As some of you may know I attended the rally in Civic, Canberra calling for a cease of violence, the release of the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya/Hezbollah, humanitarian aide to those who need it and for justice to be brought to the situation (though yes, primarily it was against the illegal actions of Israel). What really struck me while I was there was that a lot more people could have come. Sure Canberra is a pretty small city (population ~330,000) but we could have had more there.
I also get this impression that sometimes it has to come to so many civilian deaths before the average westerner actually starts caring a little and standing up against what is happening. That is what sad reality the International Solidarity Movement works on, to be honest. White westerners go to the middle east and place themselves between tanks and bulldozers to stand up against the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people.
In May - this year - Phil Reiss, a Sydney man was shot in head with a rubber coated bullet by an Israeli soldier while filming a weekly demonstration by Palestinians in the West Bank against the construction of the Apartheid Wall[1][2]. The IDF even tried to stop him from being taken away in an ambulance although he was already bleeding profusely. Phil suffered brain haemorrhaging but luckily the fellow made it through.
Only after things like this, when we, us westerners, hear this news in our local news bulletins and newspapers that a guy from the suburb only a few kilometers away from where you live got shot or beaten or crushed by a bulldozer.
In March 2003, Rachel Corrie, an American Peace activitist was run over by an Israeli bulldozer who was attempting to demolish a Palestinian house. She was wearing bright red clothing, had a megaphone in her hands. The driver stopped briefly and then continued, crushing her beneath the vehicle. He did not lift the blades of the bulldozer, he did see her and yet he continued. The guy who drove the bulldozer walks free today.
It really saddens me that we need to see so much bloodshed and deaths and even so much to the point that we only begin to realise the amount of atrocities being committed when one of our own gets hit or killed. How much more blood will be shed? How many people must be bite the dust before the average westerner takes to the streets rallying against the unjustices committed against the Palestinian people on a daily basis?
Edit: Phil Reiss will be in Canberra this week. AJPP presents Breaking Ranks - Speaking, an Israeli refusnik jailed for refusing to serve in the IDF and an Australian peace activist shot for standing up for justice and the occupation of Palestine - Friday July 28, 6:00 PM @ the Hayden-Allen Tank, Australian National University, Canberra.