 This is Cathy Bogan and I'm at Port Botany with Ian Rintel, who's a trade unionist for Palestine. Ian, could you tell us what's going on here tonight? Well, in the last 24 hours, the Ganges, it's a ZIM ship which is carrying ZIM containers. ZIM is a very well-known Israeli company and very connected with the Israeli state. Very much a supporter and offered its services to the Israeli state for the conduct of the genocide. ZIM shipping has actually been a target of protests at ports all around the world in the United States, in Italy, Europe. There have been several demonstrations, including one early in December here but also in Perth and in Melbourne. So we're here tonight because the Ganges is in. We're going to have a protest tonight. We're going to attempt to actually prevent one of the shifts at the loading. We're going to try and make it as hard as possible for those workers to actually get into the dock tonight. ZIM shipping! ZIM shipping! It's an international working class issue. I've never seen a community treating the way the police have treated the Australian and Palestinian community. And of all times in our lifetime, we have never seen such horror on our doorstep across the world. What's happening in Palestine is a crime against the nation. We're that uniform and not believe that that's not the way it is. You're going to have to arrest our members and officials of our union first. Kevogan, Consolidium News. What is the police threatening? They're saying that they're not going to allow any march or protest to proceed across the road here. All right. If people do cross the road, they will be arrested. It's just a sign that it's on hold. Welcome, comrades, brothers and sisters, for allowing us to gather indigenous land, grown year after year. Taking shelter in Al-Shifa Hospital, they tied them to a net and they beat them up about Israel's crimes against humanity. We've seen it over the last six months. A solution. What's the only solution? We have resorted to eating grass so they can stay alive because of the forced starvation that Israel has imposed on them. We cannot continue on as it was before. Powers of this world, terrorists once. Not anymore. If the last six months taught us anything, is that no institution, no institution around the world. Honour to introduce our first speaker. Dr. Maureen Farouki is the Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and Senator for New South Wales. She became to sit in any Australian Parliament when she joined in 2013. Maureen has been an unflinching voice on social, climate and racial justice. She has been the strongest voice for Palestine and Australian Parliament and has continuously called for an end to the occupation and apartheid. Please welcome Dr. Maureen Farouki. Assalamu alaikum, everyone. Peace be upon you. I acknowledge the sovereign owners of the lands we gathered on, the Bidigal, Weigal and Carigal people and pay my respects to elders past and present. We are on stolen land. Sovereignty was never ceded. This is always wars and always will be Aboriginal land. Thank you for coming together today to block the boat. For showing up for Palestine, your solidarity is seen. Your solidarity is appreciated. And I know that you won't stop until Palestine is free. 69 days of Israel's genocide on Gaza. 169 more than 30,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered by Israel. More than one disease loomed large in the ruins of Gaza. That's the reality on the ground right at this moment. And how humanity of morality to stop these war crimes, this collective punishment, these atrocities and this genocide. How ruthless and cruel can you be? And cruel can you be to aid and support Israel for this genocide against Gaza? This heartlessness exists right in the Australian Labour Government. Clear message, not right to protest. We have been marching on and we will not stop doing that. You know, they try and disparage us in history. Remember this, you have in our so-called leaders in the Labour Party and in the Labour Government. What they see, that's why they want to stop you. Shamefully, that is why they've unleashed the police force to protesters. Shamefully, that is why they use the draconian anti-protest laws to create fear and to stop you again. And to undermine democracy in this country. Shamefully, that's why we have seen police crack down, police crack down just even in the last couple of days on peaceful protests. But you know what? These tactics are used to intimidate, to scare us. These are aggressive tactics and we condemn them. We condemn these police tactics and we condemn the Labour Government for using these tactics to stop protesters from standing up against genocide. Is with every single person who is risking their safety and their freedom to stand up with Palestinians and to stand up against Israel's genocide who are showing and using their people power to support Palestinians. Business as usual as they slaughter Palestinians. Israel is a genocidal, apartheid state. And you know, we must cut ties with Israel so no companies who allow crimes and war machine like ZIM shipping should never for sanctions. We will continue to boycott, to this genocide and apartheid. Irene said, we have an inherent right to protest. We have a right to be on the street, the opportunity we get. This is not normal what is happening in Palestine and the terrorist state of Israel is relying on us to become desensitized and atrocities to become normalized. They are relying on us to be tired. They are relying on us to get used or just shipping company in Israel. ZIM has played anization of Palestine. It has remained central to the operations of Israel's war machine by transporting weapons to the Israeli military. The same in position of apartheid. Before I pass on to the next speaker, I will say this. I am a member of the Maritime Union of Australia and trade unionist for Palestine. We know there has been acts of defiance in everybody's worth places and mass mobilizations across cities. And we have to keep up that pressure because while children are being bombed, while cities are being as usual for ZIM shipping, found the crowd acting as, well, let them know where you're going to be after this. And we all assemble here. We stay here and safe together. Is everybody there? We're safe. We're here. Here is a situation where a friend of yours is arrested. Please find someone in the orange vest and let them know. We're hoping that doesn't happen here tonight. So we are going to stay safe, but that's the process. Find someone in the vest. They'll log that name and we'll work from there. Thank you. It is an honor to introduce our next speaker, who's been a staunch advocate, not just for Palestinians, but for all oppressed people around the world. Please welcome Paul Keating, Secretary of the Sydney branch of the MUA. Great. Firstly, I want to also acknowledge the traditional lands of the people that we meet here today. Pay our respects to their elders. And it is so important to understand the brutality that is faced with First Nations peoples all over the world. We continue to fight for the struggles for our First Nations peoples. And what we know is the brutality of colonialism and imperialism. And we're here because of the genocide, the indiscriminate horror that is unfolding on the other side of the world in Gaza and the occupied territories. And from the MUA, I want to send this message first to all our communities, to you comrades and to all our communities. We stand with the Palestinian people, and rights of self-determination. And we're here as working class men and women in communities throughout the generations when we fought the hatred and the indiscrimination of the ruling class. And Zionism is a hateful, hateful ideology. It's a political ideology. And it must be stopped. We stand with our communities in our right to fight for political change. So I call firstly on all politicians, but firstly on the federal labour government, Albanese, you must put on sanctions now for the MUA. We stand with our communities and throughout the generations we fought against the establishment who have supported apartheid, like we've seen with South Africa, like we've seen with the wars that have forced ordinary working class men and women like ourselves and our communities into the most desperate of situations. We oppose war. Peace is union business. We send the message. And I want to send a message from our members to you, yours, and they stand with you here in New South Wales. And on the side of the communities that voted you in. We're amongst comrades from Palestine here. Sincerely comrades, fraternally from the MUA, we are with you. And we are with your communities, with your families. And we are with the people of Palestine as the conservative and the supporter of Zionism. You can't have a political party that says we stand on the side of our First Nations peoples in their right to self-determination and not stand on the side of all First Nations, all indigenous, the world-wide with our communities, with the Palestinian communities. And fight. Mobilise and fight. Come out in the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands that aren't mobilising to change this world. Class no. And the ship owners no. Is when we stop capital. We say this on behalf of all our affiliates in this region. Mobilising. We are standing alongside our communities across oceans when the communities come down to our docks and put on pickets. Put on communities that destroys the bargos, both important exports on Israel. Must be the case. We have in this country secrecy laws that don't leach the right to know what they're moving. It's a disgrace. Never used to be the case, but I want to congratulate the Greens Party, especially for standing on the line with our communities and the courage of our comrades there who come out time and again to call system. Mr. Sidney, Titians out there, make sure you vote them out if they don't stand on the side of the... This lastly, to the ship owners, to the international shipping. You don't want pickets that protest in your ports, Israeli made or own goods. Stolen land like the Palestinian land. 1948, the Nakba. Palestinians were ethnically cleansed. They were massacred. The lands were stolen. The Syrians have been suffering in the diaspora. Inside the refugee camps in Gaza, 85% of Gaza population are refugees from stolen cities in Israel. In the genocidal barbaric state that is Israel, and this is why we're here, when sending a message loud and clear to Israel, to the Israel's enablers, the apartheid enablers, the likes of this government, this shameful government, our shamefulizations like Zim shipping, we're sending this message loud and clear. We don't want you as human. We don't want your message today. See, stop the genocide, the bloodshed in Palestine, and we will never back down. It's dismantled until Israel is no longer existing, until liberation is achieved. For the genocidal state like Israel, we need to become militarized with Israel. We need to become economic ties with Israel. We need to make apartheid Israel. The human, as Australians, as human beings, are seeing children's torn to pieces. Torn to pieces and our politicians are paying lip service. They're the Zionists. Families, members under the rubble, shame on you! We will continue to demonstrate to inject some decency in the police force system, in the political system, in the economic system of Australia, until you take responsibility as a human being, community, and we're not backing down. We cannot back down. We cannot stop action. We cannot stop working for those people, for innocent people. Shame on the Australian system. Shame on the racism. No to barbarism. No to genocide. And we're here to say... I'm sick and tired of leaving messages, receiving the news of losing one by one my family members in Gaza to this genocide, to this barbarism. We're here. This is the only way we can... This is the only way to message the Zim Chipping Line. They are not welcome here to the Israelis. The Australian people have spoken. The Australian people have spoken for seven months. They have been flooding the streets of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, and everywhere. Establishment to listen to us. And this is the best we can do. We need Zim Chipping Line. Zim is free of this racism. This aggression. Shame on you for stopping us.