Palestine Motion Group, are set to maintain the atrocities transpiring in Gaza on the agenda, as they’re planning one other rally for subsequent Sunday.

Israel is continuous to threaten to start its floor invasion of Gaza, a small strip of land the place 2.3 million Palestinians have been blockaded inside for 16 years, with heavy restrictions on items getting into.

Since airstrikes commenced upon Gaza on 7 October, in response to lots of of Hamas fighters having damaged by boundaries and making lethal incursions into Israeli territory, over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed, with a minimum of 2,000 of them being children.

Israel unleashed its extermination program upon the Palestinians on their very own land three-quarters of a century in the past now, and since late 2022, essentially the most far-right authorities that nation has ever recognized has taken energy and it’s escalated unlawful settlement constructing within the West Financial institution.

But, regardless of the large grassroots assist for Palestinians that’s being witnessed worldwide, western governments, together with our personal, should not condemning Tel Aviv for the wanton brutalisation, dispossession and bloodbath of the Indigenous folks, moderately they’re supporting the genocide.

Sydney Criminal lawyers spoke to Palestine Motion Group spokesperson Josh Lees about why the NSW authorities have cracked down so harshly on pro-Palestinian protest, the International North’s assist of the apartheid state Israel and the likelihood that constructive change could comply with.

Following the 7 October incursions into Israeli territory by Hamas, and because the Israeli forces had been starting to mount their large onslaught on Gaza, the NSW Minns authorities lit up the Sydney Opera Home with the picture of the Israeli flag.

Palestine Motion Group and others gathered at Sydney City Corridor that night time, 9 October, and marched by the CBD to the Opera Home to protest the visible present of assist given to Israel’s ongoing oppression of the Palestinian folks and its crimes towards humanity upon them.

This primary unannounced motion was not met by heavy-handed policing, nonetheless politicians and the media criticised protesters, implying that their actions is likely to be prison.

For a follow-up protest on the fifteenth, NSW police introduced it reserved the fitting to train its extraordinary powers, which once more implied there was one thing prison in regards to the intentions of demonstrators, regardless of these legal guidelines not having been employed in the long run.

And Palestine Motion Group then organised one other extremely profitable protest for final Saturday, 21 October, and the NSW police deployment was utterly extreme, with figures like 800 officers on the bottom being thrown about.

So, Josh, why have the NSW authorities been cracking down so exhausting on these pro-Palestinian rallies over current weeks, whereas up to now, they’ve had no actual points with this identical group of protesters?

The police play a really political position in society. To know their response to our Palestine protests, you might want to perceive it within the context of the general, unwavering assist that the Australian political system, the institution and the Australian state give to Israel.

You additionally want to grasp what’s occurring over there now. Israel is utilizing the defence of a Hamas attack to justify an enormous bloodbath in Gaza.

Because the Israelis say, they wish to use this second to reshape the Center East by wiping out Hamas, which actually means wiping out the entire risk of a motion for a free Palestine.

So, given the Australian authorities is on board with Israel, as are different western governments, we’ve seen a neighborhood and an all over the world crackdown on Palestinian protests and a whipping up of an hysterical repressive surroundings.

Particularly within the early days after the Hamas assault, protesters had been being portrayed as blood thirsty as if we had been celebrating civilian deaths.

And loads of this response was harking back to the conflict on terror sentiment, the place anybody who dared oppose the conflict was painted as if they had been doubtlessly harmful terrorists.

That’s the context inside which the crackdown on Palestine protests must be understood.

That’s what we noticed in Sydney, as, at first, the police had been initially going by the motions, as they might for any massive protest. They weren’t being notably antagonistic. In actual fact, they agreed to the march to the Opera Home on the night time.

There have been loads of police there, however they weren’t that aggressive in the direction of the protesters.

Then as we began organising the second protest, the police had been effective about it. We’d even agreed on a march route and had been about to log out on it, when the political stress was clearly utilized.

We’d seen the day earlier than, the NSW assistant police commissioner Tony Cooke getting grilled by the media, chastising him for having allowed our protest to go forward.

That was when issues flipped: from having been agreeable about our second march, the police had been hastily changing into very against it.

And so they warned that they had been going to oppose our proper to march, in addition to oppose all future marches at that time.

Final yr, the NSW authorities handed antiprotest legal guidelines that permitted NSW police to crackdown more durable on rising local weather actions. These had been accompanied by unprecedented overpolicing of activists, which included raids, residence visits and the monitoring down and arresting of individuals days after an motion.

Do you take into account the NSW police response to the current Palestinians protests reveals that due to the brand new antiprotest regime, officers at the moment are emboldened to react in a fashion that may have been thought of extreme up to now?

Actually, that’s added to a local weather lately that tries to painting protest as a privilege and never a basic democratic proper.

The police didn’t go on to make use of any of these new antiprotest legal guidelines towards us, however actually this was taking place inside a local weather the place protests are being cracked down upon extra not too long ago.

And this once more creates that concept that protest is to be criminalised and that individuals don’t have a proper to do it.

It provides to the concept that the police or the minister ought to be capable to shut down protests.

Lots of dialogue within the media following our Monday night time protest was criticising premier Chris Minns for permitting it to occur, though he was rabidly towards it, as he’s a staunch supporter of Israel.

However the concept that it must be as much as the whim of a politician of the day as as to whether or not you get to protest is appalling, and that’s a part of the local weather that’s been created by the antiprotest legal guidelines.

One other stark side to the NSW Police Power’s heightened crackdown on shows of pro-Palestinian sentiment is that the identical strategy has been taken by different Australian state regulation enforcement companies and certainly, police forces the western world over.

So, how do you account for this concurrent heavy-handed strategy that western governments have taken to pro-Palestinian protests, contemplating it’s not going the varied authorities deliberate their response?

It’s the acute unwavering assist they offer to Israel, even now because it carries out massacres of 1000’s of civilians and commits all of those conflict crimes because it carries out the mass collective punishment of two.3 million folks from Gaza.

They’ve minimize off the water, meals and electrical energy provides.

They’ve bombed hospitals and dozens of different medical services. They’ve been focusing on journalists.

We’ve seen western governments lining up behind this, and the rationale for this is similar purpose they’ve at all times supported Israel, as a result of it’s of their geopolitical curiosity to have Israel there within the Center East as an outpost of western imperialism that helps them management that entire area, which is strategically necessary when it comes to oil and commerce routes.

That’s the rationale the west has backed Israel and has allowed it to get away with its conflict crimes and its horrible racist, apartheid historical past.

That’s what we’ve got seen with these protests not too long ago, western governments deploying their powers of repression to silence dissent at residence, as a result of it’s a part of their agenda for supporting Israel and imperialism within the Center East.

However this transnational crackdown additionally reveals a dramatic outpouring of world solidarity with the plight of Palestinian folks in regard to what’s taking place proper now and usually in Palestine.

By final Sunday afternoon, social media platforms confirmed large pro-Palestinian protests in cities throughout all continents.

Do you suppose this may very well be a turning level in regard to the Palestinian problem? And are we seeing grassroots activism overwhelming the mainstream media propaganda machine?

It’s been exceptional that this entire try at repression and to smear protesters as antisemitic has not labored.

We’ve got seen that in nation after nation, even the place preliminary protests had been oppressed by the police, in lots of locations now, the authorities have needed to again off as a result of it simply doesn’t work.

1000’s of individuals have been popping out in response to the crackdown, and the protests are solely rising.

Right here in Sydney, we’ve had protests going from 2,000 folks to 10,000 folks after which we had 30,000 folks at our most up-to-date protest.

In Paris, the primary protest Palestinian supporters tried to carry was viciously repressed. It was banned. The individuals who turned as much as it had been teargassed.

However as a result of just a few thousand folks did defy that ban and nonetheless managed to carry a protest regardless of the repression, that’s given confidence to 1000’s of others to say, “We are able to’t sit quietly as a genocide is happening and we’re ready to defy that.”

That’s been profitable. Now we’ve had a lot greater protests in Paris. There was an enormous protest in Auckland. There are protests in america as nicely.

So, it’s most likely too early to say whether or not it is a decisive turning level in western politics and its relationship to Israel.

However right here’s hoping that we are able to proceed to construct a motion that may demand that these imperialist governments cease backing this apartheid state, as a result of that’s the one purpose Israel can get away with its continued conflict crimes towards the Palestinians: the carte blanche that’s been given by western governments.

Individuals had been remarking after the protest in Sydney on Saturday that it was one of many largest turnouts they’ve ever seen.

However the Albanese and Minns governments have been against this public sentiment. Each main events have been making moderately doubtful statements about what’s taking place in Gaza, though there have been some notable Labor dissenters.

What are your ideas on the place the political institution on this nation is taking in relation to Gaza?

It’s completely appalling, but it surely’s additionally not shocking. For anybody who has been following the Palestinian problem for any size of time, they might be all too conscious that it doesn’t matter what crimes Israel carries out, they’ll nonetheless have the loyal assist of the Liberal and Labor events in Australia.

That goes proper again to the inspiration of Israel. It goes proper by all the massacres that they’ve carried out by the years, all of their unlawful West Financial institution and East Jerusalem settlement constructing and the 16 yr blockade of Gaza.

None of this has led any western authorities to cease its assist, break ties or to place the type of sanctions on Israel that they placed on Russia, for instance.

The entire Palestinian motion has for a very long time been calling on western governments to chop their ties with Israel and to sanction it, as comparable calls up to now had been made towards the apartheid motion in South Africa.

We’ve got began to see some cracks emerge in that consensus. There was an open letter by the NSW Parliamentary Buddies of Palestine, signed by largely Labor and Greens MPs.

It requires elevated humanitarian help in Gaza and for Israel to abide by worldwide regulation. However the stance of the Palestine Motion Group is that this assertion doesn’t go wherever close to far sufficient.

The open letter doesn’t even condemn Israel’s actions or name them out for the conflict crimes that they’re perpetrating proper now.

Simply calling out for humanitarian help to Gaza isn’t sufficient, if you find yourself not stopping the reason for the humanitarian disaster, which isn’t some pure catastrophe, but it surely’s a deliberate coverage being carried out by Israel with the continued backing and funding of western states.

So, these politicians have to go a lot additional earlier than they’re going to get the assist of the Palestine Motion Group.

What ought to these politicians be saying?

We must be calling for Australia to chop ties with Israel, to place sanctions on Israel wherever attainable and to sentence the state for what it’s. It’s a global pariah.

It’s an apartheid state. It’s an open blatant instance of a racist colonial state proper earlier than our eyes finishing up its long-term final aim of genocide.

They wish to wipe out the Palestinian folks as a folks. They wish to full the method of land theft, which is the premise of the Israeli state, and all of this is happening whereas the NZ nonetheless offers that nation $3.8 billion in help yearly, which is 20 p.c of Israel’s army price range.

And naturally, in moments of disaster like this, America floods Israel with much more assist and much more funding. The NZ offers much more bullets and shells for use to rain down upon the folks of Gaza.

That’s our position within the west, to cease the imperial assist being given to Israel, to weaken its capability to oppress the Palestinians and to indicate solidarity with them, as they bravely attempt to survive and resist that oppression in Gaza, the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and in all places else.

And lastly, Josh, Palestine Motion Group are organising one other rally for subsequent Sunday 29 October in Hyde Park. And as we’ve seen from the footage all over the world, it’s seemingly PAG isn’t the one group that’s going to maintain up the momentum in difficult Israel’s present try and wipeout Gaza.

So, what do you suppose may be achieved by this momentum? And as soon as a ceasefire is achieved, do you take into account life within the area will be capable to return to what’s thought of regular, as has been the case after different current flareups, or are circumstances at some extent the place extra is warranted?

It’s crucial that we hold protesting. Israel remains to be set to launch a floor invasion of Gaza, which can massively escalate the atrocities being carried out towards the civilians of Gaza, we all know that from earlier floor incursions into Gaza.

And this subsequent one, from all accounts, is claimed to be even greater and extra damaging than what has come earlier than. It’s fairly a nightmarish situation.

So, we have to hold protesting all all over the world. That’s necessary in order that the Palestinian folks know that they aren’t alone, regardless of the appalling stance that’s being taken by the governments of a lot of the world and by the media.

It’s necessary that the folks of Palestine know that we don’t assist its authorities, however we assist its folks.

When it comes to what may be achieved, the primary aim for us needs to be to interrupt the ties of western governments with Israel: to finish their assist of the genocidal state.

We should minimize army and political ties with Israel and switch that state right into a pariah, similar to what was ultimately achieved with the apartheid state of South Africa.

It gained’t be sufficient to return to the established order of earlier than 7 October, as a result of that was a establishment during which 2.3 million folks had been being held hostage in Gaza, the world’s greatest open-air jail.

It was additionally a establishment the place unlawful settlements within the West Financial institution had been continuing at an growing tempo and growing violence is coming from the Israeli forces and the ultra-extremist non secular civilians, who consider they’re the chosen folks, and they need to wipe out the Palestinians.

A few of these extremists are within the Israeli authorities.

There needs to be an finish to the continued oppression of all Palestinians by a mess of apartheid racist legal guidelines that make Palestinians second class residents and proceed to oppress them within the occupied territories.

So, it’s not sufficient to return to the established order. We have to finish apartheid in Israel. We have to demand a free Palestine. And meaning a radical rework in the entire scenario, one during which Palestinians can stay with equality, dignity, rights and in peace in that area.