Introduction
Noura Mansour, Director of Democracy in Colour, shared insights from the movement for a Free Palestine during a plenary session at Progress 2026.
The Progress 2026 conference was hosted by Australian Progress on March 24-25 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Narrm/Melbourne. This article was produced by The Commons Library to enable ongoing learning.
This is an invitation for each and every one of you to join the movement, to join us and together let’s build a world we can all be proud of. Join the anti-war movement and the movement for Palestinian justice. – Noura Mansour
From Akka to Australia
Good morning, everyone. Subah al-khair. It is an honour and a pleasure to stand here in front of you all today, to learn from and connect with inspiring people that have been sharing so generously with kindness and strength their stories and insights.
Thank you to the team at Australian Progress for the fantastic work that they do in building the power of civil society organisations on this continent and for bringing us together today.
To begin, I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of the land, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations, and pay respects to Elders past and present.
My name is Noura Mansour and I was born in Akka (Acre), one of the most ancient and the most beautiful cities on the coast of the Mediterranean in Palestine. My city is 4,000 years old. There are multiple subterranean cities under Akka – UNESCO World Heritage and it has been described by the renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish as “the most ancient of all beautiful cities and the most beautiful of all ancient cities”.
Sixty nautical miles to the south from Akka, from my home town, stands another ancient and beautiful city, the indomitable Gaza, besieged, battered, steadfast and undefeated.
Gaza as a microcosm encapsulates the essence of the Palestinian struggle: an anticolonial, an antiracist struggle for justice, liberation and equality. – Noura Mansour
Support for Palestine Continues to Grow
Despite, over a century, unrelenting attempts to eliminate the Palestinian people from Gaza, from Bethlehem, from Jerusalem, Al-Quds, and from Akka, despite the ongoing attempts to discredit and vilify their legitimate calls for justice, freedom and equality, support for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause continues to grow.
For the last two and a half years, as we collectively witnessed and live streamed ongoing genocide in Gaza, the global movement for Palestine has been leading one of the longest forms of anti-war, anti-genocide protests globally, a movement so successful that those in power have launched a wide-scale crackdown on fundamental democratic rights to stifle and limit its widespread impact.
Now, there are two key elements that made this success possible – firstly, the nature of the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian cause is a just cause, which makes it easy to relate to, to identify, sympathise with and defend. We don’t need to fabricate lies. We don’t need to invest millions in propaganda. We have justice, facts, hope, and determination.
You don’t need to be a Palestinian to recognise and understand the inherent humanity and morality of calls for freedom and equality. However, a cause without people to champion it remains abstract.
Which leads me to the second point and the second factor that has contributed to the successful global mass mobilisation for Palestine and that is the intentional proactive work in building people power and developing the infrastructure for them to take action and respond swiftly and effectively in real time.
Networks of Solidarity
So this equation, building people power and building the infrastructure, is underpinned by broad and intersectional solidarity networks. This is done by identifying those intersections of values and interests, building strong partnerships and alliances, connecting people and creating the conditions for them to join the movement, to learn, strategise, and take coordinated action collectively.
A cause that stands the test of time, defies rules of geopolitics, transcends identity politics, and resonates with millions and millions of people around the world is a winning cause.
So this here today is an invitation for each and every one of you to join the movement, to join us and together let’s build a world we can all be proud of. Join the anti-war movement and the movement for Palestinian justice. Join us in speaking up against genocide, apartheid and racism. Stand with us for humanity – in Palestine, in Lebanon, in Iran, in Sudan, in Congo, and first and foremost, first Nations people on this continent. Heed the calls of the civil society in Palestine, your colleagues on the ground in Palestine, and join the boycott and divest sanction movement, the BDS movement.
We refuse to accept that genocide now is the new normal and we ask that you do not normalise the murder and torture of our children, brothers and sisters. We ask you to resist apathy and indifference, not only because our liberation is intertwined, but because from all of our rivers to all of our seas each and every one of us, each and every Palestinian, all the Palestinian and colonised Indigenous people in Palestine and all Indigenous people around the world are deserving of safety, dignity, equality and freedom.
From every river to every sea may we all be free. – Noura Mansour
About the Speaker
Noura Mansour is a Palestinian educator, political analyst, writer, community organiser and National Director at Democracy in Colour, a national organisation working for racial justice. Noura was a lead organiser behind the rallies that turned people out around Australia week after week in solidarity with Palestinian communities.
Learn More About Solidarity with Palestine
- Palestine 101: Video, Factsheets, Books & More
- The Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Movement
- BDS Australia
- Communicating Palestine: Framing & Messaging Tips
Explore Further
- Organising Beyond the Cities: Building Power in Regional Australia
- Lessons from the Zohran for NYC Campaign: Strategy, Organising and People Power
- Jane McAlevey: Organizer Extraordinaire
- Community Organising Templates and Training Tools
- Psychology, Trust and Joy in Organizing
- Template: Developing/Reviewing an Organising Program
- Deep Canvassing
- Explore the Organising Topic on The Commons Library
- Explore the Australian Progress collection on The Commons Library
- Explore other resources from Progress 2026
- Australian Progress Events & Training