Remember the Vietnam War? The barbarism there cannot be compared with what we see almost daily in Gaza. But just looking on impotently will not solve the problem.
Over Vietnam, the conscription issue allowed a sluggish Australian public opinion to be partly mobilised to counter government lies and distortions. The protest movement had some effect. There could be some lessons there for those of us traumatised by the bestiality of Israeli behaviour in Gaza.
The key is to avoid separate, disparate action. Over Gaza, we are constantly being buffeted by yet another Israeli atrocity and the actions of the Israel lobby to blot out criticism. Action has to be co-ordinated. The Me-too movement and the speed it moved around globe is the model. It had a clear, easily-understood objective. Few could oppose it. And it was effective.
Gaza would be a bit more complex. Some organisation would be needed to state red lines – some figure for additional casualties, for hospitals destroyed, for children starved. The branches of the organisation would have to negotiate with their respective governments the right to stage a protest in select locations — hopefully as close to the local Israeli Embassy as possible — the moment a red line was breached.
And since it is unlikely the red line once breached would be “unbreached”, the protest could become permanent.
The sight of simultaneous popular protests around the world in pre-arranged locations in each country would be much more effective and impressive than UN resolutions.
True, some nations — mainly US supporters — would not allow the protests. But they would be a conspicuously tiny minority, if UN assembly votes are any guide. Some might even be shamed into action.
And as we saw over Vietnam (and with the Aboriginal Embassies in Australia) these protest sites would become permanent, handing out materials and continuously reminding our societies of unresolved wrongs, evils or atrocities – to the point where eventually even our sluggish societies feel the need to do something.
Gregory Clark was the first postwar Australian diplomat trained in Chinese, with postings to Hong Kong, Moscow and the UN before retiring in protest against the Vietnam War. After PhD studies at the ANU he became Japan correspondent for The Australian. A spell in Canberra’s Prime Ministers department led to professorships at Tokyo’s Sophia University and emeritus president of Tama University, Tokyo, before becoming co-founder of the very successful English language Akita Kokusai Daigaku. He has now retired to Latin America (Peru) and Kiwi fruit growing in Boso peninsular south of Tokyo.
His works include ‘In Fear of China’ (1969) and several books in Japan on education and foreign policy.
He used to speak Chinese and Russian with fluency. He now speaks Japanese and Spanish.
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