The Coalition of Women for Justice and Peace assembled at Parramatta Square on April 24 to form a 鈥淐hain of Women鈥 sanding up for the rights of the Palestinian people.聽
Carrying placards with anti-genocide statements, they stood in silence while a simple drumbeat helped bring their powerful message home: Australian politicians who support the genocide in Gaza must be held accountable.
The tragedy in Palestine is an election issue.
While Israel continues to unleash the human rights abuses, the major parties look away bowing to United States pressure and the Zionist lobby.
When confronted with a choice between profiting聽from the weapons industry on the one hand and adhering to Australia鈥檚 responsibilities under international humanitarian law, they opt against taking an ethical stand. The direct result is the erosion of laws, which helps the authoritarians.
At Parramatta Square, many passers-by expressed their agreement and were eager to be informed about a next gathering.
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The Chain of Women will pop up in public places across the CBD to bring people together聽in聽solidarity against gross injustice. Quite a few men joined in, as did Liz Tilly, the Greens candidate for Parramatta, Labor Friends of Palestine, Parramatta for Palestine and Jews Against the Occupation 鈥48.
The gravitas of the silence and the solemness of the drumbeat were interspersed with the same chants that pro-Palestine supporters have been voicing through the CBD ever since Israel launched its war on Gaza in 2023.
The major parties have shown they are prepared to let Israel destroy Gaza and its people and therefore聽have become complicit to this barbarity.聽Voters need to check if聽candidates pass the basic test of humanity and聽to make their vote count in the fight for justice and peace in the Middle East.
[Jepke Goudsmit is a member of Jews Against the Occupation 鈥48.]