Palestine supporters roar disapproval at PM outside Sydney Town Hall

by WENDY BACON

Hundreds of Palestinian supporters roared their disapproval outside Sydney’s Town Hall on Tuesday evening as they waited for the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to arrive to deliver a speech at the 20th annual dinner of foreign policy think tank the Lowy Institute.

“Ceasefire Now!” and “Albanese you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide”, they chanted, accompanied by loud, incessant drumming and trumpets. But hide he did, choosing another entrance rather than the Town Hall front steps used by the other guests for the ‘sold out’ dinner.

The chanting and speeches continued in Town Hall square throughout the Prime Minister’s speech, which offered a comprehensive overview of Australia’s official foreign policy including conflict in the Middle East. As one would expect on such an occasion, the transcript reads more like a carefully prepared set of nostrums that avoids analysis of contradictions in policy or announces fresh policy.

The Lowy Institute strongly promotes itself as ‘independent’. But it receives direct funding from the Australian government and its members include the Home Affairs Department, the Defence Department, ASIO, the Office of National Intelligence, BHP, Macquarie Group and the Future Fund. Its sponsors include RioTinto and Rochschilds.

It was founded and is still partly funded and chaired by well known Australian and Israeli citizen Frank Lowy, who built the chain of Westfield shopping centres. He has consistently ranked as one of the top ten richest Australians. His son Stephen Lowy is a strong supporter of and fundraiser for Israel and a governor of the Jewish Agency. The Jewish Agency for Israel has played a major role in the history of Israel. It fundraises and encourages Jewish people to migrate to Israel.

Lowy, who is 93, spoke at the dinner. Dinner guests watched a celebratory video that ended with an endorsement for the “wonderful” work of the Institute by the recently deceased ex-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who said that he knew the founder.

Speaking to an audience that included many establishment figures including strong Zionists, Albanese repeated his Labor government’s position on the Middle East.

He pointed to the current conflict as beginning on October 7, a conflict which he said has ‘claimed’ thousands of innocent lives in mere months. He made no mention of decades of violent occupation or the continuing brutal displacements and killings of Palestinians in the West Bank this year. There was no mention, let alone condemnation, of the Israeli Defence forces ‘indiscriminate’ bombing of hospitals and schools, the killing of thousands of children including children recovering in hospital from amputations, the arrests of medical staff, summary executions or removal of men to camps where they are reported to have been tortured.

He repeated that Israel has a ‘right to defend itself’ but that it must comply with international law. But he made no mention of the fact that for the last ten weeks, Israel’s defence forces have not done that. As has been widely recognised by humanitarian and international law experts including Amnesty International , Israel has been responsible for scores of breaches of international law and abuses of human rights.

In contrast to the call for ‘Ceasefire now’ from the crowd outside, he said his government supported a “pause” in fighting and a “sustainable ceasefire” in “the future”. There was no condemnation of Israel’s bombing campaign,or of the 100-odd deaths that occurred in the 24 hours before he spoke including raiding of one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza and bombing of displaced people who had fled on the IDF’s direction to Southern Gaza.

Albanese called on Hamas to release all hostages – immediately and unconditionally, to stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields, and lay down its arms.“ Again, no mention of the thousands of Palestians, including children, summarily arrested and detained without trial in Israel.

The Prime Minister’s support for Israel’s war effort showed how distant he is from the views of many Australians who, like Palestinian communities and their supporters around the world, believe that they have a right to defend themselves against occupation and domination and that they do not deserve to be subject to ongoing ejection by Israeli settlers from their lands, to live in open air prisons or be subject to a life of constant surveillance and checkpoints.

He expresses regret for loss of innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives and condemns the horrific attack on residents in southern Israel on October 7 but fails to speak out against the use of starvation and the IDF’s policy of driving Gaza’s residents from place to place to avoid bombing, but then only to bomb them anyway.

If Albanese’s speech could have been heard outside, it would have only further enraged the protesters, including members of the rank and file group “Unionists for Palestine” who were carrying flags of the Maritime Union of Australia, the Australian Services Union, the Public Service Union, the NTEU, and the Nurses and Midwives.His carefully selected words will have done nothing to placate members of his own left base inside the ALP, some of whom have signed a statement by 200 past and present politicians calling for a ceasefire that includes the words, “”It is beyond dispute that Israel is committed to policies designed to entrench the domination of one people over another in the territories of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Attempts to deny this, or smear those who allege it, are an attempt to defy truth and reality.” Signatories included five ALP politicians who hold seats in Western Sydney where support for Palestinians is very strong.

Instead the crowd cheered the Deputy Leader of the Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi who began with the Muslim greeting – Assalam-o-alaikum – peace and blessings be upon you – and acknowledged the unceded ownership of the land in central Sydney by the Gadigal people.

She congratulated the crowd, many of whom have also joined thousands of others in marching weekly in the CBD in support of Palestinian rights, on their ‘unwavering solidarity’ speaking out against Israel’s policies of collective punishment, war crimes and genocide. In contrast she said she was “ashamed of the Labor government and of the Prime Minister who had failed to act against the oppression of Palestinian people even when it was happening right in front of their eyes. You can’t deny that Australia is complicit in what is going on in Gaza at the moment … by refusing to condemn Israel for its war crimes … It is complicit in sending military exports to Israel and in investing the Future Fund in weapons industries.” She said Albanese “had taken 67 days to do the bare minimum” in supporting a humanitarian ceasefire but it had taken no time at all to light up Parliament House in the Israeli colours after October 7, or to sign up to Aukus, to blame migrants for the housing crisis, or to pass legislation restricting the rights of asylum seekers after a recent High Court of Australia decision.

Faruqi was followed by Fatima Khalil, a member of Labor Left who has just left school. She highlighted her sadness of “living within a part of the world that is privileged enough to disregard an active genocide where I can finish my education and choose the next step I take in my own life, while members of my own family and millions of my own blood have had their right to education and all their basic rights stripped from them.”

The protest lasted for three hours, finishing at around 8pm. Protests will continue with a vigil at Pitt Street Mall on Thursday evening and more rallies and street protests around Australia  at the weekend.