Activists push deeper with 'Conversations for Palestine' events

The first event in the Conversations for Palestine series is Thursday, March 14, at Newcastle City Hall in the Hunter Room. The event is free, but registrations are essential (humanitix.com).

The conversations have been organised by The Hunter Round Table, collective of local people committed to human rights in Palestine.

Panel speakers include:

Rawan Arraf, executive director and principal lawyer at the Australian Centre for International Justice, who will discuss Australia's obligations under the Genocide Convention, and the implications of ICJ provisional orders, particularly on defence cooperation with Israel and the withdrawal of Australian aid to Palestine.

Rita Jabri Markwell, from Birchgrove Legal, who works in public policy and legal advocacy, particularly n relation to Palestinian Australians.

"To have the opportunity here in Newcastle to hear from these experts, as unprecedented international legal processes are playing out in real time, is significant," The Hunter Round Table spokesman Dr Liam Phelan said.

Sarah Williams, of Newcastle, a founder of What Were You Wearing, will also be a speaker. She will draw a comparison between her work and the documented use of sexual violence by the Israeli Defence Force against Palestinians.

There will also be poetry by Bernadette Kirwan and music by oud player Khalaf Mustafa.

Megan Hooper Clarke, a mother with a five-year-old daughter and a husband, is one of the co-founders of Newcastle Mums for Palestine. She said the conversations on Palestine are a vital step in the right direction.

"It's about education, and getting rid of misinformation," she said.

The tragedy in Palestine is the first time she has become an activist, she said.

"In mid-October I started seeing on my Instagram feed these horrific images," she said. "A lot of the time I'd be scrolling on my phone after putting my daughter to bed. And these are the kind of images, I've never seen anything like before...

"And laying in bed next to my daughter, I've been really grateful for how safe we are. But just having this affinity with mothers, and putting my daughter to bed in her pajamas and making sure she is all snug and warm, and then seeing these images of martyred babies in their beautiful pajamas. Somebody wanted to put them to bed in the same loving way. It was really jarring for me..."

Her own call to action was the next step.

"After talking to mums and friends, there was this 'how does this happen this day and age?" We're watching it livestreamed. We started the Newcastle Mums for Palestine more as a group of solidarity, to keep showing up to rallies. A lot of us hadn't protested before. So it was about... getting people feeling safe to come to their first rally."

The activism has come at a cost - Clarke declined to name her daughter, her husband or the co-founder of Newcastle Mums for Palestine. She also asked her home suburb not be named. Her Facebook page is locked down.

She said she has been harassed on social media and in person. She attributes it to the "rise of islamophobia - the driving force behind the harassment".

Clarke said the group's intentions include seeing the Australian government more actively support the Palestinian people, to show their own support for Palestinians and create more community awareness about the Palestine situation.

She said the conversations events will be ongoing. The first one focuses on human rights.

"We will also be led by community to what they want," she said. "We want to learn more, to seek solidarity with others. It's very fluid. What is happening in Palestine is changing..."

Clarke has lived in Newcastle for 12 years, and enjoys the local lifestyle. "It's big enough there is something happening... and small enough you can run into people," she said.

While Palestine has moved her to action, it has also left a lasting impression.

"I feel like it's changed a lot of us,' she said. "It's changed the way we look at the world. I don't know how it will ever go back. The intergenerational trauma...is horrific."