For the last 8 months, Murdoch papers like The Australian and Sky News have taken on the ridiculous task of labelling anybody who cares about the massacre of the Palestinians in Gaza as ‘antisemitic.’ So reader, do you want to hear about the father in Gaza holding the burnt body of his child in front of a displaced encampment? You won’t, because the Australian media can’t talk about that. Instead, the Australian media landscape becomes the field of dreams, by ignoring peace activists, university encampments, a staunch union movements, history and truth to simp for genocide and war. Israel has hostages. Palestine has prisoners. Israel has women and children Hamas has human shields. Israelis are killed. Palestinians die. Israel is attacked. Palestine is subject to explosives.
It seems horrible not to name the 141 journalists murdered by Israel and relegate their lives to be less important than some political has been comparing the peace movement with that of the Nazis, but this is a puff peace after all. I’m just after the clicks. According to ‘Reporters without Borders’ latest global rankings Australia from 27th to 39th position when it comes to Press Freedom. MEAA sites that the high concentration of media ownership in Australia is a factor, along with the arrests of whistle blowers. The lies by omission on the reporting of the trade union backed peace movement alongside with the student encampments show that the Australian press is far from free.
1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced to Rafah, and have no safe place left to go, forced to evacuate from the Israeli ground invasion whilst running out of food, water and medicine, and they are still living under constant bombardment. And the whole world is watching, in spite of the media blackout. As stated by barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC at the International Court of Justice
The first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time in the desperate so far vain hope that the world might do something. Gaza represents nothing short of a moral failure. The world should be absolutely horrified. The world should be absolutely outraged. There is no safe space in Gaza. The world should be ashamed.
So why was there a story about the Hamas leaders tonight on the ABC and nothing about the meeting yesterday of the UN regulatory body to enforce the strong requests from the International Court of Justice that Israel leave Rafah and let in humanitarian aid? According to data published by the department of foreign affairs and Trade Australia exported over $1.6 m in arms and ammunition to Israel in February 2024. A report in November revealed Australian arms exports to Israel totaled $13m over the past 5 years. However locally, we will not read the story of 1500 students voting for the University of Queensland to cut ties with Boeing and shut down the Boeing Centre, sever ties with companies that supply the Israeli Defense force and financially divest from Israel. The university has yet to agree.
Instead, the Murdoch Press has run a number of attack pieces on the student encampments, naming them violent terrorist supporters, increasing the likelihood of the students encountering violence. 3 days ago in the Australian newspaper, the headline reads ‘Sir Peter Cosgrove says ‘Hitler would be proud” watching Australians boycott Jewish owned businesses. It has never been so obvious that our media is owned by war mongers and capable of deliberate manipulation. As Mahwan Bishara puts it.
In a nutshell, Israel has the right, indeed the obligation to defend itself and its racist occupation, the right to defend it’s military occupation and racist apartheid, according to the cynics and spinners, but the Palestinians have no such right to defend themselves, let alone resist their occupiers by any means, even the most peaceful means, like boycott and divestment.
The IWW has already signed with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The ongoing genocide represents an urgency for the IWW to support the formation of a revolutionary labor movement, viewing Zionism is a part of all Imperialism that a truly united working class works to be free from.
The IWW seeks uphold the interest of the working class in such a way that whenever a strike is on all the members in any one industry, or all industries cease work, making an injury to one an injury to all. This is pertinent to be able to strike and shut down the flow of war and end the loss of life. The Industrial Workers of the World have long held solidarity with the workers and civilians of Palestine. They condemn the genocidal actions of the Israeli government and those who are and support them. The IWW knows that workers have the power to refuse complicity and resist this genocide and asks that workers of all industries unite and support the Palestinian people.
Last week there was a National Day of Action, organized by major unions like the ETU and the CFMEU at every port in Australia. These actions were not reported on by the Australian news, but they involved thousands of trade unionists and supporters gathering at 8 demonstrations in Australian port cities. The CFMEU national secretary Christy Cain called on ACTU leader Sally McManus to call for mass rallies in solidarity and for Anthony Albanese to support the protest movement. Christy Cain has also declared he will ‘stop the wharfs’ if the 19 protestors who were arrested in March in Botany are charged.
The CFMEU have also shown their support for the student encampment in Canberra, stopping work for a day to support the student protestors who were threatened with Police Action. They have moved to another site but claim in a chant “Disclose, Divest, we will not stop, we will not rest’ and claim the fight is not over. The Maritime Union’s National Secretary Pady Crumlin is travelling to Ramallah in Palestine this week to witness the devastating impacts of the ongoing conflict in occupied Palestine. For 150 years the Maritime union has had a leadership role in the peace movement. You can read their statement here. https://www.mua.org.au/news/mua-members-united-calling-peace-safety-and-justice-palestine.
The ETU were also a visible present at the National Day of Action protests at the wharfs, donning beautiful shirts that quote Bobby Sands, ‘Our Revenge will be the Laughter of our Children, the ETU has held solidarity with Palestine for a long time. They are calling for an arms embargo and trade sanctions on the state of Israel and for State governments to withdraw the charges against the MUA, activists and union officials advocating for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide in Gaza.
The student encampment at Melbourne University recently dissolved with the University agreeing to the first demand by the students, to disclose the universities ties to weapons manufacturers, specifically Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE systems. The university will disclose this information within a month. The students at Melbourne University were attacked multiple times by both Zionists and the Police. The students occupied the Arts West building renaming the building as Mahmoud’s Hall and were protected by the University of Melbourne staff when they were threatened with eviction. Zionist lobbyists constantly hounded the student encampment whilst lying to the media about feeling ‘unsafe’.
Melbourne University has a Centre for Advanced Defense Research and Enterprise and has ties with the nuclear division of Lockheed Martin. The inaugural director, Professor Jai Yee Lee, according to her exciting blurb as a guest speaker at an International Women’s Day Event, is working with the Australian Defense Operating in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Environments. We may never know if this research will lead to Palestinian or other civilian deaths. Or whether smashing glass ceilings for women involves cracking Palestinian bones. So, if you can’t choose between wanting to destroy the environment or wanting to kill masses of people, you can have it all with special deals to get more women into STEM. Science always did love a man in uniform.
Yesterday over 300 public servants signed a letter asking the Australian government to stop supplying Israel with weapons and military parts. The Australian government still denies there are any Australian weapons being shipped to Israel. Among their demands are to cease providing reconnaissance support from the Pine Gap facility and to cancel all contracts with Israeli weapons suppliers and disclose information regarding the sale of export licenses to Australian companies that supply weapons to Israel. This letter is supported by Unionists for Palestine.
Palestinian trade unions have requested tangible union actions that include practical support for members who refuse to build or handle weapons, education for workers and the examination of contractual agreements and investments so we are not doing business with or financing Israels genocide. Fellow workers are responsible for the tangible changes that can make a difference to the length and intensity of the war. In spite of the media blackout on the actions of the unions and students, it is the unions and the students that are providing hope for the future.
Disappointingly, the Australian government voted not to recognize Palestine as an independent state. Albanese has been termed hypocritical by both the left and right side of politics. The right wingers are saying that he can’t be supportive of a ceasefire and the two- state solution as he and Penny Wong have both said and claim to be Israels ‘friend’. The left wing has termed Albanese as hypocritical for denying Visa’s to Palestinians from Gaza and continuing to be involved in Israeli weaponry whilst calling for a ceasefire. The left sees the condemning of the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ and overhyping the risk of anti semitism as a parliamentary distraction. Meanwhile the government denies Palestinians visa’s and offers no support to Palestinian asylum seekers that have arrived.
The Australian Government is beholden to the media conglomerates, and the media is bound by the Zionist playbook. The Language Dictionary for the Israel Project published in 2009, written by Dr Frank Luntz. This book is referred to as the Zionist Playbook. The playbook was written after Israels first war on Gaza. It is a basic guide for supporters of Israel on how to speak to the media. It is hard to gauge how many people involved in the industry have read this guide. There are, however, many similarities between the way the Australian media talks about the Genocide, and the rules of the playbook.
For example, following the Zionist playbook includes avoiding talk of the borders both pre- and post 67, and avoiding any reminders about Israel’s military history, the occupation and siege of Gaza, or the taking of Palestinian hostages. The playbook guides the media to deny the history of Israels apartheid and ethnic cleansing, focusing on the current war. To combat the truth of the past treatment of the Palestinian people, Murdoch journalists lament about the distortion in the telling of Israeli history. These journalists are narrowing the historical lens not widening it. Israeli supporters would prefer that you view history as a series of events that happened to the Jewish people in a long line of antisemitic events rather than in the context of larger wars that were conducted by empires millions of non-Jewish victims.
The president of the World Zionist Organisation, Nachum Goldman stated that it was sacrilegious to use the Holocaust as a justification for oppressing others. It’s a kind of manipulation that Noam Chomsky claims as ‘really sick’. Yet ex-governor general Peter Cosgrove states that ‘Hitler would be proud’ referring to the peace activists and the movement to Boycott Israeli companies in response to Israel’s genocide. This manipulation has been repeated over and over by the Murdoch press and yes, it is really sick.
The well-known phrase of ‘Is it is a tragedy that Hamas has killed our civilians whilst hiding in their own’ was coined in the 2009 playbook. This paints the loss of Palestinian lives as unavoidable and blames Hamas for the constant bombardment and shelling of Palestinian people. Assal Rad points out in the language of dehumanization, as noted, that Israel takes hostages, but Palestine takes prisoners. Israel has woman and children; Palestine has human shields. Israeli people are killed were as Palestinians die, Israel is attacked where as Palestine is subject to explosions.
As many countries in the world, including Australia call for two state solutions, calling for a two-state solution is also in accord with the 2009 playbook written by Israel. This is because it shows Israel in a favorable light of having the goal of having two people living side by side in a lasting and secure peace. Playing lip service and pretending to care about Palestinian people only so you can later say that a two-state solution isn’t achievable overnight, and prolong the ethnic cleansing.
According to most Australian media, Hamas are bombing their own hospitals and as their last act have placed women and children in tents next to some explosives, that of course caught fire when Israel bombed them. So Israels ‘safe spaces’ are only unsafe because of Hamas, not because there is no food, water, medicine, sanitation or nearby hospitals and not because they are under constant bombardment. This logic is insane. Biden is also well equated with this 2009 playbook according to Mahwan Bishan, the chief political editor of Aljazeera. He has embraced the recommendations to highlight Israels right to defend itsself against the attacks of a terrorist organisation, and deflected the killing of Palestinian by accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Israeli supporters have no doubt who is responsible for the deaths of the civilians in Gaza. Hamas is also blamed for being responsible for the starvation by taking all the food. Failure to comply to the Zionist playbook will cost journalists their careers in the west, such as Australian journalist and their lives in Palestine. The cries from the liberal government and the far right show increasingly that unless people aren’t subservient to the Zionist groups demands it can end their career. There is talk in Australia of ending student visas for any international student involved in a peace protest. In Israel anyone who posts any content about Palestine will be arrested without charge. Students in America have been threatened with expulsion should they get involved in standing for peace.
Yet still they stand.
For peace.
From the river to the sea.
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