More than 150 people from across Australia and New Zealand attended the Palestine Solidarity Conference, January 27-29, in Melbourne.
They included First Nations, progressive Jews, unionists, students, Labor, Greens, socialists and independent and Palestinian activists. Encouragingly many young activists attended and, notably, young Palestinian women.
The conference, which included plenary sessions and activist workshops, was hosted by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) and featured renowned Palestinian guests from Australia and around the world, speaking via video link.
Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe, on the opening plenary “Organising for Palestine on Stolen Land,” said both struggles are connected by “disempowerment, oppression, death, killings and grief” and the fight for land and justice is key.
Seeking to “build collective resistance across the movement”, the conference focussed on activism by linking up Palestine activist movements here and across the globe.
Discussions centred on how to raise public awareness about Palestinian human rights and oppression, rather than be derailed by endless discussions on differences between internal Palestinian political forces or what a final Palestine/Israel state will look like.
United States-Palestinian comedian and activist Amer Zahr (wearing a T-shirt that said “Will trade racists for refugees”) said in “The Palestinian narrative, demands and non-negotiables” panel, via video link, that the Zionist lobby aimed to lure activists into complicated debates about ancestry, revisionist history and contested indigeneity to the land.
Read the article by Michael Bull in Green Left.