Free Free Palestine
Free Free Palestine
From the river to sea
Palestine will be free.

Members of the media
Members of the public
Justice loving people.
And Global citizens
Peace be upon you all.

It’s a good time to be on the right side of history.
For us locally it’s a good time to be South African
If we are to pick a side, then being here today is that side.

We are 113 days into the genocide and more than a hundred of colleagues have been killed by the occupation for telling the truth.

We recognize them not as fallen heroes but as martyrs who spoke truth to power.

And we continue to do so.

We stand here today on a sacred space. The People’s Cathedral a space known for its role in the resistance.
It’s role against the apartheid regime and now we stand here again as we witness a genocide by the Zionist apartheid regime and their atrocities flooding our phones and all over our social media platforms.

The voice in my mind often plays is, “Hello everyone, this is Bisan from Gaza, and I am still alive. We are all familiar with her voice and many like her.
And I wonder for how long? When I scroll on Instagram, will she still be there.

Bisan using her phone like every other journalist using whatever resources that they have to keep us updated – because the Palestinian issue is not only their issue but it’s ours as human beings and as citizens of the world.

The Lebanese journalist said it best that journalist are messengers of truth. But the important part of being these messengers of truth is that these messengers including ourselves, we are human beings with feelings and emotions. All of us have red blood running through our veins.

The African proverb describes this well, I am because You are.
I don’t see you differently, we are all the same. I am Palestine, we are Palestine and every oppressed nation, that is who we are.

We stand here as human beings and as messengers of the truth in all of our diversity with the Palestinian colors painted in our hearts as murals, waving their flags wherever we go chanting free free Palestine so that the world knows that the 7th of October 2023 was a wakeup call to humanity. For too long the narrative of Resistance groups and the Palestinian struggle has been that they deserved it and that its okay.

As human beings standing here in solidarity with the people of Palestine and our colleagues. We are unapologetic of our stance. Our truth is based in facts and that’s the truth.

Dear messengers of truth we know that the Palestinian issue is a personal issue meaning that it matters, their lives matter, their freedom matters, and their wellbeing matters. The lives of journalists matter. We have all seen the video of the malnutrition journalist passing out while reporting back. His body probably screamed out of agony and weakness, but the call of duty came, and he was there.

We want and we will get a free Palestine in this lifetime. I recall an interview that Martin Jansen from the PSC where he said that the outcome will come to pass, and it doesn’t have to be in his lifetime but in this lifetime.

That means that we continue to fight, stand firm with the Palestinian people and when the time comes, we will be a part of the rebuilding of Palestine.

We won’t go down without a fight.

We will remember our colleagues’ names and we will celebrate them.

The resistance movement quoted a verse from the Quran, “permission to fight has been given to those who are being fought because they were wronged. And the Palestinian people have been wronged. The verse continues and says, “And indeed, God is competent to give them victory”.

And to conclude on the words of Faried Sayed, the “violence of the oppressor cannot be equated with the resistance of the oppressed”.

Today, this is the fuel to our fire to continue.

Free Free Palestine
In this lifetime!