One day, when it’s safe,
when there’s no personal
downside to calling a
thing what it is, when it’s
too late to hold anyone
accountable, everyone
will have always been
against this.
– Omar El Akkad
For llawarra social-worker Safaa Rayan, the war in Gaza is only a phone call away: “The last I heard from my cousins who are in the north of Gaza, in Jabalia Refugee Camp, they’ve now all contracted hepatitis A, due to the lack of healthy food and no sanitation.” That was in May 2024.
Ms Rayan’s family’s homes were destroyed during the initial lsraeli invasion in October and November 2023, and with Israel launching a ground invasion of Rafah in the south of Gaza where other family members are sheltering, the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
“We have not been able to be in contact with them,” she said.
“Everybody’s homes have been destroyed.”
Pro Palestine protesters (are) picketing the entry of Bisalloy Steel in Unanderra as they call for the company to end contracts associated with the production of weapons for Israel.
Ms Rayan was one of dozens of protesters who returned to the gates outside Bisalloy’s factory in Unanderra on that Friday morning in the Autumn of 2024.
Resist or Die?
The Channel 9 newsreader mis-reported the slogan “Resist, Re-organise. Re-imagine” on one of the banners placed on a truck blocked at the entrance of Bisalloy Steel. The Newsreader said the slogan was: “resist or die.” No one wants to die, least of all people in Palestine.
Australia supplies Israel with two main components of genocide. One is hardened steel made at Bisalloy’s factory for use in Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles currently in combat with Hamas in Gaza City.
The second is parts for F-35s that have killed over 600,000 people by bombing Gaza and the West Bank. All the F-35 parts manufactured in Australia are heat treated at the HTA plant in Cooper’s Plains on Brisbane’s southside.
Below is rare report from the ABC in July 2024 after activists blocked the Bisalloy plant:
“Bisalloy Steel is Australia’s only manufacturer of quenched and tempered steel plates suitable for armour applications. It has previously supplied Israeli arms company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.” – ABC Wooloongong.
Six hours ago, workers from all the major cities in Italy went on strike supporting sanctions against Israel.
Meanwhile, eleven hours ago, in London, more than 100 years after the Balfour Declaration and 77 years after the creation of Israel in the British Mandate of Palestine, Husam Zomlot, raised the Palestinian flag outside the Palestinian embassy. The new ambassador said: “Yet, this moment stands as a defiant act of truth, a refusal to let genocide be the final word; a refusal to accept that occupation is permanent; a refusal to be erased and a refusal to be dehumanised.”
The two state-solution summit is now taking place at the United Nations in New York. French president Macron declared his country’s recognition of a Palestinian state “is a defeat for Hamas.” Yet it is Palestinian sumud that has withstood the murderous assault by Israel and the United States. No nation, but Yemen, has come to the aid of Palestinians in Gaza. In response, Israel bombed and killed half Yemen’s government.
Finally to the words of the poet Omar el Akkad: “It is not hard to believe, even during the worst of things, that courage is the more potent contagion. That there are more invested in solidarity than annihilation. That just as it has always been possible to look away, it is always possible to stop looking away. None of this evil was ever necessary. Some carriages are gilded and others lacquered in blood, but the same engine pulls us all. We dismantle it now build another thing entirely, or we hurtle towards the cliff, safe in the certainty that when the time comes, we’ll learn to lay tracks on air.“
Ian Curr
24 September 2025
Ian Curr, … there was a war crime on Oct 7 followed by genocide and the settlers need to be stopped.
Israel is acting as a theocratic terrorist organisation I think ideally the UN should put troops on the ground to enforce the old boundaries but none of that can happen because of the security council and because Trump wants hotels there .
We can’t help it, Albo’s position may help, nothing much else can and all the flag waving wont change that I think …. maybe it will but I am not going to do that.
Jim Prentice Of course, the United Nations is totally undemocratic because of the Security Council veto by the United States.
Do you reject the alternative?
The United Nations General Assembly can act itself when a resolution is blocked by the UN Security Council.
There is a call by IPAN for the UN to bypass the UN Security Council veto and establish an armed interventionary force to establish peace and end the genocide in Gaza.
I think that’s a reasonable suggestion, but of course, it will create massive amounts of bloodshed and regional war, but that is something that those with power could weight.
Jim Prentice and other readers,
There is no course to stop the genocide, but armed intervention. It must be by land, air and sea.
A sumud flottilla to arm the Palestinian resistance.
Establishing peace in Gaza means driving out the perpetrators of the genocidal war and establishing control over Gazan airspace to prevent IDF bombing.
There is no other way.
And no other way to see a Palestinian state established. The Israeli PM and cabinet have stated that no state other than Israel is acceptable. In short, greater Israel not a two state solution.
In anticipation of your next comment, if the USA joins Israel and opposes such an interventionary UNGA force then yes it is a war against the US and if that occurs I would urge we open up a 2nd Front against the US here in Australia. Drive them out of Pine Gap and Darwin. Sack Penny Wong and send the Palestinian ambassador to seek China’s assistance to rid ourselves of Trumpism, onetime.
But I will go so far and say that publicly, said here first with you as my witness, so you can quote me on that.