Sanction Israel Now, Demanded Sunday’s Protesters on Gadigal in Sydney

A strong message needs to be sent that our nation will not sit idly by while the Israel’ state perpetrates genocide and war crimes with impunity.

As thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters plied their way along Macquarie Street upon Gadigal Country in Sydney’s CBD on Sunday, the massive procession called for an immediate end to the Gaza genocide and Israel’s more recent assaults upon Lebanon, and to further achieve this, it was clear that it’s time to sanction Israel now.

The 3rd of November Palestine Action Group rally marked the 56th week in a row of consecutive protests on Gadigal in Sydney, which is part of what is quite likely the biggest ever antiwar movement that has ever gripped this nation. And as the procession made its way towards NSW Parliament House marching from Hyde Park, it was clear this movement is not abating.

The official health toll of the 56-week-long genocide, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, has surpassed 43,000 Palestinians, although the real death toll is thousands upon thousands more.

A recent figure cited at the UN relating to the number of children murdered put the total at 13,319 kids killed, “of whom 786 were under the age of one”.

Despite the settler colonial genocide live streamed 24/7 having turned a year old, Israel has managed to apply the same genocidal force it’s been using in Gaza upon the sovereign nation of Lebanon and further its commenced fresh assaults upon those in northern Gaza, who’ve already suffered a year of ongoing massive attacks: a scene now described as nothing short of apocalyptic.

And the year-old Free Palestine protest rally on Sunday, here and right across the continent, was clear that while it’s way past time for Australia to have started sanctioning Israel, in the meantime, individuals ought to be sanctioning the Zionist state at a personal level in their daily lives.

Acting in the face of government inaction

“None of this is normal and nor should it be. We wake up every day, broken, sick to our stomachs, knowing that unbearable images will flood our feeds,” Palestinian Australian scriptwriter Tamara Asma told those gathered in Hyde Park North on Sunday. “We cannot normalise it, even though they want us to.”

“This genocide, though, does not surprise us,” she continued. “The United States and Israel have been committing a genocide in slow motion against the Palestinian people for over 76 years. They are doing what they have always done only this time it is larger and more catastrophic. The west kills Arabs and Muslims with impunity because it serves their interests.”

Asma outlined what many opposing the genocide in Palestine have been raising over recent weeks, which is that she’d considered an agreed “moral baseline” had been drawn that would never be crossed again, and this was via the “protections enshrined in international law and the Geneva Conventions”. But now, she’s questioning without such a line, at what point does sanctioning occur?

As Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi put it earlier last week, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong’s condemnation of Israel’s determination to expel UNRWA, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians, were “weasel words” coming 12 months into a genocide, and she added that it was way beyond time for the minister to take action and to start sanctioning Israel across the board.

“So, if our elected leaders are failing us, what can we do?” Asma further asked Sunday’s crowd.

“Practically, each one of us can take small actions to facilitate real change: write to or call the prime minister and Senator Wong… tell them to sanction Israel and stop the two-way arms trade. Post online. Tell your friends to help us to spread awareness. Mainstream media won’t do it.”

No thanks, Israel

As she took the stage at Sunday’s rally, Gumbaynggirr, Dunghutti and Bundjalung woman Lizzy Jarrett told those gathered that “this land you call Australia is an occupied corporation” and “it is not a lucky country”. And she added that the First Nations peoples of this continent are traumatised witnessing what happened to them for the last 250 years, now being perpetrated upon Palestinians.

“Get involved. We all have an email address. Hound these parasites. Hound these murders. Make them sanction Israel now,” Jarrett, a member of the Blak Caucus, said. “Not tomorrow, not the next day, not the next year, while we are watching innocent children and women and men being blown apart and we stand here with heavy hearts. Let’s make them accountable.”

“Make sure, if you don’t have the No Thanks app, pull your phone out right now and download it,” the activist continued.

No Thanks allows users to scan barcodes on products, which then fills them in on whether the manufacturer contributes to Israel and therefore, permits them to make an informed choice regarding the nonpurchase of an item that would otherwise benefit the Zionist state’s genocidal rampage.

“Know that when you are shopping that you are not paying for death,” Jarrett underscored. “Get smart, because the only way we can hurt these people is by doing the smart thing, by being financial. Hurt their fucking money, because that is all they care about.”

“An obscene breach of international law”

“The resilience that I have seen from Sydneysiders to come out and speak against the genocide to be here week-after-week for more than a year, shows a deep river of humanity that runs through our community,” Senator David Shoebridge told the 56th weekly Free Palestine protest on Sunday. “A spirt of international solidarity… that’s getting stronger even when our governments want to deny it.”

The Australian Greens is the only political party to have consistently opposed the Gaza genocide and condemned Israel’s unbridled war crimes, and it’s further vocally condemned the Labor government in its complicity in Israel’s violations of international law over this period.

Shoebridge condemned the Israeli Knesset having passed new laws to expel UNRWA from its borders, as well as from the Palestinian territory, which he added portrays a Tel Aviv loudly affirming it has no real interest in upholding international law.

The senator further noted Wong’s tweet, in which she’d suggested that the prohibition of UNRWA is “wrong and bad”, an assessment that he agrees with, but he added that all the Australian government has been doing since the genocide broke out is post messages and produce press releases, while taking absolutely no action that pressures Israel to stop its genocidal behaviour.

“If not now, then when will this government sanction the extremist Netanyahu government? When will they throw out the ambassador? When will they throw out the two-way arms trade?” Shoebridge questioned.

“The extremist Netanyahu government… are engaged in active genocide against the people of Palestine,” the senator made certain. “We say, ‘Sanction Israel now’.”