Israeli and US embassies face anger over Gaza

Pro-Palestinian protesters have staged a demonstration outside the Israeli and US embassies in Canberra, calling on Israel to agree to a ceasefire and condemning the assault on Gaza.

Protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Pro-Palestinian protesters have staged a demonstration outside the Israeli and US embassies in Canberra, calling on Israel to agree to a ceasefire and condemning the military assault being waged on Gaza.

Brandishing signs reading ­“Albanese you sold out”, “ceasefire now” and “Israel is committing genocide”, a crowd of about 200 protesters prayed and chanted “free, free Palestine”, “shame, shame Israel” and “bombing Gaza is a crime”.

Palestine Action Group representative Nick Reich said those present rejected the charge of anti-Semitism leveraged against the pro-Palestinian movement, describing Israel as a “terrorist state”. Protesters presented a collection of baby dolls, some wrapped in shrouds splattered with red paint, to signify children killed in Israel’s response to the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Canberra Muslims for Palestine convener Emad Soliman, who organised the protest on Friday night, said Israel was carrying out acts of unspeakable violence.

“It’s the bloodshed, the kids that are dying, 4000 kids, and the counting is still going up,” he said.

“What is driving me is something I’ve never seen in my whole life. I’m 60 years old and I’ve never seen such a massacre.”

The protests came after Anthony Albanese spoke to the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, during which the Prime Minister condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel and reiterated his support for a two-state solution.

In the call to the Palestinian leader on Thursday, Mr Albanese also expressed his concern about civilian casualties in both Israel and Gaza, and the need for international law to be observed, his office confirmed.

Protester Ala Barhoum told the crowd on Friday night that she had lost 30 family members in the bombing of Gaza and some of her relatives had started writing their children’s names on their bodies so their remains could be ­identified.

A girl with dolls wrapped in shrouds. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“Parents are frantically looking for their kids under the rubble,” she said. “People are dying silently and quietly under the rubble. They don’t have any equipment to pull them out, just using their hands.”

Another protester said Israel and “political elites” were suffering from “chronic lying disorder” in their denial of the hardships facing the Palestinian people.

“Cutting off food, water and fuel on 2.2 million people in Gaza is called collective punishment, not self-defence,” she said.

“Targeting innocent civilians, half of which being children is called a genocide, not self-­defence. Telling 1.1 million people in Gaza to move south, which is impossible, is called ethnic cleansing.”

One man who addressed the crowd and who claimed to be linked to Amnesty International called for a ceasefire to spare civilian casualties.

“For the ceasefire to be effective, states must ensure that it covers the whole of the Gaza Strip, and that it’s long enough and substantive enough for the healing of suffering of the Palestinian people, as the people of Gaza continued to endure a devastating military operation and on top of the intensification of a 16-year blockade,” he said.

Jewish man Rick Kuhn ­accused Israel of being a “racist, apartheid” state waging an “ethnic genocide” against Palestinians. He said he would be blocked from returning to Israel because of his support of Palestine.

One protester brandished a sign saying “Apartheid; wrong in South Africa, wrong in Palestine”.

The crowd gathered at the ­Israeli embassy before marching to the US embassy in Yarralumla.