Nation-wide Effort to put the pressure on Members of Parliament!


Soon every Member of Parliament will be talking about Palestine!  Here’s our plan for how we will do it.

First, we will flood the offices of every MP with letters about Palestine.  Below is a letter writing guide to help you take action.

Second, on September 6 and surrounding days, we will have a Nation-Wide day of action against the National Party!  We will have protests outside their offices wherever possible.

Below is all the information you need to get started.  For this week, the focus is on getting letters and having organizers start planning for September 6.

Guide to writing a letter to all Members of Parliament!

The PSNA is holding a campaign to flood Parliament with letters for Palestine.  We need everyone possible to write a letter. We will then make 123 copies of that letter and distribute one copy to every member of Parliament.

This will get them talking to each other about Palestine, making the rest of our pressure even more effective.

How it works.

All you need to do is write a ONE page letter and send it to MPLetters@PSNA.nz or freepalestinenow20230@gmail.com

The letter can be hand-written and scanned or a word document/PDF.  Hand-written letters have the most impact.

We will then print 123 copies of it, add a cover letter to it, and send it to Parliament to be distributed.

If you wish to print and send the letters yourself, you can find instructions here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involved/have-your-say/contact-an-mp/

All you need to do is print 123 copies of your letter, add a cover letter asking to distribute one copy to every MP, and send it to Parliament’s physical address.

What to say:

The most important things are to make the letter uniquely your own, to call for action for Palestine, and to address all Members of Parliament.  Your letter will not just be read by one Party - every single MP will read it!

If you wish you can talk a little bit about yourself and give some background information on who you are.

Here’s some useful things you might talk about regarding Palestine:

  • The genocide has been ongoing for decades, but has been at its worst since October 7th.

  • The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has repeatedly spoken out against Israel including in the recent ruling on 19 July.

  • The ICJ has stated that war is not a valid method of acquiring territory, and the settlements on Palestinian land are illegal under international law.

  • Respecting international law means respecting the rights of Palestinians to their land.

  • The ICJ has ruled that Israel’s continued presence in Occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and Israel must withdraw “as rapidly as possible.”

  • International law is on our side.

  • New Zealand needs to get our troops out of Yemen.

  • We need to act to ensure that New Zealand companies like Rakon cannot provide components to Israel for weapons.

  • We need to take stronger action boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning Israel.

  • New Zealand needs to actively support South Africa’s International Court of Justice case of genocide against Israel.

  • We need to recognize the state of Palestine.

  • We need to increase funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)

  • Over 15,0000 children have been killed - and this is still climbing.

  • Over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Use whatever information here you find useful, or use your own information. Variety to the letters is a good thing, so make the letter your own!

Call for an end to genocide in Palestine!

To sum up:

Write a ONE page letter that every MP will see.  Send it to MPLetters@PSNA.nz or freepalestinenow20230@gmail.com and we will get it sorted for printing and send it off.

If you wish, you can send it off yourself following the instructions above.

Nation-Wide day(s) of action: September 6

On September 6 (or close to it, if your centre cannot do September 6), we all want to be protesting National MPs.

At this stage we need organizers beginning to scope out what they can do and planning their protests. The first step is to find out what National MPs are in your electorate or nearby electorates:

https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/members-of-parliament/

Once you know which electorate MPs from the National Party are nearby, find their office and start planning a protest!  It is often a good idea to walk by in person to plan it out.  We are encouraging each centre to take their own approach to the protest, as each centre has unique capabilities and skills.

If you need any advice in planning this, please don’t hesitate to contact ShantiZA@gmail.com to ask for advice.  He has been working with our national strategy team to put together these events and has been running protests at MP’s offices in Christchurch.

If you don’t have a local National MP, feel free to get in touch and we can discuss ideas for what you might be able to do.