I spent most of the first day of pre-polling at Moorooka clubhouse and in the Moorooka shopping centre in the electorate of Moreton, a seat previously held by Graham Perret for Labor. Perret has been silent on the genocide in Gaza having made only one speech of note inside the Federal Parliament and only then because of the ICJ Ruling that countries should not be assisting in the genocide.
“The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, used by the Israeli Air Force to bomb civilians in Gaza, has been profitable to more than 70 Australian companies which have been awarded “over $4.13 billion in global production and sustainment contracts through the f-35 program to date” – Australian Defence Department in 2023 LIST OF EXPORTS TO ISRAEL SHOWS MANY ITEMS FOR MILITARY USE
Justice for Palestine Magan-djin came and helped Palestinian candidate for the Greens Remah Naji, after work. It was a good turnout of Green volunteers and a good feeling amongst the crew.
I handed out how-to-vote cards for Remah. Should she win, Remah will be the first Palestinian to be elected to an Australian Parliament. Former federal treasurer Joe Hockey, once thought to be Palestinian, was of Armenian heritage .
On the first day of pre-polling at the Moorooka Clubhouse on Koala Road, I found the voters dispiriting. In what is a highly multicultural seat, most of the people in the morning were angry tradies and the aged. ‘The tradies hate us,’ a Labor Party volunteer told me.
Was it because Albanese had appointed an administrator for the CFMEU? His government had succumbed to Dutton’s scare mongering and deprived construction workers of a viable militant union that defends their rights on the job, for safety, conditions, and decent wages.
In what promises to be a turning point, the 2025 federal election will demonstrate the disconnect between parliament and workers. Regardless of the result, both major parties have already failed. Having endorsed neoliberalism since the 1980s, governments of both colours have flounded in its failure by putting profits over people. Both Dutton and Albanese are the walking undead stepping into wars with the United States and Israel.
The Labor Party is still afraid of another dismissal this time by voters angered by a housing and inequality crisis. While many are doing it tough, others are cushioned by middle-class affluence. Others are being crushed by high rents and mortgages. The homeless do not even have that.
I asked the People’s First Senate candidate, Natarsha Billing, what her party stood for. She replied, ‘Independence.’ She gave me her how-to-vote card, but when I said I support Palestine, she took her how-to-vote card back and explained as she walked away ‘no I don’t agree with that. I’m for Australians first, not for outside issues.’
An attempt by Remah to engage with Natasha proved fruitless. The People’s First candidate was thoroughly entrenched in her own ideas and unable to engage with an alternative point of view.
A vote for Remah is a vote for Palestine
The LNP candidate and his supporters were little better. He could not understand that I would be handing out how to vote cards for Remah when I was not a member of the Greens. I explained that I supported Remah Naji’s campaign because Remah is opposed to the genocide in Gaza and that Justice for Palestine Magan-djin had made this a fundamental issue in the campaign. A vote for Remah is a vote for Palestine. Something that had been avoided by both the major parties. Israel received their support despite the real question of whether humanity could survive this genocide.
Remah enjoys some support in the local community from Middle Eastern and African people in the suburbs of Moorooka, Sunnybank, Kuraby, Logan, Dutton Park, Fairfield and Yeronga.
Join us on Saturday 26th of April at 12 pm for a family-friendly march through Sunnybank in support of Remah Naji & in solidarity with Palestine. We’ll be meeting at Yimbun Park for snacks and face-painting before walking.
Solidarity & Resistance: Fundraiser for Remah Naji. Join us on Sunday 27th April at 5pm for an evening of food, art & music. Let’s raise some funds to get Remah’s campaign to the finish line.
Free Free Palestine!
Ian Curr
23 April 2025
You use Hannan Aswari to justify the Hamas agenda? Get real. She said that in 2023, it was not a criticism of the Oslo process that she helped negotiate. She always has and still does support peaceful negotiation with Israel.
Israel has been creating “facts on the ground” since 1948, that’s what they do. The question is how to stop them? China did stop them before October 7 – with a two state solution. You can’t say it’s not possible.
Don’t listen to me …. listen to this”
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17p4B2zd8M/
You listen to the video. It says very clearly that the Arab narrative is an independent Palestine and a secure Israel – it is the two state solution. If you oppose the Arab and Chinese two state solutions then what is it you are supporting?
We support Palestinian right to self determination.
The pessimism expressed in the video above about the two state solution was enunciated by the foreign minister of the only country in the region not being bombed by Israel: Jordan. Every other country is a war zone. This week, Israel bombed Gaza, sent death squads into the West Bank, and bombed Beirut.
That is an average week for Israel.
What might self determination look like in reality? Would an interim national unity government in Gaza be a step towards self determination as you understand it? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/23/palestinian-rivals-hamas-and-fatah-sign-unity-deal-brokered-by-china
China has a chance of negotiating this again the same way they did last time – by Belt and Road investment in Israeli gas and shipping infrastructure and trade deals for Israeli military technology. This is the only alternative to completing the genocide and Trump-Gaza. Do you and/or JFP and/or BDS support the Chinese peace plan? If not, why not?
Happy May Day, John.
This is what self-determination looks like https://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2025/05/01/self-determination/
Ian
Responding to “End the Siege” (I am unable to reply to the comment)
I do indeed criticise Hamas, including its opposition to Arafat and the PLO agenda. It was not just Israel that collapsed the Oslo plan. The Palestinian unity that Arafat and the PLO built ended with the division between the Islamist and secular democrat factions who have been at war with each other ever since – that is why Oslo failed.
I responded to your challenge to substantiate my claim about George Georges but it seems to have disappeared. Here it is again –
From George’s speech – “Should I support this questionable initiative of Senator Chipp’s or discard it for what it is worth and risk the challenges out in the community as to why I, or others, did not support it? Do I take that course or do I just push it to one side and do what all of us would normally do, namely, go back to the party forums and seek to change the policy? Until it is changed, I have no right to take any other position. I could possibly do the sneaky thing that I did last time and without telling anyone not answer the bells. But I have already indicated what I did last time and I am not prepared to do it this time because the motives of the Democrats are absolutely suspect and they will be shown up for what they are.”
“last time” was the Democrats anti uranium bill.. His speech said he wouldn’t cop out again, which is why I thought he actually did vote, but he copped out again and abstained as a pair on both votes to sink the warship bill.
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0056;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0054%22
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0058;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0054%22
Regarding George selling out on nuclear warships. The Democrats put up a bill to stop nuclear warship visits. George voted against it. The statement you have quoted is from George’s speech against the bill, read the rest of it.
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-25%2F0059%22;src1=sm1
Sorry you’ll have to show me. I can’ not see in that speech where he votes for nuclear armed ships. All I can read is Georges opposed visits by nuclear ships, and there is a lot of personal invective coming from Don Chipp in the latter part of the Hansard record.
I noticed that Don Chipp put up the motion about visits by nuclear armed ships, but I’m sorry I can not see the vote.
I can see where Georges says that there was a ulterior motive for Chipp to put up the motion and that it could not be passed because the Democrats didn’t have enough support in the Senate.
I do recall Don Chipp coming to a University of Queensland Union forum 1977 and talking about keeping the bastards honest. So I asked him why he voted in favour of sending 19 year olds to Vietnam? Don Chipp was a hypocrite.
Regardless of what happened in the Senate, year in year out, on Hiroshima Day, we have opposed nuclear ships. Queensland says it is nuclear free. Many went to jail to prevent the nuclear fuel cycle from coming to Queensland and Australia. With the exception of a small reactor at Lucas Heights, that is the current situation, regardless of votes in the Senate.
You can’t see it or you refuse to see it?
“Should I support this questionable initiative of Senator Chipp’s or discard it for what it is worth and risk the challenges out in the community as to why I, or others, did not support it? Do I take that course or do I just push it to one side and do what all of us would normally do, namely, go back to the party forums and seek to change the policy? Until it is changed, I have no right to take any other position. I could possibly do the sneaky thing that I did last time and without telling anyone not answer the bells. But I have already indicated what I did last time and I am not prepared to do it this time because the motives of the Democrats are absolutely suspect and they will be shown up for what they are.”
“last time” was the Democrats anti uranium bill. His speech said he wouldn’t cop out again but he did, he avoided the vote as a pair on both votes to sink the warship bill.
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0056;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0054%22
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0058;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F1985-02-26%2F0054%22
The truth is, you are doing the same thing that you accuse Remah Naji of doing. You are blaming a member of the Labor Party, George Georges, for selling us out over nuclear ships. Now you are accusing the Greens of criticising Labor for selling out the Palestinians. There is a difference, however. Graham Perret did sell out the Palestinians, something Georges was never guilty of.
George was the patron of the Palestinian Human Rights association here in Brisbane
Did you look at the timestamp on the link you sent? Several major events occurred about that time.
In 1984, Prime Minister David Lange banned nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from using New Zealand ports or entering New Zealand waters.
George Georges is quoted in HANSARD supporting the stance by the New Zealand government. In the following year, Georges resigned from the Labor Party.
In 1985 the French secret service, acting under orders from the French government seeking to protect its nuclear program in the Pacific, bombed and sank Greenpeace’s ‘Rainbow Warrior’ killing one crew member.
In Queensland, while Don Chipp was trying to get the Democrats motion passed in the Senate, the premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson sacked 1,001 SEQEB workers who were members of the ETU which has refused to allow any work to be done at nuclear sites, in mines, or for nuclear materials to be carried on any railway or track anywhere in the state of Queensland.
Be careful who you call a sell-out. Georges never sold us out.
George George’s was arrested and jailed, defending our opposition to uranium mining and export. For his trouble, the Queensland branch of the Labour Party threatened to dis endorse him if he participated in a rally on the 11th of November 1977. Georges still attended the rally and spoke. Why do you insist on telling lies and half truths about people you never organised with and was determined to stay on the fringe, on the moral high ground, passing sentence on people who cannot appeal from the grave.
Responding to “Perrett’s response”
You are making up excuses to justify attacks on the only people in Australia capable of doing anything real in support of Palestine.
Perrett and the ALP support a two state solution without Hamas. This is not a Zionist narrative, it is the only realistic option for an end to the ongoing war. It is the position of the PLO and the Oslo accords. The two state solution is a compromise because it allows the Israeli religious state to exist but the Zionist state needs the Hamas religious state to justify the religious war propaganda and genocide. There was obvious collusion between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and sections of the IDF in orchestrating October 7 and Hamas’s “resistance” has triggered and justified the present final solution. Shortly before October 7 China brokered a deal with Netanyahu, Hamas, Fatah and Egypt for the Palestinian Authority to own and control the Gaza Marine gas field as an independent economic base for a future Palestinian state. Biden, dissident factions in the IDF, Hamas and Islamic Jihad smashed that plan to pieces – and you call it resistance and celebrate it? What side are you on, survival and self determination or genocide?
You still haven’t answered my question – what can JFP do for Palestine that Labor friends of Palestine can’t? Or is your criticism of the ALP simply they are not as righteous as JFP?
Regarding the Zionist state. I was once in a fascinating conversation with Bejam Denis Walker and others and Bejam put the hypothetical question to us – how can we kill all the white people in Australia? This was the original resistance strategy, can it be done today? We discussed in detail various scenarios but in every scenario we concluded that it was not possible to kill all the white people without killing all the Aboriginal people too, either directly or in a backlash by the white state which is what happened last time. Bejam had obviously thought this through before and his hypothetical was a teaching to explain the basis of the Oodgeroo treaty circles – which was a peace treaty, an end to hostilities. I understand Palestine the same way. The present regional war to destroy the state of Israel is also destroying Palestine. A peace negotiation with the Zionist state, as per the Chinese peace plan, is the only way to stop the genocide.
There is no regional war to destroy Israel. There is resistance by groups like Hamas to end the occupation. Hamas is not an external force implanted in Gaza or the West Bank, it is a creature of the occupation begun over 76 years ago. It took 40 years of occupation for Hamas to be formed from within the Palestinian community. Hamas is conducting an armed insurrection within the boundaries of Palestine.
Why haven’t you bothered to read JFPs aims and strategies?
Israel has refused a two states solution.
After 40 years in power (on and off) since the formation of the colonial settler state of Israel, the ALP in government here have done nothing to end the occupation of Palestine. Labor politicians are the walking undead.
There is no two state solution with Israel backed by the world’s largest superpower and being nuclear armed whereas Palestine is experiencing a genocide.
All Perret would do when the genocide was in full swing all he would do is read out a press release from Penny Wong and would not even show basic Humanity for the Palestinians and their supporters who approached him to do more.
Perret, when approached by the Australia Cuba Friendship Society, refused assistance to the campaign to end the US blockade of Cuba, From Australia to Cuba with Love.
Israel signed the Oslo accords, Rabin was assassinated for doing so. Netanyahu, Hamas and Fatah signed up to the Chinese peace plan which included a two state solution.and unification of Hamas and Fatah, but Hamas ended all that on October 7 2023.
Show me the JFP link with a strategy in it. All I can find is – “to organise demonstrations against the Israeli massacre in Gaza” How might this help Palestine?
Israel has never supported a two state solution only occupation.
It is the anti-labour party (ALP) government that has no coherent policy on Palestine… in government, Labor has consistently voted against ceasefires (this includes abstentions). Labor has presented the Zionist narrative as a cover for the brutality of Israel’s occupation. Labor has always called the Palestinian resistance terrorist even when Einstein was calling Zionism a terrorist ideology.
Unlike Labor, Justice for Palestine Magan-djin has comprehensive strategic aims and organisation. These aims have been consistently enunciated during this election campaign in flyers, videos, podcasts, radio and arts events. Not to mention at polling booths. See https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1jr7ygCSSD4HEQZD4KlHONRJtgRsmr5P4/mobilebasic
Shimon Peres signed the draft peace agreement in Oslo. It was a tactical move. Neither Israel or the United States ever recognized Palestine. The so-called agreement was dead in the water from the outset. It was Mahmoud Abbas who signed for the Palestinians. Yasser Arafat did not sign initially because there was powerful opposition within the PLO.
It is always important to look behind the facts.
For example, Rabin’s wife has always blamed Netanyahu for the assassination of her husband.
Netanyahu was determined to scuttle Oslo before it even commenced.
Factcheck – “Yasser Arafat did not sign because there was powerful opposition within the PLO.”
The 1995 Oslo agreement was signed by Arafat and Rabin.
Once again you did not read what I wrote. Abbas signed the draft in 1993 with Peres
The Oslo Accord demanded ‘the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and affirmed a Palestinian right of self-government within those areas through the creation of a Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority.’ That never happened.
Instead, the Israeli government placed a tank in front of Arafat’s house in Ramallah, pointing its canon at his front door. Then they poisoned Arafat and assassinated Rabin.
Israel conducted ongoing bombings and incursions into Gaza for 30 years until the 7th of October 2023.
And you criticize Hamas …
Shame on you.
As pointed out many times by Palestinian leaders like Hannan Aswari, Oslo foundered because of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza: “If you look at the reality on the ground, it would take a very large grain of salt to believe that the two-state solution is viable,” she says, because of the amount of land now occupied by Jewish settlements and the lack of international action to prevent it.
See https://theconversation.com/israel-palestine-the-legacy-of-oslo-and-the-future-of-a-two-state-solution-podcast-214107
Hanan Ashwari was one of the Palestinian negotiators at Oslo.
Israel was using settlers to create ‘facts on the ground’ so that a Palestinian state alongside Israel (two-state-solution) was impossible. The truth is HAMAS supported the two-state solution as long ago as 1997. Fatah was always more sceptical because they had been around for decades longer and understood better how Israeli leaders operated.
Then, in Spetember 2000, the ‘Butcher of Beirut’, Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the al Aksa Mosque. In the ensuing protests, the IDF fired over a million rounds of ammunition at Palestinians killing hundreds and injuring many more. The second intifada followed. Note that the intifada that began on 7 October 2023 is called ‘the al Aksa flood’.
I would vote for her if I lived in that electorate. I wish we had someone similar. Definitely not voting for 2 main parties they have lost the plot!
Perrett’s speech about Palestine in the above link was on 19 March 2024. On May 31 2024 Palestine “solidarity” protestors led by Ben Pennings occupied Perrett’s electoral office. Why attack the ALP’s strongest supporter of Palestine?
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/palestine-solidarity-protesters-occupy-labor-pms-office
What happened to my previous factcheck? It seems to have disappeared. Here it is again.
Factcheck – “Perret has been silent on the genocide in Gaza.”
Perret is a key member of Labor Friends of Palestine and has consistently over a long period of time spoken up for Palestine but more importantly he has organised support within the ALP and unions for Palestine. He was cancelled and de-platformed by JFP and the Greens.
https://www.grahamperrett.net.au/media/speeches/war-crimes/
It was good that Graham Perret finally made that speech under pressure from Labor Friends of Palestine. Sadly, while he waited, the Israelis murdered tens of thousands of people. It was too late. He voted with caucus not to call for a ceasefire, he refused invitations to speak out at rallies. He caused the resignation of many from the Labor Party, including those who had supported him for years.
Why has not once mentioned Palestine during the election campaign for his replacement in the parliament?
Why do you support a Zionist government that hides behind a two state solution 78 years and never once sanctions Israel?
Perret has been communicating to the electorate about Palestine for the sixteen years I have been in his electorate, that’s how I know where he stands. He has frequently promoted APAN in the electorate and when he visited Palestine in 2013 he travelled with APAN. If the electorate has any awareness of Palestine it is because of Perretts’s long term work not Remah’s recent sloganeering. In Albo-times a pro-Palestinian politician has two choices, keep pressing on with behind the scenes talks with the ALP membership and unions to try and force change, like Perrett and Burke did, or jump ship and lose all access to the levers of power as Fatima Payne has done. I think the Perrett/Burke path is of much more use to Palestine than Australia’s Voice or street demonstrations. Yet you and Pennings want to crucify Perrett for doing the most useful thing that can be done – in the name of solidarity?
So why did Australia vote with the US against the ceasefire? Why has the Australian government allowed 70 companies to send arms parts to Israel to help in the genocide?
I certainly acknowledge the efforts of Labor friends in their support of Palestine.
“Working behind the scenes …”
You state that Graham Perret has been working in support of Palestine behind the scenes for 16 years. Labor has been in power for much of that time.
Show me one thing Labor in power has achieved for Palestine.
Here is an accurate report of where the ALP stood 16 years ago.
What has changed in the time Labor politicians working behind the scenes have held the levers of power? Nothing.
John, you are talking absolute rubbish and you know it.
Your vitriol and hate for activists trying to bring about change is legendary. You who knows all, what else can we do to stop Labor-in-power from supporting Israel? They will not even support Palestine being recognised as a state in the UN. Labor-in-power keep toadying up to the United States.
Why? We must break with the United States and take an independent position in foreign policy. That means ending the AUKUS deal. Closing the US bases.
There is no difference between the LNP and the ALP on foreign policy.
The ALP has strongly supported Palestine for decades, conference after conference has affirmed this. However the ALP federal politicians have defied party policy and welded themselves to US foreign policy. This has caused ongoing conflict in the ALP, one of many internal contradictions. This conflict has not manifested in shouting in the streets but in behind the scenes factional wheeling and dealing, largely by Perrett and Burke who have always stayed diplomatically loyal to their party but have constantly been campaigning in the party for Palestine. No they didn’t win but they didn’t give up or sell out like George Georges did when he voted to allow US nuclear warship visits. At least Perret had the dignity to abstain. If the community protests after October 7 supported Labor Friends of Palestine and APAN and helped them in their campaign in the ALP and unions then there may have been a stronger stance taken by Albo and Wong. Perrett stopped speaking about Palestine after Pennings blockaded his office. The ALP office attacks played right into Albo’s anti-Semitic violence trope that ended any possibility of any ALP politicians speaking openly about Palestine. Pennings and the other ALP office attacks have undermined and distracted from Perret and Labor Friends of Palestine, as Pennings has also done to the Wangan and Jagalingou’s campaign against the Carmichael mine. Is this just egotistical stupidity or is there something else going on?
Over a year ago, in this speech to parliament, then member for Moreton, Graham Perret, replicated the pro-Zionist narrative that this is a conflict between Israel and Hamas, and he spent most of his speech attacking Hamas. “I am talking about the deliberate targeting of civilians—especially women and children—indiscriminate rocket attacks and the taking of civilians as hostages” – Perret.
He spoke more as a humanitarian than as an ally of the Palestinian cause for liberation. Is this this is admirable or even brave. I think not. Humanitarianism does not itself constitute a break with the genocide, it seeks to attribute blame the native as well as the occupier. All Perret actually called for was for Hamas to release the hostages and for Israel to allow water, power and medical supplies to enter Gaza.
The member for Moreton didn’t even call for a ceasefire.
This doesn’t represent a challenge to the evil of Wong and Albanese, up to their necks in lies and half-truths, their use of sophistry and every trick to maintain Australia’s relationship with both Israel and the US. It will be their undoing, if not now, for ever. Humanity simply can not survive this.
FACT CHECK: Please substantiate your claim that George Georges sold out by voting to allow US nuclear warship visits.
Your claim appears to be false.
Monday, 25 February 1985
HANSARD Page: 151
Senator GEORGES (8.29) — We are debating a Bill for an Act to prohibit the passage of nuclear powered ships and of vessels carrying nuclear weapons through Australian waters or in the airspace over them. I confess that I am attracted to the Bill. I find that its terms, expression and intention are worthy of support. It places those who sincerely support the Bill in the same position as the New Zealand Government and the New Zealand people who have taken a very firm stand which I believe is important. I believe this stand reverses a process which has been developing throughout the world, a process which has, over the past few years, made the world almost a complete armed camp. The New Zealand people have taken a courageous initiative to reverse the position. Therefore, I am attracted to the proposition.
To anticipate Senator Boswell’s interjection, I say that it is not a matter of unilateralism. It is not a unilateral decision, as some would like to describe it. It is a decision which the New Zealand people had the courage and determination to make as an example for others to follow. If that trend develops-as it is developing in small ways as people determine that certain areas such as cities, provinces and shires shall be nuclear free areas-that will be part of the trend which reverses initiatives taken and supported by people such as Senator Collard who think our destruction is inevitable, that war is always with us, that slaughter, massacre and the destruction of our environment are inevitable and that therefore we should with some stoicism give it up and say there is nothing else we can do about it.
I ask you the same question – “what else can we do to stop Labor-in-power from supporting Israel?” What can JFP do that Labor Friends of Palestine could not do? If you are going to criticise LFP for failing why don’t you criticise JFP for the same reason? Why attack Perrett?
‘Levers of power’
You are forgetting that Graham Perret was in the government till he resigned. That makes him accountable.
I have worked with comrades from Labor for Palestine and Labor Friends of Palestine for many years. I regard them as true comrades who understand the situation in Palestine and in many ways, because they have been there, they understand it better than me. I simply cannot bring myself to be a tourist to witness the misery of others. What good does it do?
I do not know Graham, but I think it was in 2010 or maybe 2009, JFP asked if he could speak at a JFP rally. He agreed at the last moment and spoke. I found his speech unconvincing because he put out this crazy notion about a two-state solution that the ALP has gone along with for many years knowing full well that Israel never intends to recognise Palestine. The Australian government refuses to vote for Palestine in the UN. How would that work? Palestinians already outnumber people in Israel, many Jewish people have fled, and many leave the country when they’re up for military service.
You do not have to be Einstein to realize that the objective of the Zionists in the Israeli government is to annihilate the Palestinians. For much of my life, Israelis did not even acknowledge Palestinian existence. I do not attack Graham Perret, but I do criticise his political position, which strikes me as being absurd, and who does it serve? Not the Palestinians. It was labour friends that Palestine that organised the meeting in Parliament House. The chairperson from Labor Friends of Palestine would not permit a survivor from the 1948 al Nakba to speak. Why? Jfp has never refused a Palestinian the right to speak. In fact, it is Palestinians that show the way that JFP follows.
As you know, I have organised with others the Big Ride for Palestine Australia and the number of labor friends of Palestine have participated in this event over the years. Even some parliamentarians, like Peter Russo from Sunnybank, Clair Moore in the Senate, and Adam Bandt from the Greens. To name a few. We hold them all accountable not just Graham Perret or Penny Wong or Anthony Albanese or Richard Marles. It is their job to sanction Israel and they haven’t done it so of course, we criticize them.
Of course it does get personal when Labor Party officials order police to attack unionists for Palestine on May Day. I am one of those arrested. So I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t take exception to being assaulted and arrested by police, dragged through the courts for a year, and refused even the basic aspects of due process by magistrates who are Labor appointees.
I do not think that Justice for Palestine Magan-djin has failed. It is a long struggle. We have enjoyed the support of thousands of people who have dedicated themselves to stop in the genocide. That is an achievement in itself. The Palestinians will never give up. And we will never give up on them.
Ian Curr
24 April 2024
The View from the Bar
On Saturday night I worked the bar for another Palestine fundraiser by Meanjin activist, trade unionist and musician Phil Monsour. It was a remarkable evening of music, video stories, delicious food, dabke dancing and uplifting camaraderie amongst the 70 or so people in the room. As I served the drinks and observed the night unfold, I reflected on the meaning and importance of solidarity. It’s such a simple concept that we on the Left reference every day. But on Saturday night, and across the span of the many similar events that Phil has organised over a 14-year period, solidarity is revealed as a living tradition with many dimensions, each important in its own way.
First, there is the straightforward and tangible solidarity of fundraising. Over the 14 years that Phil and the organising team have been putting on these events, over $50,000 has been raised, mostly for Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA to disburse to education, medical and food security projects run by Palestinians in occupied Palestine and besieged Gaza. This is a significant and measurable expression of solidarity which has delivered material benefits to hundreds of people living under the brutalities of the Zionist colonial project.
Second, there is solidarity as psychological support. The funds raised at these gigs have never arrived at their destination as impersonal money. The organisations who receive it and the people who benefit from it understand it is sent as an expression of active support. This is important. Sustaining the flames of hope and resistance in the face of seemingly intractable odds is always made just a bit easier when there is awareness of outside allies lending a hand. Understanding that you are not alone is a precious intangible.
In addition to the financial solidarity, these events educate and inspire. Phil performs songs of his own about Palestine and the Middle East, past and present. They grow solidarity by providing audiences with the information they need to tackle the silences and lies surrounding the Israeli occupation. Their emotional power motivates. For two decades they have drawn new people into the movement, and encouraged old hands to keep going.
Finally, this event and the many that have preceded it have helped to cohere a Meanjin Left. By attending a space filled with music, food, conversation and dancing, activists come together in an environment of unity. This builds and sustains a community of resistance in which doctrinal differences remain legitimate matters of debate but not an anchor on cooperation or collaborative organising. The bonds that allow collective resistance to happen are strengthened.
Saturday night’s community comprised members of the Palestinian diaspora and other refugees, older activists unlikely to hang up their marching boots any time soon, and, the largest group, activists in their 20s and 30s whose lives and activism have been shaped by the existential threat of ecological collapse and the neoliberal challenges of employment precarity and housing insecurity. This latter group is proving once again that Marx was right – capitalism produces its own gravediggers. These are people taking radical politics forwards.
From my vantage point at the bar, I saw a crowd diverse in life experiences, views and approaches to politics, but sociable and united by a commitment to Justice for Palestine and a better world more generally. As I looked around the room I realised that this is what a non-sectarian Left looks like. Solidarity for others, solidarity with each other. A mighty achievement.
Jeff Rickertt
9 May 2023
John Tracey
From 2006 till 2023, Graham Perret was repeatedly asked to speak at protests organised in support of Palestine.
Perret declined on all but one occasion. His speech was poorly prepared, showed a lack of insight and was predicated on the absurdity of a ‘two state solution’where a Jewish state has control of Palestine and was the aircraft carrier for US hegemony in the region.
A far better speech was given by Ray Bergmann who had gone to the Six-Day War in 1967 to fight on Israel’s side and came back in support of Palestinian human rights and their right to land.
Onetime I attended a meeting in State Parliament. It was a forum that included Federal Member for Blair Shayne Neumann, a Zionist called Peter Wertheim from the Sydney Jewish Board of deputies. They all defended Israel’s right to defendi itself, its existence, and occupation at every chance.
A Palestinian elder, Khalil Hamdan, a boy during the 1948 al Nakba, asked to speak but was ruled out of order by the chair from Labor Friends
So you can go on supporting Graham Perret and Labor policy begun in 1948 if you wish. Besides I suspect you are lying when you say you support the strategy of Labor Friends and Perret, your local member, it’s not consistent with your past.
It is not likely humanity will recover from what the Labor Party has signed up to.
BTW a true Labor friend openly challenged Shayne Newman without the support of the chair.
He asked what Israel could do to remedy the situation. Neuman like Parret fell back on abusing the Palestinian resistance.
The ALP in government and opposition was weak 15 years ago on the genocide forcing many Labor members to leave the party and is even weaker now refusing to speak out against the genocide. So much so that an aboriginal woman who supports Palestine has resignd from the Labor party giving Remah Naji a beautiful aboriginal necklace and swearing she will hand out how-to-vote-cards for her and the Greens in support of Palestine 🇵🇸
Why don’t you understand basic solidarity when you see it and stand up against hypocrisy?
Factcheck – “Perret has been silent on the genocide in Gaza.”
Perret is a key member of Labor Friends of Palestine and has consistently over a long period of time spoken up for Palestine but more importantly he has organised support within the ALP and unions for Palestine. He was cancelled and de-platformed by JFP and the Greens.
https://www.grahamperrett.net.au/media/speeches/war-crimes/
Meanwhile in Runcorn in the seat of Moreton Ray White Real Estate is attempting to evict two disability pensioners onto the street. Full report from Jonathan Sriranganathan
https://www.facebook.com/share/16GrA4vtxe/
Waddah runs as an independent on the Gold Coast.