[Editor’s note: Anarcho Anti-Speciesists for Palestine sent a write up and video about their disruption in the Animal Rights Forum in Melbourne due to the welcoming of zionists as speakers. Read it below:]
“THIS IS FOR REEM – THEY ARE ALL REEM
Saturday 24 February 2024
We are autonomous anarcho anti-speciesist actionists who disrupted the platforming of a zionist speaker at the Animal Rights Forum in Naarm (so called Melbourne). We opened the action stating “This is for Reem, they are all Reem” followed by “This is how Palestinians are notified that they are being targeted by the IOF” whilst throwing pieces of paper in the air titled with these words and also quotes from the Zionist speaker, Maya Cohen-Ronen (M.C. Ronen). We then commenced our speakout. We will let the video speak for itself from there.
We refuse to have veganism co-opted by spaces that platform genocide supporters with blood on their hands. Nor will we cower to misogynistic violence and bootlickers.
Boycott and disrupt all spaces where zionists are platformed! Total Liberation Now! Long live the Palestinian Resistance!
This is our statement:
We acknowledge that our resistance is being undertaken on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Sovereignty was never ceded and we acknowledge the ongoing effects and suffering of colonisation on this land and those who have been fighting against and resisting the oppression for over 250 years. We also acknowledge the Elders past and present who continue to guide and teach. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
We are here today to oppose this zionist named M.C. Ronen (aka Maya) being platformed at this forum in full knowledge that she is a genocide supporter with blood on her hands.
We are here today because we oppose the genocide of the Indigenous people of Palestine and some of us have had our community killed and injured in the bombing of the oldest Greek Orthodox church in Palestine by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Over 29,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed since October, including over 14,000 children – more than 260 babies didn’t get to celebrate their first birthday. Over 70,000 Palestinians are injured to date. THIS IS GENOCIDE.
The fascist settler-colonial state of israel has ensured that there is nowhere safe for the Palestinian people – the “safe” corridors are corridors of execution. Rafah with over 1.5 million people cornered is now a target.
Decolonisation is and should be the cornerstone of the Human Liberation movement. This means cultural, psychological and economic freedom for Indigenous Communities to have the right and ability to practice self determination over their land, cultures, political and economic systems. The colonisation of Palestine has caused the occupation and dispossession of land, military rule over social, political and economic systems which exploit the Palestinian people and their resources.
Animal Rights Forum – have you not noticed the countless numbers of other animals that have been killed by the zionists, either at point blank or through the endless bombings in Palestine? Thousands are traumatized, lying injured or deceased, under the ruins and rubble. The donkeys, the cats, the dogs, the sheep that have been killed by IOF snipers as ‘target practice’.
Animal Rights Forum – the weapons which are “field” tested on and used to kill the Palestinian people are FIRST tested on and used to kill other animals. The connect is here!
And yet, HERE WE ARE TODAY.
In front of a zionist being platformed at an animal rights forum ready to deliver a speech about animal and human rights – but just not those of all Palestinians and most certainly not those she labels with the speciesist slur “vermin”.
She talks of human rights as though she is the defender of those rights.
She talks of human rights as though she is not the violator of those rights.
She talks of human rights as though she is not part of a political ideology responsible for perpetrating the genocide of the Palestinian people.
She talks of human rights as though the zionist state has not been ethnically cleansing Palestine for over 75 years in the world’s largest open air prison – by land, air and sea.
We reject the vegan washing of the zionist state. No amount of vegan boots in so-called vegan armies will ever inform our position. The oppression of other animals cannot be used to mask the subjugation of the Palestinians over decades.
Zionists have turned Palestine into an open air slaughterhouse – and here you have your token zionist platformed today.
We stand with anti-zionist Jews who are on the frontlines of solidarity actions with Palestine. Judaism is not Zionism. It is not anti-semitic to oppose zionism and this genocide.
The Palestinian resistance has deep seeded roots in every corner of the world, including at this forum.
Blood on your hands Animal Rights Forum!
Shame on anyone speaking at this forum in full knowledge that a zionist is being platformed! Get that Keffiyeh off your neck!
And shame on the Animal Rights Forum for also platforming transphobes this weekend!
Long live the Palestinian Resistance!
(end)
Whilst we would have liked to to keep this write up strictly about the genocide in Palestine and our solidarity action, we will touch on a few other going ons (briefly as we don’t want this to detract from why we took action):
We were physically and verbally attacked by organisers at the forum, especially the lead organiser who launched at the activists pulling speeches and flags from their hands, pulled at a keffiyeh wrapped around of one of our queer comrades necks which started to choke them, pushing and shoving us as mock security. We will always push back against misogynistic violence in any space. This ugly display of unprovoked violence towards women and non-binary folk was a microcosm of the very violence the people in the room proclaim to oppose towards other animals but then without hesitation replicate this violence for all to witness. You have all become the very thing you claim to be fighting against. In that moment you could have listened – a mirror was being held up to a room full of hypocrisy because it is necessary and long overdue. You’re also a bunch of bootlickers for calling cops on other activists.
We thank our comrades at Melbourne Hunt Saboteurs for stepping up and having our backs in a room full of bystanders showing them all what being an accomplice to the Palestinian resistance looks like whilst others stood back and told us “we aren’t discussing that (genocide) here” and “you’re disgusting”. MHS also pulled out from the forum without hesitation in an act of unwavering solidarity with Palestine and our action. Head over to the hunt sabs facebook page to read their statement and show them some solidarity. Link here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/dMTHyz6KWEPNT6p5/?mibextid=oFDknk
To the orgs and individuals who have an endless list of pathetic reasons why they couldn’t walk away from this forum in full knowledge (prior to the forum commencing) that a zionist was being platformed – f*ck you. We repeat, f*ck you. For all the times you have looked away – for ignoring the fascists, the misogynists, the transphobes, the conspiracy theorists, the anti-vaxxers, the zionists in animal rights spaces. It is counter revolutionary! And again, you looked away even though you were presented with an opportunity to do better this time. If only you had an ounce of the integrity our sab comrades have. Keep waving the flag of faux solidarity with Palestine whilst some of you are even on the record as financial sponsors of this forum. Your rich whyt girl tears don’t affect us and nor does sliding into our DMs to attempt to school us. You do not get to drive the narrative here. Your solidarity with Palestine in the time of genocide shouldn’t be difficult – it should be easy. Solidarity isn’t selfies months ago at a Palestinian rally you attended, it is every day and in every space. There is nowhere to hide now, you had the opportunity to walk – the rest is on you.
To the neo-liberal poster children for whyt and single issue veganism in the room – especially the vegan saviour yelling “are you vegan?” and “animal rights now” at us, role playing security trying to push us out of the zio space whilst pointing to his Palestinian wristband – yes, we are f*cking vegan and also yes, you’re a walking hypocrite. #WristbandsForLiberation
And lastly to the coppers outside the Melbourne Town Hall – we saw your hands on the OC spray simply because you were called to an action by Palestinian actionists. Upholding settler colonial violence everywhere you go.
Abolish the Police! F*ck The Police! ACAB!
After the outside action was concluded, one of our Palestinian comrades walked across the road to rescue a gull (“seagull”) that had just been hit by an ambulance. He held the gull with such tenderness and love, caressing their head and kissing them gently and then handed this individual over to us. We wrapped their dying, almost lifeless, body in our keffiyeh. It was in that keffiyeh that they died. In that moment it became clear to us that the love and compassion shown by the Palestinian people for this animal was in such stark contrast to the racism and hatred shown by the “animal rights” forum and associated folk towards Palestine only a few hours earlier.
No one is free until all are free.
End the occupation!
All eyes on Rafah!
THIS IS FOR REEM – THEY ARE ALL REEM.
– Anarcho Anti-Speciesists for Palestine – Naarm”
