'Howard's Wood' - picket at Crown Casino
by pc Monday May 21, 2007 at 12:11 PM

If he had not chickened out of entering by the front door, John Howard would have been met by a peaceful but vigorous protest last night at Crown Casino ...

video: windows media at 3.8 mebibytes

As it was, those of the 1200 or so guests who did roll up to the Queensbridge Street entrance had plenty of time to study the placards - some in Hebrew - banners and flags of protesters and listen to the range of chants. The light was poor, but these clips should give a reasonable idea of what it was like.

By way of background, here is the callout from the Melbourne Palestine Solidarity Network, main organisers of the protest:
[Quote]
End all ties with Apartheid Israel now!

John Howard is to have a forest named after him in Israel's Negev region,
awarded by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) at a ceremony held in Melbourne.
Howard will receive this 'honour' for his 'genuine commitment and
friendship' to the expansion of Zionist terrorism.

Howard sees Australia as an ally to some of the most reckless, blood hungry
Imperialist governments in the world, such as the US and UK, who along side
many of Australia's current and former political leaders, are staunch
supporters of Israel's continual war crimes.

Come and protest the unholy alliance at a PEACEFUL picket, as the PRIME
MINISTER VISITS CROWN CASINO to further consolidate his ties with the
biggest rogue state in the Middle East.

PICKET JOHN HOWARD @ Crown Casino
Queensbridge and Power St entrance
6pm Sunday May 20

[end quote]

And this from AAP:

[Quote]
Prime Minister John Howard has avoided about 100 protesters gathered
outside Melbourne's Crown Casino, where he is delivering a speech to a
Jewish group on Sunday night.

The Melbourne Palestine Solidarity Network called the protest to highlight
what it calls the racist disregard for the rights of Palestinians and other
indigenous people of modern-day Israel, as guests arrived for a Jewish
National Fund dinner inside the Crown complex.

The protesters chanted slogans including: "No justice, no peace, US out of
the Middle East, free Palestine" and "Stolen land, Israel, stolen land,
Australia" as a strong contingent of police and security guards looked on.

Police advised the protesters about 7.15pm (AEST), about 15 minutes after
the prime minister's scheduled arrival, that he was already inside.

The protest was peaceful, and there were no arrests.
[end quote]
Video , wmv format, 2min.55, 3.9MB

add your comments