- by Vinnie Molina
- The Guardian
- Issue #2078
Palestine rally – Comrades marching with healthcare workers in Melbourne.
An invading force has no right to self-defence. However, since 7 October we have heard, repeatedly, that Israel has ‘the right to defend itself.’
How wrong are our government leaders who sing to the US tune that the world must condemn the Palestinian resistance for the attacks against the occupier.
For more than 7 decades the Palestinian people have been exercising their right to defend themselves from the acts of genocide and permanent occupation of their lands.
The occupier has failed the people of Palestine in breach of its international obligations. Israel has kept the Gaza strip as the biggest open-air prison where more than 2 million people are in overcrowded conditions with limited access to food, water and other essentials.
Israel also fails by keeping women, children and the elderly in a state of fear. The occupation is a brutal daily lived experience of the Palestinian people. The majority of Palestinians have been born under the occupation and are considered stateless.
More than 10,000 Palestinian men, women, young and old as well children and elderly have been killed since the 8 October. Those crimes are the result of an unprecedented assault from bombs with thousands of tons of explosives including white phosphorous. The collective punishment is considered a war crime under international law.
The occupier must let the Palestinian people live. The occupation must end. It is the source of violence in the area. The situation is now so dire that it could spread to other countries in the area, particularly those who share in the Palestinian pain.
Now is the time to find a political solution to the crisis created by the partition of Palestine to accommodate Israel in 1948.
Australian and other governments must press Israel for an enduring ceasefire. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow freely into Gaza and other areas affected by the current brutal attacks from Israel. Conditions for an exchange of prisoners from both sides must also be created.
It is urgent to find a diplomatic solution which already has a political framework under the Oslo Accords and UN resolutions. Israel’s land grab must end. Australia and the international community must recognise Palestine as an independent state.
A reconstruction plan for Palestine has to be implemented under international supervision. Palestinians have the right to live in peace without the fear imposed by more than 50 years of occupation.
Free Palestine now!
