October 15, 2023: hundreds mass together in Hyde Park. Police patrols roam the walkways in duos, looking for any sign of dissent or violence. Black, white, and grey checkered scarves cloak the necks of many in the crowd. People gather, despite vague threats from Sydney police regarding a ‘stay-home order’. Prayer mats are aligned to the sun, and dedications are made to the martyrs, who over 14,000 kilometres away have been subjected to the current siege for over a week.
Music blares. Chants are led, soon to be condemned by government officials as antisemitic.
Signs fill the skies, asserting ‘solidarity in the face of injustice’. One man holds a plaque that reads ‘colonised, massacred, starved, bombed, then… blamed’.
An elderly academic steps to the stage, not wanting to be identified due to fear of harassment from his colleagues. He is Jewish, a descendant of Holocaust survivors. He expresses grief at the “weaponising of his religion”. He leads a prayer for the people of Gaza. Two hours before the meeting, Al Jazeera reported that forty-five families had been wiped from the medical registry in Palestine.
Anti-Zionist protests had been a small and few before 2023. Solidarity marches carried an unthreatening number of people, who remembered 1948’s catastrophe, and hoped for a better future.
Israeli apartheid was known about, but not recognised amongst Australia’s youth. But today, thousands crowd the streets, filling the air with coordinated fury. National and international awareness of the oppression that Palestinians face has never been higher.
Meg Craigen, a first-year student at the University of Technology, Sydney, says she wasn’t aware of the Palestinians’ struggle against apartheid until last year.
“Following my exams in October, I began to take note of the situation. I discovered the reality, and I was horrified,” Craigen says.
“Not only is the violence horrifying, but the world’s reaction, their inaction… I feel disillusioned. My understanding of the world has shifted dramatically in the past year.”
Craigen says her initial understanding of the occupation was distorted. Following October 7, the dominant media framing of the conflict placed Israel as the David to the Arab world’s Goliath.
“There was an emotional appeal that certainly influenced me. As the most prominent narrative being placed in front of me, I didn’t think too much about it at first. Separated from the larger context, it’s very easy to believe,” Craigen said.
This aligns with a common understanding of history, that conflict between Israelis and Palestinians didn’t exist before last October. An understanding pushed by figures such as US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who called it the ‘first and most tragic story’. A false understanding, as observed when considering the historical accounts of scholars such as Rashid Khalidi and Ilan Pappe. The framing of Israel’s violence as purely reactionary remains popular in this country,
Opposition leader Peter Dutton quickly called for Pro-Palestine protestors to be deported, following a social-media circulated video of protestors at the Opera House supposedly chanting ‘gas the Jews’ – this video was later proven to be widely misinterpreted. In the past months, prominent politicians on both sides of parliament have claimed that the Pro-Palestine demonstrations are threatening Australia’s ‘social cohesion’.
Damian Ridgwell, an activist who has worked with Sydney’s ‘Palestine Action Group’ for a decade, says it’s a line of thinking that’s ‘deeply conservative’.
“The government is trying to say that the problem in our society is not their ties to Israeli war crimes, but rather the people who oppose it. This argument is inherently anti-democratic. It’s the same argument that has been used throughout history to demonise the progressive movements that we celebrate today,” Ridgwell says.
“Martin Luther King Jr. was a threat to social cohesion in the USA.”
The sentiment that protests are anti-democratic, is not new in Australia.
Marches are not the only form of demonstration against Australia’s ties with Israel to have made an impact. Long-term student encampments on national and international university campuses have been a consistent talking point. Many have discussed their effectiveness, as a conduit for increased transparency about academic investments in companies engaged with Israel, but the conversation has also signified the encampments as a physical representation of the youth’s engagement with the siege – and the violence they potentially face for doing so.
“For young people, opposing Israel’s massacres goes hand-in-hand with opposing the climate crisis, or the cost-of-living crisis. It’s amazing to see young people coming out,” Ridgwell says.
As the locations for action grow and evolve, so does the overseas violence. The missiles are not contained to Gaza and the West Bank. They never have been. Israel’s carpet-bombing of Beirut over the past month sparked a new wave of rage at the Australian government’s complicity in the aggression. Speaking of the Lebanese Australian community, and of 36,000 Lebanese Australians in Sydney alone, Ridgwell says they’ve been showing up consistently throughout the year.
“They identify with the struggle. They have their own history of subjugation to Israeli terrorism. There’s a massive connection between those communities,” Ridgwell says.
Signs lambasting Albanese have taken root, alongside photos of destruction, and verbal condemnation. Ms Craigen says the dedication to the cause is inspiring.
“It’s easy to become pessimistic, given the relentlessness of the siege, not to mention the timescale of the apartheid system, and the lack of resolution. Despite that, the demonstrations keep giving me hope, knowing that people still care,” Craigen says.
Nevertheless, the statistics are sobering. In July, The Lancet said that due to the spread of disease and food shortages, the death toll was likely up to 15 times greater than the reported number of 40,000. Last month, the Guardian used the Lancet’s methodology to estimate a staggering 335,000 deaths.
But how many Australians know about these reports?
How many Australians have an accurate perception of the destruction?
How could they?
October 6, 2024, 40,000 people gathered in Hyde Park for the fifty-second week in a row. Damian Ridgwell says these gatherings now hold the title for the longest-sustained anti-war demonstrations in Australian history. Lebanese flags now fly beside the Palestinian colours, and keffiyehs robe the sea of shoulders.
“I think consistent mass mobilisation is essential, and what we’ve seen over the past year is that these demonstrations provide a space for people to engage in other forms of activism. Despite this, yes, the movement is going to have to grow,” Ridgwell says.
“The reality is that the political establishment is intensely committed to their support of Israel, and it’s going to take a very powerful movement to truly challenge that.”
The crowd is a melting pot. Palestinians, Lebanese Australians, elderly academics, Jewish Australians, all of them wielding banners that condemn the occupation. Nurses and midwives condemn the bombing of thirty hospitals. High school and primary school students lament schools turned to rubble.
And amongst the crowds are everyday Australians who are drawn to the cause, like Ms Craigen, who suggests the key to these weekly gatherings is recognition of the facts.
“I think people would benefit from simplifying the issue in their heads. This is not a battle of religion. At the heart of it is a moral obligation. Civilians do not deserve to die. They do not deserve to be held as political prisoners or deliberately starved. They do not deserve to be tortured.”
The crowd disperses. They will return next week.