(I was meant to post this like two weeks ago, but I forgot)
So, I had the pleasure of seeing Harry Fear, Sophie McNeill and Sara Saleh talk about the ongoing atrocities in Palestine. I had such a good time, and it was really interesting.
Sara and Sophie captivated me the most with their personal experiences and talking about their recent trips to Palestine. Sara delivered a very raw, powerful and emotion presentation while Sophie engaged us with her person experiences, some made us laugh, some made us cry. Harry of course presented us with a brilliant report on Gaza, and presented us with the true facts. They first began the event by reading two verses from the Quran.
Firstly, Harry did talk about Gaza, and he said that 50% of the children suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which was quite sad. He even showed us a video of a small Palestinian girl playing as normal, until she hears the sound the explosion, she reacts, and the adults try to provide her with psychological relief, as Harry put it, however there was no one to provide psychological relief to the adults. He called Gaza a “prison playground.” He also talked about many of the resistance of ‘terrorists’ groups in Gaza, not just Hamas. (I love how he did the inverted commas thing with his fingers everytime he said the word terrorists haha) but yes he talked about how during Cast Lead, there was a police academy called the ‘Arafat Police Academy’, and how Israel planned to bomb it, and there was a UN school nearby and the bombs went off just as the children were leaving school. He also said many of the people in the police academy were graduates, and I can assume they were just possibly around 19/20 years old then? Harry also said how anybody associated with Hamas, Israel considers terrorists. Harry also talked about the al-Dalou family massacre, in which 17 people killed just because that was the home of a resistance fighter. It kinda shows how aggressive Israel is, as now they had begun targeting the homes of resistance fighters, and not police stations or anything like that. He also mentioned, how just briefly after the 8-day war, his phone got stolen and he had no one report it to, as literally the police stations were all destroyed. Harry also mentioned he had a friend who only left gaza twice, and that was twenty years ago. That goes to show how the population in Gaza is imprisoned. Unfortunately Harry ran out of time to speak, but he managed to get in as much information as he could.
Sophie (Australian journalist/radio/TV presenter) then told us about her recent trip back from Palestine, mainly from Jerusalem and Gaza. One thing that caught my ear though was about how she said there were CIA agents sitting in the bars and hotels in West Jerusalem while journalists risked their life to go to Gaza. She also talked how driving from Jerusalem to the Erez crossing, then entering Gaza, you can tell the difference. “Tel Aviv looks like Miami, or some other Australian city” but in Gaza, you can see pot holes and stuff, it was horrible. She then talked about how the elections and how Gaza gets collectively punished for electing Hamas. In fact, she stated that not everyone supports Hamas, yet Israel collectively punishes them. She also talked about her friend Raid, about he’d be like your “normal Aussie bloke”, which shows not everyone indeed supports Hamas. She also said about how members of his family got massacred, and that he knew English so he drove a taxi around trying to earn money for his family, and to rebuild his house which he had to rebuild twice. She also talked about him that one day the Pope was coming to Jerusalem, and he had to interview Christians in Gaza. What he didn’t know though is that the Pope was catholic and Christians in Gaza were not catholic, it kinda goes to show how cut off from the world they are, thanks to the siege. In fact Harry before stated that most Gazans did not own electronics. Sophie also talked about her friend (who I unfortunately didnt catch his name when she said it) who runs the Gaza Youth Break Out account, and one day they were sitting in a cafe together, and she asked him about all his followers and friends from different countries, and how he feels when he sees his friends, his age from different countries and their lives. He just remained silent and there were tears rolling down his eyes. That made me sad. She also spoke about how they went to inspect the tunnels, and they were smuggling in things like basic humanitarian supplies. That’s how awful this siege is.
Then, Sara spoke. Sara is an activist working for Amnesty Intl. Australia. Sara’s speech was really powerful and empowering and it’s inspired me to join an NGO when I leave school, hopefully. She also said that she was recently in Palestine, however they were not successful into getting into Gaza. She said some really good important quotes. “1 million olive trees have been uprooted since 1967”, and I think this is quite ironic, as they have been uprooted by the same people who “made the desert bloom”. She also said a quote that goes “we were born in this camps, we spent our life in these camps, we’re going to die in these camps, what’s meant to be temporary has become permanent, and everything permanent, temporary, and my entire life here has been just visiting” by a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon. She also talked about the relentless humiliation at checkpoints, and how whether the taxi driver is a Shlomo or an Ahmad. If its a Shlomo, they let him pass, but if its an Ahmad, he’ll be stopped, and made sure his life is made a living hell. Another quote was “That’s my village, I’ve never seen it please let me go, please let me go, that’s my village, I need to see it” this was by an activist who was with her on the trip. Her village was in the space of modern day Israel. Sara’s speech overall was emotional, and unlike the others, she did not use pictures. I might post a video. “We don’t want your despair, we don’t want your money, we just want you to tell it to the world” was another good quote, and infact the Palestinian answer to the conflict.
There was also a Q&A session which I didn’t record however it was really good. Harry said that he thinks he will see an end to the conflict in his life time. Sara also said something really good about BDS which I didn’t record. However she said it was strategic, and not anti-Semitic. We also need to rethink how we approach BDS. Harry also said we need to keep the blood off our hands by boycotting places that support Israel. Sara also started that the answer to Palestinian liberation was not statehood. Does statehood solve the three Palestinian problems which are occupation, apartheid and inalienable right of return? Which I agree with. Somebody also asked a question about the Jewish lobby which I think they meant the Zionist lobby, in which I was going to ask something related to it. I was going to something like “there is a Jewish lobby that is pro-Palestine, Independent Australian Jewish Voices, do you think we should use these groups as promoting Palestinian-Jewish unity” or something along the lines as that but there was no time.
Anyway, it was a really good event, and I hope to go to more events like this in the future.
I unfortunately didn’t get to meet Harry though or anyone for that matter, but Harry did RT me and favourite my tweet on twitter, and Sara favourited it too which is good enough for me ha.
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