Gaza will not go down!

More than one thousand people rallied at the steps of Parliament House, Adelaide, on Sunday January 11 2009 to condemn Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

The rally was organised by the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) .

Speakers included AFOPA Chairperson Paul Heywood-Smith, QC; SA Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young; AFOPA public advocate Michael Shaik; and SA Independent MP Kris Hanna.

Heywood-Smith (left) stressed that AFOPA’s opposition was to the human massacre being perpetrated by the Israelis and welcomed people from various political persuasions, from churches, mosques and synagogues. He referred people to the website http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/ for a list of companies whose products should be boycotted in support of the Palestinian people.

The names of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Deputy PM Julia Gillard drew jeers as speakers pointed out their failure to condemn Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Widespread agreement expressed through applause occurred after reference to the role of the United States as the prime backer of Israeli aggression.

(AFOPA spokesperson Michael Shaik, above)



Leaflets were distributed condemning the SA Government for encouraging the establishment of a partnership between US armaments giant Raytheon and a public high school at Aberfoyle Park. Raytheon will pay the school $150,000 per year for the next three years in return for access to students enrolled in its “students with high intellectual potential” program. It will mentor these students with the aim of recruiting them to help produce the next generation of military communications systems, missiles, bunker bombs, microwave ray guns and the like.

(Information on the APHS-Raytheon connection can be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/6fj4sf , a video clip, and
http://tinyurl.com/5uqtys an article)


(Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young addressing the rally, above).


The militant Song for Gaza was sung at the rally. Like the famous “They shall not pass”, which expressed the determination of the Spanish people to fight the fascists during the Spanish Civil War, the phrase “We will not go down” expresses the determination of the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip to defy the Zionist occupation forces and their fascist oppression of the people:



Blinding flash of white light
Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight
People running for cover
Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive

They came with their tanks and their planes
With ravaging fiery flames
And nothing remains
Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze:

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Women and children alike
Murdered and massacred night after night
While the so-called leaders of countries afar
Debated on who’s wrong or right

But their powerless words were in vain
And the bombs fell down like acid rain
But through the tears and the blood and the pain
You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze:

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight

We will not go down
In Gaza tonight