As part of protests in Canberra, Australia, pro-Palestine protesters have climbed the roof of Parliament House and unfurled a banner which reads, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Organizers of the demonstration in front of the national parliament on Thursday put the protest in context with recent divisions within Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government, which unsuccessfully rejected a proposal to recognise a Palestinian state and suspended a Muslim senator for doing so.
A group of four Renegade Activists, dressed in dark clothing, stood on the roof of the building for approximately an hour, distributing several large banners, including one that read, “No peace on stolen land” on behalf of the group.
In his speech using a megaphone, one of the protesters accused the Israeli government of engaging in “war crimes” in Gaza, and claimed the Australian government would be complicit in these alleged crimes with the support of the United States.
According to the protester, “We will continue to expose and resist the hegemonic, imperialist and capitalist interests that the Australian government is devoting itself to,” he yelled at the Australian government.
As a lackey to our ‘great and powerful’ friends, Australia continues to enable and perpetrate war crimes in the name of those friends.”
At the main entrance to the building, a handful of police and security officers advised people to avoid walking under the protest, while more are seen on the roof and they are trying to remove the group from the building.
In the early hours of the morning around 11:30am local time (01:30 GMT), the protesters packed up their banners before being led away by waiting police officers.
It is clear that this is a serious breach of security at the Parliament, the opposition spokesperson on Home Affairs, James Paterson, wrote on the social media platform X when the news broke.
In order to prevent incursions of this nature, the building was significantly modified at great expense. It is necessary to conduct an investigation.”
On October 7, Palestinian fighters from Hamas attacked Israeli territory in southern Gaza killing around 1,200 people, taking about 250 others hostage, and causing severe damage. This was the beginning of the latest war in Gaza. As a result of Israel’s military operation in the besieged Palestinian territory, nearly 38,000 Palestinians have been killed, millions of Palestinians have been displaced multiple times, and the densely populated area has been left a desolate state of ruin.
In a petition submitted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on behalf of the South African government, the country accuses Israel of perpetrating genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in addition to a UN report last month that pronounced Israel and Hamas both involved in war crimes during the early stages of the Gaza War.
Due to the significant number of civilians who lost their lives in Israel’s actions, the Israeli government was also found to have committed crimes against humanity.
There have been a number of pro-Palestine protests throughout Australia since the war began, including a weeks-long occupation of university campuses and weekly demonstrations in major cities.
Indefinite suspension was imposed on a senator by the Labor Party on Monday after she voted in favour of a parliamentary motion in support of the statehood of the Palestinian people. According to Payman, she had been “exiled” from the government as a result of supporting the motion which was put forward by the Green Party in defiance of the government’s policy.
According to the Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Australia does not currently recognize Palestinian statehood, even though a formal peace process between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities must be completed before Australia can consider doing so.
Timenews1 provided that news.
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