Dear friends of Palestine
What a wonderful demonstration! My estimate of numbers was 500. There were perhaps only 300 of us when we started at Wesley Church, but by the time we got to the US consulate the crowd was up around 500, making it the equal largest demonstration we’ve ever held (the January 4th 2009 Perth demo against the Gaza Massacre also had around 500 people in attendance).
We have already secured 238 signatures on our petition, and no doubt we’ll get many more names in the coming days and weeks.
I’m also in a position to announce that we got another 72 names to add to our mailing list. That means we now have in excess of 800 people on the list and are moving ever closer to the magical 1000 mark. Once we get there, it will be useful to say to politicians, “Hey, look, we are not some two-bit tiny activist group. We are a powerful voice for Palestinian self-determination in Western Australia and we demand to be taken seriously. In fact, we have 1000 people on our mailing list!”.
I am also pleased to announce that we raised over $1200 in donations. Half of this will go to Friends of Palestine WA for organising costs, while the other half will be given to the Free Gaza Movement to help them pay for the next Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which by the way is due to set sail in September in coordination with a land convoy being spearheaded by the founder of Viva Palestina George Galloway.
I’ll leave it at that for now. I hope everyone is in the same jubilant mood as I am in the wake of such a magnificent protest. But we need to keep yesterday’s event in perspective. There were still only 500 people there out of a population of 1.3 million. We have a lot of work to do before we can mobilise even 5000 people on the streets of Perth let alone 50 000. Having said that, I think it’s important we take a brief moment to pat ourselves on the back for a job very well done.
Here is The West Australian’s article on the demo (it’s actually a wire story from the Australian Associated Press):-
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/7353954/australians-blast-israel-over-aid-deaths/
Attached are a few photos of the rally taken by Felicity Hill.
Fraternally
Alex Whisson
Convener
Friends of Palestine WA
www.fopwa.org
