We are living through the worst of times and the best of times.
These are the worst of times because the powers of the whole Western world are standing by while we witness a genocide unfolding before our eyes.
No water, food, no energy, no fuel, no medical supplies. A few short days of respite provided minimal relief. Hospitals, schools and residential apartment blocks are bombed to smithereens.
Gabor Mat茅, the Jewish Canadian psychotherapist who survived Auschwitz, declared this is the worst thing he has witnessed in his life. It is the worst because the horror of Gaza is screened nightly on our TV screens.
We see Picasso鈥檚 Guernica again and again. Yet the imperial west calls it self-defence. The US sends more and more weaponry to pile on the slaughter.
But while this is the worst of times, it is also the best of times.
Not since the Vietnam War have we seen such an upsurge of popular protest around the world. Three actors at the curtain call for Sydney Theatre Company鈥檚 opening night of The Seagull wore the keffiyeh.
It was a simple and powerful sign of solidarity with the people of Palestine. Just three human beings acting from their hearts and values
It was a sign that the campaign for the people of Palestine is reaching deeply and widely in our community.
It was a sign of humanity in the face of the grossest inhumanity by the state of Israel and those who back and enable it.
The humanity of the people confronting the cruelty of power.
Our humanity is the fuel to build our movement to liberate Palestine.
Friends and comrades, we are at a real tipping point of history.
The attack by Hamas and others on Israel on October 7 completely smashed the hubris and arrogance of the militaristic state of Israel. It blew apart its confidence that its military would keep it secure.
It blew up its confidence that they could keep the Palestinians repressed, without rights forever.
What a tragic, terrible delusion!
The terrible violence of that day, and the weeks since, have transformed the settler colonialist reality.
Nothing can ever be the same again. Nothing can be taken for granted.
Now, after this horror, we look through the glass of the future, darkly.
We cannot know what the future holds.
But we do know we must use this moment of cataclysmic change to build and mobilise the solidarity ignited in the people of the world.
Now is the time to build a broad people鈥檚 movement to free the people of Palestine.
Palestinians must lead this movement and set its objectives. But it cannot be won by Palestinians alone.
All 麻豆传媒 of society must be mobilised in the campaign. The unions, artists, teachers, school students, sports people, journalists and doctors.
And, of course, we have already seen a very effective mobilisation of these various constituencies.
These coalitions were the backbone of the struggles against the Vietnam War and Apartheid in South Africa.
Every possible section of society has announced itself against these crimes.
Let me tell you a story from that fight.
At one demonstration against the Springbok tour of New Zealand, a group of friends had no taste for mixing it with the cops. They placed themselves firmly at the rear of the march, carrying their placard 鈥淐owards against the tour鈥. But they were flummoxed: the marshals instructed everyone to turn around聽and they found themselves at the vanguard of the march eyeballing the cops!
Unions and Labor
The growing number of unions engaging in the struggle for Gaza, flying their flags at demonstrations is just fantastic!
The Maritime Union of Australia is taking a leading role in helping organise the campaign against the Israeli ZIM shipping line.
We must campaign to have the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) take a stronger position for the rights and lives of the Palestinians.
The union movement鈥檚 strong ties to Labor constrain its freedom. Labor鈥檚 tight embrace of the United States and its agendas allows no daylight between the two nations.
This grovelling is humiliating and seriously undermines Australia鈥檚 sovereignty.
The ACTU is still hamstrung by this relationship with a Labor Party bereft of all principles.
But the more progressive unions are now raising their flags and voices and staking out a more independent course. Other unions will follow. More and more will engage. This will be the basis for success.
And the various sectoral movements across society will grow and grow.
While we聽are angry with Labor for its stance on Palestine, and many other things, we need to work with pro-Palestine activists within Labor: They are an important source of pressure on the hierarchy, as are the unions. We must partner with Labor activists to deepen that pressure until the Labor hierarchy caves in.
Where are the churches?
One sector that is notably absent from the current campaign is the churches. Churches took a strong role in past campaigns for justice, including the anti-Vietnam War and the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa.
In this crisis, their silence is deafening! What can account for this?
My guess is that the Zionist Jewish communities have used their interfaith work as a Trojan horse. They have persuaded well-meaning Christians that Zionism and support for Israel are integral to Judaism.
And, of course, since the churches had a substantial role in the exclusion and persecution of the Jews in Europe, their silence is ensured by a good dose of Christian guilt.
Israel advocates have argued, quite dishonestly, that to challenge Israel is ipso facto antisemitic.
Israel鈥檚 advocates have run strong campaigns to manipulate European guilt for the holocaust to silence potential critics.
So we need to work with the churches to challenge this false equation of Israel and Zionism with Judaism.
They must not let justified guilt for the past stop them from taking their traditional leading role in this movement for justice.
Those of us who are Jewish have a special responsibility to work to dispel this false equation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Broad-based movement essential
In the broad-based coalition needed for success, there is no room for sectarianism, no room for impotent, identity politics at the expense of unity. We must focus on what we have in common, our shared humanity and passion for peace and justice.
As I have said, the direction of the movement must be led by Palestinians. They have identified BDS as a key strategy for international solidarity. And they have given us a strong framework of aims.
Their three aims are: The right of return of refugees and their descendants; the withdrawal of the military from Palestinian territories occupied in 1967; and Equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel.
We need to unite on these basic Palestinian-defined goals.
Our separate groups and organisations must not be allowed to disrupt the purpose of the united front coalition we need to free Palestine.
While the Palestinians define our overall aims, each sectoral group will need to determine and adopt the tactics best suited to them.
The coalition can measure the success of our tactics and strategies by their impact on the ground. If they advance the cause of Palestine, the practice is validated.
Let me present a small case study.
Debate will be a necessary creative feature of our campaign, and we must engage with each other in a positive spirit of mutual respect for our differences.
Last night [December 11] the City of Sydney passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
A rally had been called outside the Sydney Town Hall, before the meeting, to support the resolution, which had been placed on the agenda by the sole Greens councillor, Sylvie Ellsmore in consultation with the residents calling on the council to adopt a ceasefire motion.
There had been a difference among the groups about the resolution. It was limited, but it did call for an immediate ceasefire.
Unfortunately, the Palestine Action Group chose to withdraw from supporting the rally because the resolution was weak.
I think this was an error: How would it have helped the cause of Palestine to put a stronger motion that would have been defeated?
The City of Sydney is a relatively conservative council, led by the Clover Moore team.聽Now, however,聽a major municipality in New South Wales has supported the call for an immediate ceasefire. This will have a positive effect on other councils: They will follow suit, many of them with stronger resolutions. This campaign with municipal councils is a major front in our battle to free Palestine.
We won an important strategic victory. And it was won by adapting our tactics to the context 鈥 a conservative council.
Ideology abstracted from practice is self-indulgence. It is performative.
So our guidelines going forward need to be: unity and non-sectarianism.
Strength to all those in the struggle in these terrible times, and honour the Palestinians for their steadfastness!
On to the next battles until we win, as we surely will, the liberation of Palestine.
[Vivienne Portzolt is a spokesperson for Jews Against the Occupation. This is an abridged version of her presentation to a 麻豆传媒-Socialist Alliance forum on December 12.]