By Sarah McCrea
Warning: This article contains reference to violent conflict.
Student and activist protests have been planned across Australia on Thursday 2 October and Friday 3 October as a response to the Israeli interception of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
Observer speaks to Carter Chryse, convenor of Students for Palestine Canberra on the planned protests, the protest on Wednesday 1 October, and the role of student activism in initiating change.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is a set of vessels sailing to Gaza intending to deliver aid to Palestinians enduring famine and lack of medical resources. The wider Freedom Flotilla Coalition describes themselves as “grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement…working together to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.”
On Wednesday 1 October, when around 120 nautical miles away from Gaza, a member of the aid flotilla alleged a military vessel from Israel “came across our boats intimidating, damaging our communication systems and doing very dangerous maneuvers.”
In response, activist bodies Palestine Action Group Canberra and Students for Palestine Canberra organised a snap rally in support of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
Beginning at 6pm in Civic, protesters held a banner declaring ‘Stop Arming Israel’. Buses and traffic were briefly stopped as the protesters marched down Northbourne Avenue. There was police presence, with an official controlling traffic flow, and multiple police cars following the protestors.
Chryse stated the activists were “inspired by the activists in Italy and across Europe…their slogan is ‘block everything’”.
They discussed police presence at protests, commenting “there’s clearly an intimidatory presence there, but I think the only way that we can fight back against that is just for numbers to be bigger and bigger.”
“Despite all the forces of civil society and the cops and the courts that raid against us in Canberra, we shut down the Commonwealth Bridge on August 24. We’ll do it again on October 12. They don’t let us do that. That only happens because enough people turn out against the laws and against the cops, because we feel that you just have to.”
This action follows a nation-wide student referendum, where students overwhelmingly voted for “an end to all weapons sales to Israel by Australia and Australian companies, and call for sanctions on Israel” and that Australian universities – such as the ANU – should “end their complicity with Israel’s genocide by ceasing all partnerships with weapons companies.” This was unanimously voted for at the ANU.
The referendum was organized by student-led Palestine action groups across the country, which Chryse described as “very interlinked” and with “open communication all the time.”
“The strongest we can be is when we are working together and when we’re putting pressure on together, and things like the national referendum are a great example. You can’t really pull that off in any one place.”
On 2 October (AEST), it was reported that, as of midday Thursday, 13 vessels in the Freedom Flotilla have been intercepted and over 200 activists onboard have been detained. Around 30 ships remain in the flotilla, with a spokesperson for the flotilla stating the ships are “fighting their way away from the military vessels of the occupation forces trying to reach to the shores of Gaza.” Politicians in countries including Türkiye, Venezuela, Ireland, and Colombia have taken strong stances against Israel’s actions, with Colombia expelling Israeli diplomats from the country.
Thus far, there has been no response from the Australian government.
Chryse called Israel’s actions in expelling the flotilla “breaches of international law”, yet stated that “if we’re going by standards of international law, we’ve got two years of evidence [against Israel]… so that doesn’t really matter for Australia’s response to Israel.”
They added the government should impose sanctions on Israel and end arms trade, referencing the government’s response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They commented on government actions such as the “symbolic” recognition of Palestine, saying it was a “refusal” to take “actual action against an ongoing genocide.”
Discussing the role of activist groups in political action, Chryse stated “it’s not that the protests themselves are going to make the change that we need to see now, but they’re the building blocks to what we can actually do to put pressure in our government, because there’s no other way that it’s going to change.”
They confirmed that, following the interception of vessels in the Freedom Flotilla, there would be marches in Sydney and Melbourne on Thursday night, and in other cities such as Canberra, Perth, and Brisbane on Friday 2 October. The protest in Canberra will be on Friday 3 October 5:30pm, at the corner of Childers Street and Barry Drive. They also encouraged students to attend the Nationwide March For Palestine occurring on Sunday October 12, the Canberra march taking place at Civic Square.
Demonstrations against Israel’s actions are already occurring worldwide.
More to come.
Photography by Aveline Cayir
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