'I am on this stage today because Julian Assange, my fiance, should be here with you. But he cannot be here because he is eleven miles from where we are standing now, in a 9 square meter steel box, a political prisoner in Belmarsh prison, imprisoned for WikiLeaks journalism.
I wish he could see this amazing crowd, of people who, like him, give a damn. Of people whose sense of empathy and solidarity prevents them from remaining silent. Julian is imprisoned right now because the United States wants to extradite him over publications that exposed war crimes in Iraq, torture in Guantanamo Bay, and the Israeli government's policies in Palestine.
He is charged with publishing evidence of:
- The Israeli military's policy of using "disproportionate force" against civilian areas;
- The Israeli government's strategy of keeping Gaza on the brink of economic collapse and humanitarian disaster.
The concrete ways by which the United States undermines UN investigations and threatens officials of the International Criminal Court - to shield – the Israeli government - from scrutiny.
Julian faces 175 year-long sentence because of these publications. He is paying with his freedom for these publications, and maybe even his life.
Julian published the words spoken by the Israeli government's own officials behind closed doors, words that the Israeli military materialises in the form of airstrikes that are killing innocent men, women and children.
The victims know, because they live and die through it. But the rest of the world relies on what it is told. Keeping knowledge subjugated is what governments do to control public perception. Public perception shapes our understanding of what is true and what is possible. That is why the IDF bombed the building housing AP and Al Jazeera in Gaza.
And that is why the US is imprisoning Julian Assange in a UK jail. To hamper our understanding and to prevent us from acting on that knowledge.
Defending our right to know is to defend our right to shape our own destiny. Our right to expose policies that kill innocents. Our right to force accountability.
As Julian says: If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.
I thank you all for your enduring support and solidarity.'