Free Free Palestine – Queens Park Rally, 3 Jan 2009, Brisbane

A rally of about 400 people (one person for every life lost in Gaza) gathered in Queens Park to protest the human rights abuses by the Israeli government in Palestine.

Welcome to Country by Bob Anderson.

Bob gave his respects to the traditional owners, the Turrabul and Jagera peoples who own the land upon which Queens park is built.

Six speakers from the community and

two performers called on Australian people to support the people of Gaza who have been bombarded for over a week by US supplied F16 aircraft in the hands of a murderous Israeli military.

The speakers included Julie Hamden, Fay Waddington, Anas Abdulla, and a young boy, Ibrahim, who told how he had been shot as an 8 year old by a Israeli sniper in Palestine. Here is what he said at the rally: Young-palestinian-boy-ibrahim-speaks-at-rally-on-gaza-on-3-jan-2009

Fay Waddington said that in 1948 85% of the Palestinians living in the areas that became the state of Israel became refugees. It is extimated that there were more than 7 million palestinain refugees and displaced person at the beginning of 2003. [Source: Badil Centre Facts & Figures]

Here are some more photos from the rally. Thanks to Ted Reithmuller from Looking Left for taking these photos and making them publicly available. Ted’s site is @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/lookingleft/

Thanks also to Phil Monsour and his family for their help in providing the video of his singing at the rally.

You can view Phil Monsour singing “Sing Your Song” below