Dear friends,

As you will be aware, this May will mark the 61^st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), which saw more the forcible expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in Melbourne is calling on all Australian supporters of human rights and the struggle for Palestinian self-determination and freedom to organise a national day of protest in order to commemorate al Nakba, but also to demand an end to Israel’s brutal and illegal siege of Gaza, to demand an end to the occupation of Palestine, to demand the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland and to demand the Rudd government break all economic, political, cultural and military ties with Israel.

In Melbourne, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be putting out a call for a street demonstration to take place on Friday May 15 at 5.30pm at the Victorian State Library (cnr of Swanston and La Trobe St).

Please find below the PSC call for a national day of action (NDA) on May 15.  If you would like to sign on to support the call, please email us at palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

Please also let us know, once decided, the details of any actions planned by group or organisation, as well as what city wide actions will be taking place in your city or town.

In solidarity,

Palestine Solidarity Campaign

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Palestine Solidarity Campaign

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Call for National Day of Action

in support of the Palestinian people on

The 15th of May 2009 marks 61 years of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe).  In 1948, more than 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland by Zionist forces, with more than 500 Palestinian villages depopulated and destroyed.  Today more than 7 million Palestinian refugees, the largest refugee community in the world, are living in exile from their homeland, dispersed around the world.

Israel continues to colonise and ethnically cleanse Palestinian land through occupation and war.   On December 27, 2008, Israel began a three week war against the 1.5 million civilian population of Gaza, which resulted in more than 1400 Palestinians being killed, 90% of who were civilians, including more than 500 children and 100 women.  The war on Gaza came on the back of Israel’s illegal and brutal two year siege of Gaza, which has denied the people of the region adequate fuel, food, electricity and medical supplies. While Israel’s bombardment and war against the people of Gaza has ceased for the time being, its illegal siege of Gaza continues unabated, as does its illegal occupation of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, along with the illegal construction of Jewish only settlements and the apartheid wall.

In response to Israel’s war against the Palestinian people of Gaza, millions of people worldwide took to the streets to oppose Israel’s war crimes.  This outpouring of support for the people of Palestine has given enormous momentum to the international campaign to isolate apartheid Israel through the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign – a campaign launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005.

The 61^st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba on May 15 is an important opportunity for all supporters of human rights and justice to join this ongoing campaign to say no to Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people; to say no to Israel’s occupation and to say no to Israel’s apartheid policies and to demand justice for the Palestinian people.

We the undersigned support a national day of protest on May 15 to:

1.    Commemorate Al Nakba

2. To demand an end to Israel’s brutal and illegal siege of Gaza

3. Demand an end to the occupation of Palestine

4. To demand the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland

5. Demand the Rudd government break all economic, political, cultural and military ties with Israel.

Signed:

1. Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Melbourne)
2. Australians for Palestine (Melbourne)
3. Palestinian Community Association (Victoria)
4. Coalition of Palestine Solidarity Groups (Melbourne)
5. Women for Palestine (Melbourne)
6. La Trobe University Students for Palestine (Melbourne)
7. Justice for Palestine (Melbourne)
8. Action for Palestine (Adelaide)
9. Australian Friends of Palestine (Adelaide)
10. Australian Friends of Palestine (West Australia)
11. Justice for Palestine (Queensland)
12. Gaza Defence Committee (Sydney)
13. Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Committee (Sydney)
14. Canterbury Bankstown Peace Group (Sydney)
15. Revolutionary Socialist Party
16. Freedom Socialist Party
17. Socialist Alternative
18. Radical Women
19. Socialist Alliance
20. Indigenous Social Justice Association (Melbourne)
21. Barricade Anarchist Infoshop

Rachel Johnson is a human rights activist who has just spent 5 weeks working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Gaza documenting the aftermath of Israel’s brutal war and the ongoing collective punishment of the people of Gaza by Israel.

In addition to working in Gaza, Rachel has also spent one year working as a human rights activist with the ISM in the Occupied West Bank

Rachel will discuss both the impact and aftermath of the war, as well as the current situation face by Palestinians living under occupation in the Occupied West Bank

7pm @ the Unitarian Church,

Tuesday March 17

110 Grey St
East Melbourne

Entry by donation!  All welcome!

Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

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Email: palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

For Immediate Release                                        8 March, 2009

Van Thanh Rudd & the Economy of Movement- a piece of Palestine:

Defend the right to artistic expression & freedom of speech!

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in Melbourne unequivocally defends and supports the right of visual artist, Van Thanh Rudd, to freedom of artistic expression and speech.

Van’s work, Economy of Movement – A piece of Palestine, which has been displayed as part of the Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance: Propositions towards urban (r)evolution exhibition at Flinders St Station has been subject to censorship this week.

The art work which depicts a rock and includes two informational statements outlining the resistance to Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the role that French companies Alstom and Veolia (whose Australian transport operations operate under the name of Connex) are playing in facilitating the illegal Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem by building illegal settlement infrastructure.

Veolia and Alstom are part of the Citypass consortium which won the 2002 tender project amounting to 500 million Euros. The light rail will service illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land and is a serious breach of international law, in particular article 49 and article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which both Israel and Australia are signatories.

Article 49 states:

“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.

Article 53 states:

“Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”.

The transfer of any Israeli civilian population into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, whether it be East Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, is illegal under international law, as is the forcible confiscation and destruction of Palestinian private property by Israel as an occupying power.

The light rail being built on stolen Palestinian land by Veolia (Connex) and Alstrom will assist with the transfer of the Israeli civilian population into the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, directly supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and its surrounds.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) supports the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (www.bdsmovement.net ).  The campaign initiated in 2005 by almost 200  Palestinian civil society organisation calls for the boycotting of Israeli goods, divestment from Israeli companies and institutions and for governments to place sanctions on Israel by breaking military, political, cultural and economic ties until the country abides by international law.

In Australia, Palestine solidarity activists from a coalition of Palestine solidarity organisations, including the Palestine Solidarity Camaign, over the next months will be demanding that various state governments around Australia dump their contracts with Connex.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign also calls on the Australian Rudd government to break all political, economic, cultural and military ties with Israel, until it abides by its international obligations.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign congratulates Van Thanh Rudd for his ongoing support of human rights in both Palestine and elsewhere and applauds the Platform Artists Group for their courageous support of an artist’s freedom of artistic expression and speech.

For more information:

Email: palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net

Palestine Solidarity Campaign: who we are …

PSC is a grassroots, activist based group which does not adhere to any particular ideology and is not affiliated with any political or religious grouping.  PSC includes people from a diversity of cultural and political backgrounds, as well as religious affiliations and seeks to collaborate with all groups and individuals who are committed to our goal of ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine and who support justice for the Palestinian people.

If you would like to add your support/endorsement to this action, please email: palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

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STOP THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE

Picket Malcom Turnbull and the United Israel Appeal

Thurs, March 12 @ 6pm

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is attending a Gala Dinner of the United Israel Appeal (UIA). The UIA’s key objective is to fund Jewish migration to Israel. Almost 50% of Palestinians live around the world in exile unable to return to their homes now occupied by Israel. Meanwhile the UIA funds Jews who have no historic connection to the land to immigrate to Israel/Palestine.

While 4.6 million Palestinians live in exile, the majority in refugee camps, the UIA website promotes that it only takes AUD $650 to bring a French Jew to Israel. With an $85 a head dinner, plus pledging the UIA hopes to raise even more money to Judaise Israel and according to their own mission statement in doing so “fortifies the fabric of Israeli society.” Of course their vision of an “Israeli society” is a Jewish one which discriminates against its Arab population. Currently there are over 20 laws in Israel which discriminate against Palestinians.

The UIA is part of the Zionist project of displacing and marginalising those Palestinians who have remained in Israel. Currently one of the UIA’s key projects is to “pioneer” villages in the Galilee and the Negev. The UIA website describes these places as “barren” while Israel recently spent $250 million US dollars in trying to remove the Bedouin population who live in unrecognised villages from those same areas. Israel wants to pretend these people don’t exist like Australia did to its own indigenous population.

No Australian support for Israel.

End the Occupation.

Recognise Palestinian Right of Return

Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

Supported by Coalition of Palestine Solidarity Groups, Australians for Palestine, Students for Gaza, Radical Women, Freedom Socialist Party, La Trobe University Students for Palestine, Socialist Alterantive, Direct Action, Revolutionary Socialist Party.