15 October 2023
Speech before 4000 people at the Adelaide Rally in solidarity with the Palestinian People, held on the steps of Adelaide’s Parliament House on 15 October 2023, by Imad Mahmoud, Member of the Executive Committee of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association
I have 3 messages today
1st message to the media
I am Palestine, I am the Palestinian, we are all Palestinians
I am the 400 villages that were wiped off the map to create the state of Israel
I am the 750,000 people who were ethnically cleansed and never allowed to return back to create the state of Israel
I am the Palestinian
I am Jerusalem, Hiafa, Akka, Yaffa, Hebron, Nazareth, Beit Lehem, Ramallah, Jenin and Gaza
I am Gaza, I am Gaza
I am the 2.4million imprisoned by Israel for 16 years
I am the 2.4million deprived of water, electricity, and fuel
I am the 1,400 killed by Israel in 2008
I am the 2,251 killed by Israel in 2014
I am the 183 demonstrators killed, the 6,106 demonstrators injured in 2018
I am the 724 children killed in this war
I am the collective punishment, I am the successive genocides, I am the ongoing ethnic cleansing
I am the Palestinian
I am the indigenous of the holy land
I am the Palestinian, I am the indigenous of the holy land
I am the Arab, I am the Jew, I am the Christian, I am the Muslim, I am the Canaanite, I am the Bedouin, I am the pre bible, I am the bible, I am the post bible, I am the believer, I am the non-believer
I am the Palestinian, I am the indigenous of the holy land
I am Margaret, I am David, I am Nelson Mandela, I am the Mahatma Ghandhi, I am Desmond Tutu, I am Ilan Pappe, I am every free soul on this earth
I am the Palestinian
When we say free Palestine, we say free Palestine from racism.
When we say free Palestine, we say free Palestine from oppression.
When we say free Palestine, we say free Palestine from supremacy
When we say free Palestine, we say free Palestine from hatred
When we say free Palestine, we say free Palestine from the vicious settler colonial mentality.
Free Palestine, free Palestine
2nd Message not to my brothers & cousins the Jewish community who are part of this rally
2nd Message to my brothers & cousins the Jewish community who are afraid, worried and not part of this rally
My brothers and cousins the Jewish community of Australia
Your fear is our fear, your safety is our safety, your blood is our blood, our blood is your blood, make no mistake
When I see a Jewish mom crying for her loss, I feel with her. I want you to feel with the thousands of Palestinian moms that have been crying for years and years, we make no mistake
When I see a Jewish guy running from a music party, I feel with him. I want you to show how much you feel with the 80% of the Palestinians who ran from their villages, cities, farms, schools, tombs and the smell of the air and were never allowed to return back since in 1948; we make no mistake
When we see a Jewish grandma taken as a hostage, we feel with her. We have to feel with the 5,000 Palestinian prisoners and 170 Palestinian children imprisoned for years in Israeli prisons; we make no mistake
Don’t let an Apartheid state speak in your name
Don’t let a settler colonial state speak in your name. These are not the Jewish values.
Don’t listen to the racist Zionist liars’ propaganda; they said earlier that Palestine is a land without People for People without a land and they lied, make no mistake
Tell them “Never Again” “Never Again”
“Never Again” to the holocaust.
“Never Again” to the new Nazis
“Never Again” to the racist Zionist ideology
Your future is our future, your freedom is our freedom, make no mistake
3rd message to the leaders of the country
The leaders of our beloved Australia
If there was no ongoing occupation, there would be no violence and you know that
If there was no daily brutal oppression, there would be no violence and you know that
I am not talking about Ukraine, I am talking about Palestine and you know that
Values and solidarity with innocent souls should not be selective and you claim that
With the launch of a racist settler colonial project, violence has already started. Our brothers, the first nations people of the land know that, we know that, and you are yet to know that
“Let me put it crystal clear”, as Biden says. If you truly want to end the cycle of violence in that part of the world. If you really want to stand to the values that Australians stand for. If you truly want to see an Israeli Jewish kid and a Palestinian kid aspiring for a better future, you have to put an end to occupation, to dismantle the apartheid system, and encourage a true reconciliation to heal the hearts. YOU KNOW THAT. YOU KNOW THAT “full stop”.
Imad Mahmoud