As an organisation campaigning for racial and economic justice in Australia, Democracy in Colour is anti-racist and decolonial, and it is for those reasons we are shoulder to shoulder with First Nations struggles.
We therefore stand with the Palestinian people in Gaza and their diaspora communities around the world.
Democracy in Colour supports local communities, activism, and campaigners to hold Government officials accountable in the broader fight for racial and economic justice.
The war declared on Gaza by Israel did not begin on the 7th of October 2023. This war began in 1948 with Nakba, where Israel ethnically cleansed one million Palestinians from their land in order to establish the state of Israel and began the occupation of Palestine and has continued ever since.
We are calling for peace for Palestine — that means an immediate end to the blockade of Gaza and an end to the state of Israel’s occupation, oppression, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Israel has recently committed war crimes by cutting Gaza off from food, medicine, fuel, and humanitarian aid supplies, dropping white phosphorus on civilians and bombing hospitals. The power supply to Gaza must be resumed and critical health, water and other infrastructure must be restored immediately.
We see the racism that is perpetuated by the media and politicians that vilifies Palestinian people and we reject this wholeheartedly — anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. We also condemn those who are using cultural grief as a cover to engage in anti-semitic and Islamaphbic rhetoric.
As an organisation operating on stolen lands, waterways and skies — we know the fight for land rights and sovereignty is deeply connected across the globe. We all act in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our work for climate, economic, and social justice, and that solidarity extends to Palestine where people are fighting for their right to peace on their ancestral lands.
We support demonstrations across this continent for Palestine calling for the Government to call the ongoing and abhorrent violence happening in Palestine what it is — an apartheid regime enacting ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people in the world’s largest open-air prison, Gaza*.
We will never accept political restrictions on the right to protest, in the face of global crises such as war, climate change, human rights or liberation struggles. Protest is fundamental to democracy and it must be protected.
* We use the word ‘genocide’ in line with the social and conventional definitions, while ongoing debate surrounds the legal threshold. See:
Is What’s Happening in Gaza a Genocide? 5 Experts Weigh-In – Time
UN expert warns of new instance of mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, calls for an immediate ceasefire – UN Human Rights
There are fears Palestinians are at ‘grave risk of genocide’. What does that mean? – SBS.
