Australian pro Palestinian activists return to Max Brenner shop in QV Square. Photo: Herald Sun
Directly after Australian pro-Palestine activists’ stunning victory in their year long court battle with the Victorian state government, it’s fantastic to see they’re right back holding ground in front of the Max Brenner shop in QV Square!
Sipping on “apartheid-free hot chocolate”, more than 150 protesters tonight moved in to reclaim QV Square.c
More than 60 police and private security guards attended the peaceful protest where guest speakers campaigned for Palestinian independence.
Organiser Omar Hussan said the group was not anti-Semitic and sought only to stand up for free speech. “It’s very exciting to be continuing this campaign with the 16 activists who were arrested,” Mr Hassan said. “The point of today is to ratify the decision of the court and to make our presence felt here at QV.”
The background from Vashti Kenway’s report in Mondoweiss:
Australian pro-Palestine activists have had a major victory in their year long court battle with the Victorian state government. A Melbourne magistrate has dismissed the substantive charges against the protesters known as the Max Brenner 16.
The activists were arrested last July 2011 at a demonstration against the Max Brenner chocolate shop; a company owned by the Strauss group which is renowned for its financial and moral backing of two of the most murderous brigades in the Israeli military, the Golani and Givati. These units are notorious for their malicious attacks on Gaza in the assault in 2008/ 2009 and more recently as the shock troops for the Israeli colonies in Hebron.
The charges, ‘trespass in a public place’ and ‘besetting’, were pursued by the Victorian police in a 17 day case, which saw 26 police witnesses, 4 civilian witnesses called to the stand and mounted an estimated 1 million dollars in court costs. The time, money and effort devoted to the case reveals the determination of the Victorian police and the Australian Zionist movement to criminalise dissent and to crack down on pro-Palestine voices.
This judgement is a slap in the face to all those who want to silence the Palestinians and their supporters. Renowned civil liberties lawyer Rob Starry, who acted for some of the accused, said the decision had wide-ranging ramifications. “This case is really a landmark case in the annals of the criminal justice system because what it represents is people have a right to express themselves politically,” he said. Indeed this decision is a part of the mounting roar of defiance against Israeli apartheid across the world.
when i saw this photograph it made my heart burst. i love how they are right back in the square rubbing it in. this is an awesome sign of solidarity and how civil liberties trumps lobby pressure in australia. the stuff that came out in the trial, the pre protest organizing of the lobby and the police…slammed.
Everybruce(the world): Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you amen!
A bit of justice in the face of adversity.
Drip drip
Hi Annie, great report! Just on the photo used from the Herald Sun, it actually not from last night. It is actually a photo from the Occupy Melbourne protests last year (clearly the Herald Sun are too lazy to tell one demo from another) – like the Occupy protests in the US and the Max Brenner protests at QV, the Victorian Police also brutally attacked the Occupy Melbourne protests.
Last night we didn’t form an picket lines, instead we just gathered in the square with banners and listened to speakers from both the Palestine solidarity movement and other social justice movements who came to express solidarity (after all it is a public space where we can express our political opinions :)
The atmosphere was very celebratory. After about an hour of listening to speakers, we took to the street and marched in the city block area around QV – which is located in the central Melbourne retail district, which is open for late night shopping on Fridays.
While there were around 60 cops in and around the square, there were many more hiding away in the QV centre loading docks – which is where they took the activists when they were arrested in July last year. I walked past the loading dock on my way home and there were 8 police cars in the street and at least 5 inside the dock, as well as a police Brawler Van (which holds about 16 arrestees) and dozens and dozens of police in the loading dock.
The police, of course, were not happy with the outcome of the court victory last week, so they had to pretend at least that they were still in control. So once again hundreds of thousands of dollars in Victorian tax payers money was wasted in a toothless (at least on this occassion) show of force in an attempt to intimidate non-violent unarmed citizens simply expressing a political point of view and engaging in free speech and peace assembly.