SYDNEY: Thousands of Australians joined pro-Palestinian rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between the Zionist entity and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state. More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane.
In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction (the Zionist entity)” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine”. Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the umbrella group for Australia’s Jews, told Sky New television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening”.
The protests follow Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state. Diplomatic ties between Australia and the Zionist entity soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain and Canada.
The Aug 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where the Zionist entity began an offensive nearly two years ago. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people in Gaza, while a shortage of food is leading to widespread starvation.
Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Copenhagen on Sunday, calling for an end to the war in Gaza and urging Denmark to recognize the state of Palestine. Some 100 organizations including Oxfam, Greenpeace and Amnesty took part in the march, as well as unions, political parties, artists’ collectives and activists including Greta Thunberg.
Gathering under sunny skies outside the Danish parliament, the demonstrators — many of them families with young children — waved flags and carried banners, chanting “Stop Arms Sales”, “Free Free Palestine” and “Denmark Says No to Genocide”. A traditional supporter of the Zionist entity, Denmark has said it wants to use its current presidency of the European Union to increase pressure on the Zionist government to end the war in Gaza, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen recently said had gone “too far”.
But Denmark has said it has no plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the near future. “Those who are in power are not stopping the genocide, so it’s even more important to go out and protest and show all the leaders that we do not agree with this,” 43-year-old demonstrator Michelle Appelros said. – Agencies