Pro-Palestine rally outside parliament as PM delivers speech inside

About 200 pro-Palestine protesters gathered on the lawns outside Parliament House on Tuesday (8 October), demanding the Federal Government sanction Israel over what they describe as “genocide, injustice, oppression and occupation”.

The rally came just a day after the nation commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel that killed 1200 Israelis and saw 250 more taken as hostages to Gaza.

Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has killed about 42,000 Palestinians, according to reports.

Tuesday’s protest was in solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanese, with outrage expressed against the Federal Government for not taking stronger action against Israel.

The Federal Government has repeatedly condemned both the Hamas attack and the Israeli response.

Protesters came from various parts of the country on Tuesday, but mostly from Canberra and NSW.

It included the Wollongong Friends of Palestine, who helped shut down the Illawarra Bisalloy Steel’s Unanderra factory for 24 hours last month over claims it produces steel used in vehicles and arms Australia sells to Israel.

All of the protesters demanded Australia stop its support of the Israeli military.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge said the Federal Government was complicit in the violence.

“We’ve seen countless images of violence and destruction and death to the people in the region of Israel and Gaza, Lebanon,” he told the rally.

“What I think is driving millions and millions of Australians to demand our government cease its complicity in the violence in the Middle East is this connection, this people-to-people connection we see around the world.”

Indigenous leaders and academics addressing the crowd agreed with the sentiment.

Ngunnawal, Ngambri, and Wiradjuri woman Leah House said Indigenous Australians stood with Palestinians because 230 years of colonisation gave Australia’s First Nations people common ground with them.

“Australia’s complicity and support for another settler colony should not be at all surprising,” she said

Inside Parliament, Anthony Albanese delivered a speech to mark the anniversary of the Hamas attack and again called for an Israeli ceasefire and a return of Israeli hostages.

“As we mourn and reflect, we also reaffirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity: every innocent life matters,” the Prime Minister said.

“Every Israeli. Every Palestinian. Every Lebanese. Every single innocent life. It is the terrorists who close their eyes to that powerful, simple truth.

“Terrorists don’t care if children in Israel or children in Gaza live or die. We do.

“Terrorists have no interest in a true and enduring peace in the Middle East. We do.

“The number of civilians who have lost their lives over the past year is a tragedy of horrific proportions.

“An estimated 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating.

“Our government has consistently and repeatedly called for a ceasefire, for the release of all hostages, and for the protection of all civilians.

“We remain committed to a two-state solution as the path to an enduring peace. Two states – Israel and Palestine – living peacefully side by side, with prosperity and security for their people.

“There can be no possibility of a just future without that.

“A year on from October 7, Israelis and people across the world are mourning those who were robbed of their lives and futures, and waiting anxiously for news of the hostages who remain in captivity.

“Palestinian people are mourning the lives taken from them in the continuing aftermath. So much has been lost, so many loved ones buried.

“We join all of them in their grief. We will continue to call for de-escalation in the violence and conflict in the region.

“We repeat our call for a ceasefire in Gaza. We repeat our call for the release of all hostages.”