Anti-genocide protests demand Australia cut ties with Israel
Isaac Nellist
Mon, 08/12/2025 - 12:22
Pip HinmanPeter BoyleElizabeth BantasSarah Hathway
December 8, 2025,
Issue 1444,
News
Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza, despite the so-called ceasefire and “stage one” of a US-brokered “peace” plan, was the trigger for another national day of action across Australia, on December 7.
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Protests were organised in at least 17 cities and towns, calling on federal Labor to call out the fake peace plan and stop sending weapons’ parts to genocidal Israel. They also demanded that broadcaster SBS not support Eurovision, which decided to allow Israel to participate next year.
That day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who offered Israel the largest weapons deal in its history — US$4.5 billion. At the same media conference, Merz talked up an independent Palestinian state, while Netanyahu rejected the plan.
Meanwhile, Israel says it is moving towards “stage two” of Donald Trump’s plan, endorsed by the United Nations, which Hamas says needs a lot of “clarifications”, including its disagreement that an international force to oversee disarmament or that it would have “any kind of mandates” on Palestinian territory.
Israel has killed more than 360 Palestinians — including an estimated 70 children — since the first phase of the ceasefire. Hamas released the last 20 living Israeli hostages in exchange for about 2000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. It has handed over all but one of 28 bodies of the hostages killed during the war. Israeli forces have withdrawn to a ceasefire line but still control 53% of the Gaza Strip.
“We have operational control over extensive parts of the Gaza Strip, and we will remain on those defence lines,” Israeli military chief lieutenant general Eyal Zamir told Al Jazeera. “The yellow line is a new border line, serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity.”
Hamas official Basem Naim told Al Jazeera: “We are welcoming a [United Nations] force to be near the borders, supervising the ceasefire agreement, reporting about violations, preventing any kind of escalations”, adding that Hamas would not accept the force having “any kind of mandates” on Palestinian territory.
Israel says the second phase will start when the body of the last Israeli captive is returned.
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, responding to questions in the European Parliament on December 7, criticised the European Union for “end[ing] up enforcing all the mechanisms of the oppression of the Palestinians”.
She levelled criticism at the Palestinian Authority for its adherence to the Oslo Accords, which, she said, are “to ensure security coordination with Israel — the unlawful occupier of the Palestinian territory”.
Meanwhile, Australian foreign affairs minister Penny Wong told Senate estimates on December 4 that there was no role for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “The position that we have, that there should be no role for Hamas, is reflected not only in the peace plan that President Trump and the Arab and other nations endorse, but also the UN Security Council resolution.”
Thousands join protests for Palestine across the country on December 7. Photo: Peter Boyle
Shamikh Badra, a Palestinian activist from Gaza, addressing the rally on Gadigal Country/Sydney. Photo: Peter Boyle
Shamikh Badra, Palestinian activist and former Gaza resident, was one of the keynote speakers at the protest in Gadigal Country/Sydney, Peter Boyle reports.
“In Gaza, children die with no one to protect them. Families sleep and never wake up: A whole people is punished simply for being Palestinian; their homes, their dreams, their futures — buried under rubble. And the colonial powers and racists look away, because it has been taught, again and again, that Palestinian lives do not matter.”
Shamikh and his brother Majed Badra were attacked by a group of racist men returning from a March for Australia rally on a train in August. While the perpetrators were arrested and charged with assault, they were not charged with racial vilification, despite clear video proof that they racially targeted and abused.
Given that Islamophobic and anti-Arab sentiment is on the rise, this is a gross double standard in the application of racial discrimination and vilification laws.
“When someone attacks us for wearing a keffiyeh, when they scream ‘Go back to Palestine’, when police erase the racist motive — it comes from the same dark place: The place that cannot see our humanity,” Badra said.
“That is why our fight here in Australia, and the fight for Gaza, are connected. It is the same struggle — for dignity, for recognition and for the right to exist without fear.”
Protesters are calling on Labor to stop arming Israel. Photo: Pip Hinman
First Nations musician Jayden Kitchener-Waters, who was barred from performing at a NSW Parliament House event in November because of anti-genocide slogans on his guitar, also addressed the rally. He is also being attacked by his bosses in the public service for expressing his political views.
“It is no coincidence that the same brutal tactics used by the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza — claiming tens of thousands of Palestinian lives — are being repeated in Sudan,” Sudanese community activist Yasir told the rally.
This “reveals a pattern of brutal imperialist logic”, he said, and “highlights the hypocrisy of international law structures created by the same powers that abuse it.”
Surya McEwen, who was detained and assaulted by Israeli authorities in October along with other activists participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla that attempted to deliver aid to Gaza, told the rally that the “ceasefire” was a lie.
“We know that this is a genocide through a different form … We know that they will keep pushing for the complete annihilation of Palestine until we stop them.”
The march, which drew about 2000 people, wound through the city centre, stopping briefly for sit-downs outside Pitt Street Mall and at the major intersection next to Sydney Town Hall, where Damien Ridgeway, from the Palestine Action Group, said: “We’ve got a message for [PM Anthony] Albanese and Penny Wong who are still selling weapons and arms to this genocidal state of Israel: Stop contributing to genocide!”
Naarm/Melbourne. Photo: Chloe DS
Elizabeth Bantas reports that thousands of people gathered at the steps of the State Library in Naarm/Melbourne to protest Israel’s latest genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, over more than two years.
Community organisations and unionists supported the rally, including Readers and Writers Against Genocide, Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine, and members of the Australian Services Union, Australian Metal Workers Union and the Community and Public Sector Union.
Speakers addressed the enduring trauma suffered by the Palestinian people with three new demands: Remain, Return, Rebuild.
This slogan calls for Palestinians to be able to remain safe in Palestine, to return to all parts of Palestine whether they live in Gaza, the West Bank or as refugees, and to be able to rebuild in Gaza.
Award-winning singer and Australia’s 2021 Eurovision Song Contest representative Montaigne performed at the rally and spoke against Israel’s inclusion in Eurovision.
Montaigne performing at the Naarm/Melbourne rally. Photo: Chloe DS
Marching across the Sea Cliff Bridge in Tharawal/Wollongong. Photo: Zebedee Parkes
Hundreds of protesters in Tharawal/Wollongong marched across the iconic Sea Cliff Bridge as part of the nationwide marches.
The lead banner, “No Illawarra steel for genocide”, referred to the Illawarra-based Bisalloy Steel, which provides tempered steel used by the Israel Defense Forces.
Days earlier, on December 5, Wollongong Council hoisted the Palestinian flag outside the council chambers after a push from Wollongong Friends of Palestine.
The flag raising was attended by Palestine solidarity campaigners, Wollongong Against War and Nukes, the South Coast Labour Council’s Arthur Rorris, and Wollongong Citizen of the Year Sally Stevenson, as well as Labor mayor Tania Brown, independent councillor Andrew Anthony, Greens councillors Kit Docker and Deidre Stuart, Cunningham Labor MP Alison Byrnes and Wollongong Labor MLA Paul Scully.
Tharawal/Wollongong. Photo: Zebedee Parkes
The Sea Cliff Bridge adorned with Palestinian flags. Photo: Zebedee Parkes
The ‘People’s Picnic for Palestine’ in Djilang/Geelong featured music, face painting and other activities for families. Photo: Sarah Hathway
Socialist Alliance Geelong and IPAN Geelong & Vic South West organised a People’s Picnic for Palestine in Djilang/Geelong on December 7, reports Sarah Hathway.
It featured speeches from Maritime Union of Australia Victoria Assistant Secretary Dave Ball and Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association board member Mai Altous, as well as live music from local band Seal Prince and the Roof Rats and Ecoco Praxis (comprised of well-known environmental campaigners Violet Coco and Brad Homewood).
The event was endorsed by the Greens, numerous Palestine groups and the Geelong Islamic Community Centre.
Magan-djin/Brisbane. Photo: Alex Bainbridge
More than 500 people marched in Magan-djin/Brisbane against Israel’s ongoing genocide, reports Alex Bainbridge.
Magan-djin/Brisbane. Photo: Alex Bainbridge
Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide. Photo: Fernando M Gonçalves
About 600 people attended the Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide rally to demand sanctions on apartheid Israel and an end to it’s illegal occupation, reports Markela Panegyres. Protesters marched from Tarntanyangga/Victoria Square to Parliament House to hear speeches.
The crowd heard from Adnan Abu Ajamieh, teacher and Vice President of the Islamic Society of South Australia, who decried the fake ceasefire and “peace plan”, and stressed that rallies must continue.
Jordan Grilloni from South Australia Human Appeal spoke powerfully about the orphans of Gaza and called on the crowd to also express solidarity with Sudan and Congo.
Paul Chambers, representing BDS Adelaide, talked about the importance of boycotts in putting pressure on Israel, and urged people to sign a petition demanding SBS boycott Eurovision, if Israel participates.
Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) deputy chairperson Mike Khizam said it was significant that after more than two years of protests, people were still coming out on the streets and showing solidarity with Palestine. Looking towards 2026, Khizam said that AFOPA would continue to collaborate with the many Palestine solidarity groups in Adelaide.
Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide. Photo: Fernando M Gonçalves
Palestine protest in Canberra on December 7. Photo: Paul Oboohov
Central West NSW for Palestine organised a ‘honk for Palestine’ action in Bathurst. Photo: Kaat DeMaere
Protest for Palestine in Muloobinba/Newcastle. Photo: Steve O’Brien
Protesters in Naarm/Melbourne call on SBS to ‘cut the mic on genocide’ and refuse to broadcast Eurovision 2026. Photo: Chloe DS
Socialist Alliance members at the protest in Naarm/Melbourne. Photo: Chloe DS
Gadigal Country/Sydney. Photo: Peter Boyle
Gadigal Country/Sydney. Photo: Peter Boyle
Tharawal/Wollongong. Photo: Zebedee Parkes
‘Peace for Palestine’, Djilang/Geelong. Photo: Sarah Hathway
Magan-djin/Brisbane. Photo: Alex Bainbridge
Imperialism & war
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2023-25 Israeli genocide on Gaza
Boycott Eurovision
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Montaigne
Shamikh Badra
Surya McEwen