This year in Australia, with a new government in office, everything
seemed ripe for change. Indeed, our new prime minister made it his
first moving public gesture to say “sorry” to the indigenous people of
the land and a great weight seemed to fall from our collective
shoulders. There is hope too for the wretched refugees locked away
for years in Australia’s infamous detention centres – quietly their
refugee status is being acknowledged and they are slowly being
absorbed into Australia’s multicultural mix, no one remembering that
“we do not want people like that here.”
With a Labor government, there is hope too for a change of direction
on Palestine and Israel. There had been a lot of talk about reverting
to an even-handed policy before the elections and with the
government’s foreign policy still in the pipeline, few thought that any
statement out of the ordinary would be made until it is released. It
was, therefore, quite a shock to hear that Prime Minister Rudd would
move a motion honouring Israel’s 60 years of independence in the
parliament while ignoring 60 years of Palestinian dispossession and
suffering – the catastrophic upheaval of Palestinian society. That
moving of the motion came and went, but not before Palestinian
advocacy and support groups made it public knowledge much to the
chagrin of the politicians who had hoped to keep it quiet.
The Palestinian Nakba or “Catastrophe” was not a one-off historical
event beginning in 1948, but has been a continuous process of
systematic violence, destruction, demonisation and oppression
inflicted by the new nation-state of Israel on generations of
indigenous Palestinians. That is what Australians need to see and
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hear this year on this sixtieth anniversary of their precarious
existence. Instead, they are seeing Israel officially lauded by our
politicians and being given resounding plaudits in our newspapers.
These articles, which most often appear with no balancing opinion or
letters, far outweigh any articles published in defence of Palestine.
The even-handed media policy seems only to have merit when a rare
opinion on Palestine is given space. Then the reader is treated to the
pros and cons with official imprimaturs from the Israeli embassy
and/or Australia’s Zionist Federation.
In such an Israel-saturated environment, Palestine’s voice struggles
to be heard. Yet every now and then, opportunities emerge that
capture the imagination of the Australian public. One such moment
was the launch of a newspaper advertisement for the “NOT IN OUR
NAME” campaign, to protest the prime minister’s Israel motion in
parliament. In just three days, Palestinian advocacy and support
groups throughout Australia rallied together and produced more
than 400 signatures from ordinary Australians and organisations,
many of whom have had no involvement with Palestinian activism.
Although the names endorsing the protest statement were
enormously important, it was the willingness of everyone to provide
the financial support for the costly newspaper advertisement that
was really extraordinary.
Needless to say, an article, an editorial, and letters attacking the
protest as, “dissent from the usual left-wing, anti-Israel suspects”
accompanied the advertisement in The Australian. Given that it is
Australia’s only national newspaper and one that reports daily on the
Palestine/Israel conflict, one would like to believe that it would be
above partisan politics, but not so. It has declared its bias all too
often and now more than a month after our statement appeared in its
pages, some of the signatories are being attacked - in particular two
of Australia’s powerful unions – by articles that label them anti-
Semitic: an accusation that makes criticising Israel synonymous with
the “new anti-Semitism”.
As al-Nakba draws closer, these attacks are designed to frighten off
anyone or any organisation of significance from endorsing the
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follow-up campaign: this time, to request Australia’s prime minister
and leader of the opposition to move a bipartisan motion in the
Parliament acknowledging 60 years of Palestinian suffering as a
consequence of Israel’s creation. If nothing else is done for al-Nakba
in Australia, these two campaigns have brought Palestine to the
attention of the highest levels of government and the media. They
have also made a number of human rights and church groups
uncomfortable because now they are being challenged to take a stand
on Palestinian human rights rather than avoid it on the pretext of it
being too political. Whether the prime minister accedes to our
request or not, we believe that we have at least demonstrated to so
many different groups and people that there is a voice for Palestine in
Australia.
So, which organisations brought about this shift in Palestinian
advocacy? Effectively, it was a combined effort of every person and
group wanting to bring truth, reason and justice into a debate that
has been hijacked by the Israel lobby since the 1950s. It was led by
Adelaide’s Australian Friends of Palestine (AFOPA) and
Melbourne’s Australians for Palestine (AFP) and Women for
Palestine (WFP) and has since been supported in equal measure by
groups in the other states, including members of the Independent
Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) who have been maliciously vilified
for having the courage to speak up. The speed with which the
word got around demonstrated the effectiveness of networking - a
very strong feature of the Queensland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
(QPSC), which is in constant contact to provide the support needed
to those taking responsibility for the campaign.
And it is not over yet. Endorsements for the letters are still coming
in. Some people are writing their own letters and sending them on to
the prime minister. Petitions are circulating. Representations are
being made to members of parliament. The approaches cover a
broad spectrum of Australian society, and that is as it should be –
churches, trade unions, human rights organisations, peace groups,
politicians, lawyers, academics, eminent persons. For everyone
involved, the question of fairness and compassion is paramount and
for a prime minister who has already acknowledged the suffering of
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our own indigenous people, the case for Palestine should be just as
compelling.
In any event, al-Nakba will not pass unmarked or unnoticed in
Australia on 15 May. In Melbourne, AFP and WFP will be joined by
members of the Palestinian community in a candlelight vigil that we
hope will bring many Palestinians in their beautiful national dress to
the streets of Melbourne. Others have the option of wearing the
Nakba T-shirt, specially-designed by Melbourne artist Dora McPhee,
showing an almost barren olive tree, its outstretched branches and
roots representing the displacement, dispossession, and suffering of a
fractured Palestinian society under occupation and its bare roots
gripping the land of Palestine from which it had grown, long before
there was ever a State of Israel. Ribbons with the keffiyeh pattern will
allow every person to declare their support for the Palestinians. They
come with a card that explains the meaning of al-Nakba and the full
extent of Israel’s ethnic cleansing project. In fact, both T-shirts and
ribbons are available to everyone and have already been taken up
enthusiastically by other groups in Australia and overseas.
The vigil will be followed by a film screening of Mohammad Alatar’s
Jerusalem: The East Side Story and other documentaries – a tribute by
the Palestinian community to all Palestinians who have suffered, and
hopefully, an experience for Australians who all too rarely see the
Palestinian narrative. In Sydney, another Palestinian group, the
Coalition of Peace and Justice for Palestine (CJPP) will be holding a
reception at the State Parliament where special guest Ali Abunimah,
co-founder of Electronic Intifada, will speak to the assembled guests.
In other parts of the country, vigils and rallies will take place with
Fair Go for Palestine (FGFP) mobilising in Queensland, the
Melbourne Palestine Solidarity Network (MPSN) in Melbourne, and
the Perth branch of Australian Friends of Palestine Association
(AFOPA) in Western Australia.
The biggest photographic and art exhibition yet shown in Australia
on the Palestinian narrative will be staged by AFP and WFP in
Melbourne on 17 and 18 May. British photographer Rich Wiles has
been invited to Australia to exhibit his works, “Portraits of Palestine”,
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as well as the works of the children from the Lajee Centre, Aida
Refugee Camp in Bethlehem – “Our Dreams and our Nightmares”
and “Dreams of Homes”. These exhibitions have been staged in
Britain, all over the European continent and in the United States.
They are haunting portrayals of Palestinian life of both the present
and past memories. Rich Wiles will also speak about his experiences
working with the children in the refugee camp in the shadow of the
Separation Wall and Israel’s ever-present occupation army and how
every minute of their lives is a continuation of the original Nakba.
As part of this exhibition, WFP will present the Palestinian historical
record in seven panels of collage named “Dispossession – Parts of a
Whole” which was a collective effort put together in 2002 under the
guidance of Melbourne artist Dora McPhee. Her own talents and
extraordinary understanding of Palestinian history will be displayed
in a selection of oil paintings from her previous exhibitions entitled
“Palestine Lost” and “Disappearing Palestine”.
Although the photographs and paintings capture particular moments
in time, they are indeed an accurate portrayal of every Palestinian’s
story and few could fail to be moved by a people existing without
freedom in the most humiliating of circumstances. For visitors who
want to learn in more detail about the current situation, power-point
presentations will be given by Michael Shaik, the public advocate for
AFP; book readings on the meaning of al-Nakba for the children of the
camps will be given by Rich Wiles; and Ali Abunimah will speak on
prospects for the future at public and private lectures. Books,
brochures and various reading materials will be available, as well as
slide shows and films. And for those who want to appreciate the rich
history and culture of Palestinian traditions, there will also be
samples of exquisite embroideries and products reminiscent of
Palestine’s past agricultural abundance.
In Australia’s capital city Canberra, Australians for Justice and Peace
in Palestine (AJPP) plans to organise meetings between politicians
and Ali Abunimah when he arrives to speak at the Australian
National University. Ideally, this would coincide with a bipartisan
motion in the parliament that would not only acknowledge the
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enduring narrative of indigenous Palestinians and the suffering that
has been visited on them over the past 60 years, but also their
courageous journey in their struggle for the right to exist in their own
land. AFOPA, AFP, and WFP are still working towards that end. We
will have to wait and see if the Australian government is indeed
committed to an even-handed policy on Palestine and Israel. If it is
not, our work will be really cut out for us in the weeks and months
ahead.
The focus right now though is on that solemn week in May. Through
a website created for that purpose (www.1948.com.au), Australia’s
Palestinian advocacy and support groups will be offering the public
the most comprehensive exposé of the Palestinian tragedy within
their means, but all with the same passion for justice, freedom, and
peace that unites every supporter of Palestine and its long-burdened
people across the globe. Perhaps this year will see the changes for
which we have all been working; perhaps this year, the Palestinians
will be free to pursue their dreams. But if not this year, it will
happen.
Sonja Karkar is the founder and president of Women for Palestine and also a founding
members of Australians for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia and the editor of its
websites. She can be reached by e-mail at: karkar@iinet.net.au or by phone at: +61 3
9882 9236
For more information, visit www.australiansforpalestine.com or www.1948.com.au
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