Ali Kazak, former Palestinian ambassador and representative of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Australia, died on May 17 in Thailand, while on his way to Palestine.
Advocacy groups and prominent pro-Palestine figures have paid tribute to Kazak, who was born in Haifa in 1947 and survived the massacres and brutal dispossession that followed the declaration of the Israeli state, growing up in Syria as a Palestinian refugee.
The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) honoured Kazak’s “steadfast and unwavering commitment to the fight for Palestinian liberation”, adding: “Sadly like so many other Nakba survivors, Ali never realised his inalienable right to return to Palestine.
“With Ali’s legacy in mind APAN will continue that work until Palestine is free from the River to the Sea.”
APAN shared a tribute by well-known scholar and pro-Palestine advocate Sonja Karkar, who said that Kazak’s sudden death “has left Australian Palestinians and our supporters reeling”.
“Ali came to Australia in 1970, his sole objective being to create awareness about Israel’s colonisation of Palestine in an environment already flooded with hubristic Zionist propaganda.
“As a Palestinian refugee since Israel’s creation in 1948, and a member of Fateh (the Palestine National Liberation Movement), Ali’s experience and knowledge were formidable.
“He poured his energies into founding, publishing and co-editing the newspaper Free Palestine and wrote numerous books such as The Jerusalem Question and Australia and the Arabs to diligently explain the legal and moral standing of Palestinians to an already biased Australian public.”
“He was incredibly influential for the Palestinian cause and showed enormous courage in speaking truth to power.
“His tenacious efforts saw the establishment of the Palestine Information Office which was subsequently recognised as the office of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1989. A few years later, the Australian government recognised the General Palestinian Delegation, and as Ambassador, Ali encouraged the creation of Parliamentary Friends of Palestine groups both federally and in the states of NSW, Victoria, and South Australia.”
While Kazak had retired from his position as ambassador, “he never stopped his advocacy for Palestine, constantly churning out articles and letters at a furious pace, always a firm believer in the one state solution — one democratic state for all citizens living in peaceful co-existence with equal rights.
“With so much death and barbarity happening now in Gaza, we will miss Ali’s voice in Australia. His unshakeable belief that justice for Palestine would ultimately prevail, gave many supporters of Palestine hope, despite the bleak political landscape and tragic conditions facing the Palestinians.
“Ali certainly was a harbinger of Palestinian recognition in Australia and the thousands of Australians coming out week after week in support of Palestine is a resounding tribute to his indefatigable advocacy for more than 50 years.”
Veteran Aboriginal rights activist Gary Foley told a Nakba Day protest in Naarm/Melbourne on May 18: “Ali was one of the key people in educating me 50 years ago about the situation of the Palestinian people. Ali had spoken alongside me at Aboriginal land rights demonstrations in the 1970s in Sydney and Melbourne. So, I am deeply shocked by Ali’s passing but equally shocked by the continuing genocide and slaughter happening in the Palestinian people’s homeland.”
Award-winning author Randa Abdel Fattah posted that she was devastated to hear of Kazak’s death and that the “loss of any of our elders is a collective loss of history and memory”.
“Ali lived and breathed the cause of Palestine,” Abdel-Fattah wrote.
“Every Palestinian in this colony owes a debt to Ali Kazak for laying the foundation of so much of our work today. Allah yerhamu. May we continue to build on his legacy.”