In 2021, people gather in Sheikh Jarrah to protest the forced eviction of Palestinian families from their homes.
Like so many before them, they faced excessive force from Israeli security forces.
Those forces dispersed protestors with skunk water, and fired sound, stun, and concussion grenades. They arrested and injured thousands of protestors. One 17-year-old boy was shot dead.
For decades, Israeli authorities have used excessive force to stifle Palestinian dissent and silence those who speak out.
In 2021, Israeli forces also carried out airstrikes which killed Palestinians in Gaza, including 58 children. Amnesty International spoke with families in Gaza whose homes were reduced to rubble by airstrikes, without any warning.
These examples are not isolated incidents, they are part of a system of oppression, dispossession, and displacement. Amnesty International has concluded that this system constitutes apartheid.
In recent years, Australia has approved hundreds of permits for military exports to be sent to Israel.*
It’s time Australia stops supplying arms to a country enforcing in a system of apartheid. A system where arms are used to suppress protests, where they injure and kill Palestinian men, women and children.
Australia also continues to supply arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — whose airstrikes in Yemen have killed civilians, including children, and targeted hospitals, school buses and markets.
Take action today and call for Australia to stop selling arms to Israel.
*https://www.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/foi/535_2021_Documents.pdf