We should have been assembling a few blocks down the road outside the Verona cinema, so we could protest outside the cinema.<\/p>\n
But now the police and the courts have banned us from doing that.<\/p>\n
The court apparently doesn\u2019t think the right to protest is important enough to justify the same traffic arrangements which would easily be made for a burst water-main or a broken-down bus.<\/p>\n
This should be of real concern to everyone committed to political freedom in this country.<\/p>\n
The right to free political expression is a cornerstone of a democratic society.<\/p>\n
The decision to outlaw it is a step down a dangerous road, at the bottom of which looms a darkly blinking police-state.<\/p>\n
Our demonstration was called to defend Palestinians\u2019 right to justice and political freedom. In a far less acute way, we now find ourselves having to defend our own.<\/p>\n
Some people might ask what the fuss is about, given that we\u2019re demonstrating here now.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s be clear about what the effect of the court decision has been: the state has sheltered the principal audience of our protest from our demands.<\/p>\n
For the Israeli dignitaries who\u2019ll be gracing the event with their presence, they\u2019ve tried to make it like we\u2019re not even there.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve also succeeded in suppressing our numbers and in affirming that the police have the power to shut down public demos that it doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now up to us to make sure that this attempt to silence us doesn\u2019t succeed.<\/p>\n
Attacks on fundamental freedoms don\u2019t come with a sign saying \u201cDanger: attack on civil liberties inside\u201d.<\/p>\n
Freedoms like the right to protest aren\u2019t swept away in obvious full-frontal attacks \u2013 they\u2019re eroded step by step, with each further one carefully cocooned in the reassuring idioms of legal rationality, administrative sobriety and respect for basic rights.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what we saw in the Supreme court this week. We condemn it, and condemn it unreservedly.<\/p>\n
The court\u2019s decision follows the banning of three Gaza protests in and around Paris last month.<\/p>\n
It also comes in the context of tightening restrictions on the right to protest in Australia. Victoria and Tasmania have both recently introduced laws which substantially restrict protesters\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n
These are unacceptable \u2013 and again, it\u2019s up to us to stop them. We should call on everyone who\u2019s committed to political freedom in our society to join us in decrying the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
But we can\u2019t let this outrageous affront to democratic rights make us forget why we called this demonstration in the first place.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to criticise calls to boycott a film festival. But let\u2019s be clear why we\u2019re here.<\/p>\n
We are here to protest against official state-sponsored cultural festivals like this one, which use films to cloak the reality of Israel\u2019s policy towards Palestine.<\/p>\n
The Australia-Israel cultural exchange, which is backing the festival along with the Israeli embassy, was opened by Netanyahu in 2002 \u2013 the same Netanyahu who now has the blood of more than 2000 Palestinians on his murderous hands.<\/p>\n
To our critics who ask us why we can\u2019t leave cinema alone, we\u2019ve got a question.<\/p>\n
How many would-be Palestinian directors, actors and audiences have been slain by Israeli missiles? What prospect is there for a real film industry in a culture strangled by war and occupation?<\/p>\n
So don\u2019t lecture us about how film has the power to foster dialogue. You can\u2019t have a dialogue when there\u2019s a gun pointed at your head, or when there are IDF missiles trained on your houses and your family.<\/p>\n
At the moment, the films that best advance the cause of justice for Palestine are the ones that Israel wants to ban, not the ones it wants to promote.<\/p>\n
The film that\u2019s being screened tonight is called \u201cSelf Made\u201d. In the trailer, there\u2019s a shot of the brutal separation wall that encloses Palestinians, like animals in a zoo.<\/p>\n
On the wall\u2019s clear surface, there\u2019s been painted a large bunch of sunflowers, which the camera lingers over lovingly.<\/p>\n
We know that that wall means deprivation, enclosure, and death. But for the film, it\u2019s a canvas to paint with flowers.<\/p>\n
For me that\u2019s like an image for what Israel\u2019s doing with film festivals like this one \u2013 it\u2019s trying to hide the killing, by promoting works that it hopes will make us to forget about the bombs, the rubble, the oppression of an entire people.<\/p>\n
The best thing we can do for peace in Israel-Palestine isn\u2019t passively consume films like this, but actively boycott any festivals they\u2019re in when these are funded by the Israeli state.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m speaking here on behalf of SSBDS, a group of staff at Sydney University who have been pressing the university to end its association with Israel.<\/p>\n
Because what goes for cinema and culture also goes for academic research: there\u2019s no freedom to study when your people is under siege and occupation.<\/p>\n
Just as we call for the boycott of Israeli film festivals, we\u2019re calling for Sydney University to boycott Israel\u2019s academic institutions, which provide so much support for the occupation.<\/p>\n
We need the BDS call to get stronger and stronger.<\/p>\n
Because it isn\u2019t sensitive and compassionate films, or high-level academic research that will bring justice to Palestinians, but a robust politics of public pressure. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re taking part in this demonstration today, just as we\u2019ve taken part in every rally since the war in Gaza started.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s more and more clear to us, as it is to so many, that the international call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel represents the most powerful mechanism Palestine has to bring about a just peace.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s spread the boycott call, let\u2019s demonstrate against official Israeli events like the film festival, with even greater energy than ever.<\/p>\n
The police and the courts can try and ban us all they want, but they will never silence us. This is the right side of history. The calls for justice and peace for Palestine will not be stifled. Palestine will be free, and it\u2019s ultimately our choice, in this international movement we belong to, how quickly that will happen.<\/p>\n
Nick Riemer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We should have been assembling a few blocks down the road outside the Verona cinema, so we could protest outside the cinema. But now the police and the courts have banned us from doing that. The court apparently doesn\u2019t think … Continue reading