(We) can do better

(Update, 6:24am Wed 13 Dec: The meeting won't be starting for another 36 minutes, that is, 7am AEDT in Victoria and NSW and 8am AEST in Brisbane.Apologies, for my miscalculation.) Tomorrow at 3pm New York Time or, in Australia, at 6pm AEDT in Victoria and NSW or at 5pm AEST in Queensland, the United Nations General Assembly will commence a meeting to discuss and vote on a motion calling for a c

• The US recently blocked a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza
• The Australian Government must call strongly for a ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and massive humanitarian aid for Gazans
• The Israeli ambassador should be expelled until such actions are taken.

Yesterday, on 8 December 2023, Miko Peled, spoke at a public meeting about Israel's murderous war against Gaza, which commenced over two months ago on 7 October and the broader context of the history of the Palestine/Israel conflict going back more than 75 years. Much of what he said from his own personal experience. The meeting was held in the public library of Bethlehem in the US state of New York.

"The horror and trauma children are facing in Gaza right now is indescribable and unconscionable - suffering and killing must stop now." (Plan International Australia, 6 December 2023)
 
Suffering and killing in Gaza must stop now

After a pause in fighting for just one week, Plan International is devastated by the resumption of violence in Gaza over the weekend and the shocking number of civilians and children being killed in a matter of days.

The bombings continue to destroy residential buildings, schools and hospitals. the blockade is tightening and the slaughter of Palestinians is escalating.

The global Palestine solidarity movement must continue to stand with Palestine, now more than ever.

We need to take march for Palestine and demand a REAL end to the bombing; a full withdrawal of Israel troops from Gaza, lift the siege, stop colonising the West Bank, release all Palestinian political prisoners now. We also call on the Australian government to cut ties with Apartheid Israel.

Geneva - Israel has expanded its total ban on humanitarian supplies entering large areas of the Gaza Strip as part of its ongoing genocide, waged since 7 October, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Monday in a statement emphasising Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon against civilians.

The following article has been adapted from a double-sided A4 leaflet which was handed out at a protest for Palestine, which commenced from Queen's Park in the Brisbane CBD at 2pm on Sunday 26 November. The 344K PDF file is attached here (earlier version here).

Well, it’s got to be the platypus. Everything about the platypus is utterly ridiculous. The fact that this animal even exists is is a defiant middle finger to everything we traditionally thought about how mammals work. It’s no secret that it looks weird, but I doubt many know just how weird it truly is, so let’s take a deep dive into the platypus world.

Imagine if the Nürnberg trials after the 1939-45 war had never gone ahead, because Göring, Höss, Keitel, Streicher and other Nazis could have rebutted any possible proceedings with the defence “I had to follow the Führer’s orders.” The primacy of official orders seems to dominate in the prosecution of David McBride, the army lawyer who leaked classified information to the ABC, revealing allegations of crimes committed by special forces in Afghanistan.

The included photograph shows a Palestinian boy moments before he died after he and his people were deliberately targeted by the Netanyahu regime. I captured it from Facebook after assuring Facebook that I could handle the image having read through their warning about how distressing it might be for me. (Unfortunately, I did not bookmark the post, so I cannot link to the original.)

Palestine-born and trained doctor who, at 12 yrs old, was shot in the neck by a sniper on his way home from school, speaks of then and now at a pro-Palestinian rally in Brisbane on 19 November 2023. The rally was very large and a later march took up several blocks, where numerous groups of supporters lined the footpaths. People are aghast, shocked, disturbed, at the failure by world leaders to heed the suffering and extinction of so many people in Gaza, in full view, 24/7.

Avi Yemini from Rebel News spoke at a rally to support Israel against Palestine at King George Square in Brisbane today, 19 November 2023. He described how he usually stuck to reporting, but had not been able to resist this invitation to speak because of the loyal presence of Maori supporters from Brian Tamakis Destiny Church.

With the exception of some members of the cross-bench, mostly Greens, both Australia's houses of Parliament support Israel's war against more than 2 million Palestinians (who are also mostly Israeli citizens) crowded into the Gaza strip.

"The West Bank already started to be destroyed
Jenin streets and homes and another hospital besieged
Our fate will be like Gaza, the terrorist army warned
Beirut too soon and other cities will also be damned
for our "new Middle East" with Starbucks
Grow General Electric and all war stocks
The USA has got Israel's back and gives the weapons to kill
American Taxpayers foot the bill
Will anyone signal stop?"  [More of this poem and links inside.]

Another report on video from Consortium News.  Nurumberg defense mentioned - of a soldier's duty not to follow illegal orders, even if given by a superior officer.

The genocide goes on: Several babies died when taken out of incubators that had no power and many more cancer patients sent home died. Most injured people cannot be helped since the medical system is completely collapsed and there are 27,000 injured.  A friend I have in Gaza told me an American flag was seen on a tank and unusual soldiers not Israeli are seen (wonder if these are the US Delta forces that Biden was photographed shaking their hands in this country). Rotting dead human bodies are all over Gaza. Stray hungry dogs are eating some.

On November 15th, 300 staff, students and alumni called on the University of Melbourne to take action against Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza. They demonstrated their support for the people of Palestine by staging a sit-in at the University of Melbourne Parkville campus. In coordination with the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement, attendees called on the University of Melbourne to stop colluding in Israel’s war crimes and terminate its 13-million-dollar partnership with weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Lies last century to justify the Iraq war have become true in Gaza in 2023, yet the US  and Australia fail to react. In 1990, US President George Bush promoted a total fabrication that Iraqis had thrown Kuwaiti babies out of incubators and had left them to die on the floor.

The modern history of Israel and Palestine has well-documented beginnings in the not so long ago. Of course, if you go back to the Ottoman Empire, the current responsibilities fade. And before then, biblical times. The greatest paradox is perhaps that, if people have the power to get something they really want, and can defend it, ultimately they own it, but they also own the consequences.

On 20 December 2022, US corporation Honduras Próspera Inc. announced a $10.7 billion international legal claim against the Honduran government.  Próspera’s investors want to be compensated by the Honduran people for their democratic decision to overturn a 2013 law enabling the creation of special economic zones known as ‘ZEDEs’.

No 85                                 November, 2023                                     

Please share VOICE with organisational members and on your social media platforms

In this Edition:

IPAN Actions for Peace

      * IPAN Media Release "Stop the siege and stop the genocide  in  Gaza"

      * Kathryn Kelly on Gaza on 8CCC radio

      * Sending letter to your MP regarding Gaza

      * IPAN e-petition to parliament calling for termination of the FPA

Frankston Beach Association: "The fight to save our coastal amenity from high rise buildings along Kananook Creek is not yet over despite the Minister overturning the decision to impose 3 storey mandatory height limits along the precinct.
We are asking that you join with STGW supporters in solidarity at

Noon on Monday 6 November 2023 outside Waves café/restaurant at Frankston Lifesaving Club, I Long Island Drive Frankston.