PSNA Newsletter No 141 - June 19 2024
19 Pipiri 2024
19 June 2024
Newsletter No 141
Kia ora koutou,
Only a week away now…
National rally for Palestine: Thursday 27 June, Wellington.
As we reported in earlier newsletters, a national rally has been planned in Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington for Thursday 27th June. The Palestinian-led rally will begin at 11am at Te Papa and march to the beehive where a letter will be presented to the government demanding action to hold Israel to account for its genocide in Gaza. It will continue on and end up outside the US embassy. The organisers are making an open call for all groups around the country to attend and put pressure on the government to act.
For the latest updates visit the event link on Facebook:
https://facebook.com/events/s/all-out-for-gaza-aotearoa-nati/1697332657339674/
The facebook page is now linked to Instagram. Everything that gets posted to the Facebook page will also appear on Instagram from now on.
We want to get as many people as possible to Wellington to support this protest event!
And part of that is the…
Aotearoa Caravan for a Free Palestine – almost there!
You would have received a full update on the events along the caravan route earlier this week. We will update more fully in a newsletter special later this week. In the meantime keep up to date via the facebook page Aotearoa Caravan for a Free Palestine https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560822632649
Email contact for Northern Caravan is gailaiken20@gmail.com but messages for either caravan can be sent via the facebook group.
More details later this week on the South Island caravan but in the meantime Ōtautahi/Christchurch supporters will be travelling up in a vehicle convoy to Wellington on Wednesday 26th July. If you’d like to be part of this please contact Ben Vorderegger at ben.vorderegger@gmail.com or message him on 028 429 2302. Ben is co-ordinating transport and accommodation for people from Canterbury who want to come!
Don’t forget, updates will be posted on the Aotearoa Caravan for a Free Palestine page so please follow that page. We hope that lots of you can connect with one of the caravans (North or South) in some way!
Rallies, marches, vigils and protests around the motu this weekend
To view events around Aotearoa:
Go to the PSNA Homepage – www.PSNA.nz
Scroll down to the button “For a list of events Nationwide, please click here - Check back often for updates”
Click the button
Check back on Friday for any moves, adds or changes
Events list
North Island
The Aotearoa Caravan for a Free Palestine
In support of the Palestinian driven rally in Wellington on Thursday June 27.
Friday June 21 to Thursday June 27
Go to the Facebook page for times and updates
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560822632649
Opononi – Gathering for Palestine
Sunday June 23
Not this weekend
Kerikeri
First Saturday of the month
Whangarei – Rally with
Saturday 22 June
11:00 am
Whangārei Town Basin in front of Hundertwasser Building
Auckland Picket
Friday 21 June
No picket this week
Waiheke Island – Auckland
Every Saturday
8:00 am – 1:00 pm
Ostend Market, Waiheke Island
Auckland –Banners around Tamaki Makaurau
Saturday 22 June
10:00 – 1:00 pm
Text Steve for details (dependant on wind speeds)
Auckland – Aotearoa Caravan to the Rally
Sunday 23 June
Gather at 11:30 am
North Harbour Stadium
Don McKinnon Drive (look for the flags)
Leaving at 12:00 noon heading to the Downtown Car Park for the Britomart Rally starting at 2:00 pm
Auckland – Rally
Sunday 23 June
2:00 pm
Te Komititanga – Britomart Square
Tauranga – Flag Waving
Sunday 23 June
11:00 am -12:00 noon
Papamoa Shopping Center, corner of Domain Rd & Gravatt Rd
Hamilton – Rally
Saturday 22 June
1:00 pm
Civic Square, Hamilton
Cambridge Rally
Saturday June 22
11:00 am
Cambridge Town Hall
Rotorua - Rally
Thursday 20 May
4:00 pm
Rotorua Lakes Council, Haupapa Street (Sir Howard Morrison Corner)
Napier - Rally
Saturday 22 June
11:30 am
Marine Parade Soundshell Roundabout
Hastings - Rally
Sunday 23 June
2:00 pm
Hastings Town Clock – Hastings CBD
Palmerston North - Rally
Sunday June 23
2:00 pm
The Square, Palmerston North
New Plymouth – Flags on the Bridge
Friday 21 May
4:30 pm
Paynters Ave Bridge, New Plymouth
New Plymouth – Rally
Saturday 22 June
1:00 pm
The Landing, 1 Ariki Street, New Plymouth
Whanganui - Rally
Saturday 22 June
11:00 am
Riverside Market, Whanganui
Carterton
Every Tuesday
12:00 midday
Memorial Square.
Martinborough – Gathering for Palestine
Every Wednesday
11:00 am
The square at the top of Kitchener St, Martinborough
Masterton
Every Sunday
9:30 am
Town Hall Lawn
Featherston
Every Saturday
11:00 am
The Squircle (opposite the op shop).
Wellington – Flags (by the Falastin Tea Collective)
Every Friday
7:15 – 8:15 am
Hill Street bridge Overbridge, Wellington
Wellington – Rally (by the Falastin Tea Collective)
Saturday 22 June
1:00 pm
Te Aro park across from St James theatre
Wellington – National Rally for Palestine
Organised by the Palestinian community
Thursday 27 June
11:00 am
Ta Papa
Rally and March
South Island
Nelson – Rally
Saturday 22 June
10:30 am
1903 Square, Upper Trafalgar Street, Nelson
Blenheim
Saturday 22 June
11:00 am
Blenheim Railway Station
Christchurch – Rally
Saturday 22 June
1:00 pm
Hagley Park - (Corner of Deans Ave and Riccarton Road)
Timaru – Market Stall
No Stall this weekend
Look out for next week.
Dunedin - Rally
Saturday 22 June
2:00 pm
Otago Museum Reserve to the Octagon, Dunedin
Queenstown
No Rally this weekend
Invercargill - Rally
Sunday 22 June
1:00 pm
Wachner place Invercargill
Looking out for government MPs
“Pitiful in the face of genocide” – yes that’s our government. It still hasn’t even reached first base in responding to the industrial scale slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. First base would be to condemn Israel and call for an immediate permanent ceasefire.
We need to challenge government MPs in National, New Zealand First and Act.
If you come across information with details of where any of these MPs will be for speaking or have meeting engagements then please contact us urgently so we can organise to protest and challenge them.
Email apartheid-Israel@PSNA.nz or text 027 4 APARTHEID or 027427278.
Ban Israel from the 2024 Paris Olympics
1) MLN letter to the International Olympic Committee (MLN website is here)
18 June 2024
Thomas Bach
President
And Executive Board Members
International Olympic Committee
Kia ora koutou,
The enormous power of sporting boycotts must be used against Israel’s genocidal war
MLN is a coalition of organizations and individuals from Australia, India, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palestine, South Africa, South Korea and the United Kingdom which aims to spread knowledge about Palestine in the areas and regions termed as the Global South.
We are writing to you because sport, and sporting boycotts, have an enormous power for the good of humanity - and we believe this power should be used to support the struggle of the people of Palestine.
Sport touches everyone.
When Papwa Sewgolum was forced to stand in the rain outside the whites-only clubhouse to receive the winner’s trophy after the 1965 Natal Open golf tournament, millions of people around the world saw the ugly reality of life under apartheid.
When Nelson Mandela, in his prison cell on Robben Island where he had been for 16 years, heard the 1981 rugby game between Waikato and the Springboks had been called off because anti-apartheid protestors had invaded the pitch, he said the prisoners were jubilant. They grabbed the bars of their cell doors and rattled them around the prison. Mandela said it was like the sun had come out.
When South Africa was suspended and then expelled from the Olympic movement, the positive power of sport, and sports boycotts, was demonstrated. This intervention helped to bring a quicker end to apartheid in South Africa. Such positive impacts have been demonstrated time and again in international sport.
Like apartheid South Africa, Israel uses its participation in international sport as a tool for normalizing its systematic discrimination against Palestinians. In response, Palestinians are making the same calls for boycotts as black South Africans did. Palestinian civil society groups are urging us to isolate Israel and hold it accountable for breaches of international law and crimes against humanity.
The indiscriminate killing being conducted in Gaza, described by many as the first live-streamed genocide, is just the latest example of industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinians by Israel’s leaders. In January this year Israel killed the Palestinian Olympic football coach, Hani Al Masdar, and destroyed the office of the Palestinian Olympic Committee in Gaza.
We note the board says it is “politically neutral but is not apolitical” and the world is aware of the steps the board took to hold Russia to account after its invasion of Ukraine.
Last year the IOC banned official representation from Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Athletes from the two countries were told they cannot compete under their countries’ flags but can compete only as “Individual Neutral Athletes” provided they do not “actively support the war” and are not “contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies”.
We are asking the board to hold Israel to account using the same steps that it has taken in the case of Russia and Belarus.
It is unconscionable for Israel to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics given what humanity has witnessed these past eight months. We believe Israel should be suspended from international sports organisations and international sporting events until it ends its grave violations of international law – particularly its apartheid rule and the genocidal policies/actions it is perpetrating in Gaza.
As have we noted, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee took firm action when a European country was attacked. We, and as polls attest the great mass of humanity, expect the board to take the same steps against a country involved in indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children.
Lives, no matter the nationality, ethnicity or religion, deserve the same consideration from the Olympic movement.
We look forward to hearing from you.
In solidarity, justice and peace.
Chandra Muzaffar
Hassanal Noor Rashid
Amjad Alqasis
Professor Joseph Camilleri
Professor Junaid Ahmad
Lisa Pires
Lana Latour
Lubnah Shomali
Na’eem Jeenah
Nasser Ibrahim
Ranjan Solomon
Nida Arif
Rifat Kassis
Professor Shad Faruqi
Nor Hakim Ismail
Professor Ilan Pappe
Steve Liddle
John Minto
2) Another poster to share on social media
3) Sign the petition to ban Israel from the 2024 Paris Olympics
Russia’s sports teams were banned from international competitions soon after its invasion of Ukraine. But as the Israeli military destroys everything in Gaza and has indiscriminately killed over 37,000 Palestinians, its sports teams play on.
Please sign this petition to call for the ban of Israel’s sports teams from international competition.
Boycotts work – great wee video from Nasser Mashni
To see the video go to the link here
The text of Nassers presentation is this:
"Be sure to share and comment. Boycotts work! The biggest win of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign! Intel, the chip maker, has halted construction of a $25B factory in Israel! Moody’s... not a coffee shop, but a ratings agency has downgraded Israel credit rating – the first time in its history... even Moody’s is now rating Israel as “negative”. Foreign investors stripped $9B from the Israeli stock market Another $4B in bonds! A senior banker says... “we are already feeling an economic boycott and are becoming pariahs in some countries”... it may be some now, but it will soon be ALL! More than 80% of the start-ups in Israel reported suffering damage from the war, Over 50% of start-ups left with less than six months of cash. Angel investors dropped by 75%, every other important economic number all trending down! Mc Donalds and Starbucks taking a belting! Keep it up, keep boycotting, keep the pressure up!”
Israel’s crude, racist public relations
Adam Johannes of Cardiff’s Stop the War Coalition recently urged applying this test to interviews featuring Israel’s PR methods:
1) We haven’t heard reports of deaths, will check into it;
2) the people were killed, but by a faulty Palestinian rocket/bomb;
3) OK we killed them, but they were terrorists;
4) OK they were civilians, but they were being used as human shields;
5) OK there were no fighters in this area, so it was our mistake. But we kill civilians by accident, they do it on purpose;
6) OK we kill far more civilians than they do, but look at how terrible other countries are!
7) Why are you still talking about Israel?
Are you some kind of anti-Semite?
The doctor’s wife – film screening
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe
A reader tells us this book can be obtained on electronic copy at no cost here Printed copies are available from The Nile, $26.10 + shipping from here.
There is also a 15-page article from Ilan Pappe based on the book and that is available here
Freedom Flotilla to Gaza ready to go from Türkiye but held up by Israeli pressure on supporting countries
Gaza Aid flotilla, due for launch last week has been delayed by ‘Israeli tactics’ here
Keep up to date with developments here https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/
Remember BDS for Aotearoa New Zealand
Remember our big six BDS targets for Aotearoa New Zealand?
Obela Hummus
Ahava skin care products
Sodastream
HP (Hewlett-Packard)
BP and Caltex
McDonalds
Rebuilding the Gaza Centre for Human Rights
Damage to the Gaza Centre of Human Rights Office after an Israeli air attack in 2021
PSNA has been a long-time supporter of the Gaza Centre for Human Rights. The Centre is making an appeal for funds to rebuild at the earliest opportunity. New Zealander Julie Webb-Pullman worked at the centre for several years as an international expert on gathering evidence of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
Before the latest Israeli attacks the centre had sent over 2000 claims of war crimes relating to Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2014 and its targeting the Great March of Return protests in March 2018.
We will have more about the centre in future newsletters.
In the meantime people can donate to:
Account name: PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK
Account number: 38-9015-0849542-02 (Please put GCHR in the reference)
Watch out for this man promoting racism and apartheid
Here he is – the Israeli ambassador – watch out for him around Aotearoa New Zealand – if you hear of any planned appearances or speaking engagements please contact us urgently: Email apartheid-Israel@PSNA.nz or text 027 4 APARTHEID or 027427278.
Israeli ambassador Ran Yaakoby
Important stories from the Web
Editor’s picks
Israels’ systematic sexual abuse and torture of Palestinians detailed in new reports here
Killing, torture, and injections of unknown substances: International community must act on Israeli violations of Gaza detainees here
The day the west defined ‘success’ as a massacre of 270 Palestinians here
Starvation kills 8-year-old girl in Gaza as Israel obstructs aid here
Palestine football chief says he was denied Australia visa over ‘terrorism’ links here
UN finds at least 14 Israelis likely intentionally killed by own army on October 7th here
Politics and doing the right thing here
The Israeli lobby exposed here (video – Ilam Pappe interviewed on his latest book)
Other stories
Blinken says some Hamas changes to Gaza ceasefire proposal ‘not workable’ here
Israel social media account declares ‘there are no innocent civilians’ in Gaza here
US claim it has no information on Israeli torture ‘remarkable and wrong’: rights group here
Oxfam says arms licences for Israel ‘comprehensive failure’ of UK’s ‘moral leadership’ here
The west’s hollow discourse about a Palestinian state here
My personal experience and conversion here
Israel the grotesque, who supports that government? here
Reminder: Dates for Palestine Solidarity during the year
Israel apartheid week has been added to the dates for likely local and national Palestine solidarity activity this year.
28 Mar – 4 Apr Israel Apartheid Week
30 Mar Land Day Palestine
5 Apr Palestinian Childs Day
9 Apr Deir Yassin massacre - Irgun Terrorism - 107-120 Palestinian men, women and children massacred
17 Apr Palestinian Prisoners Day
11 May World Kufiya Day
15 May Nakba Day – marking the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine in 1948
5 Jun Nakba Day - Start of 1967 War - Land Grab – Invasion of Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza, Egypt and Syria - 5 June 1967 – 10 June 1967
20 Jun Attack on Gaza - 6–21 May 2021 (2 weeks and 1 day)
16-18 Sep 40th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres
28 Sep Second Intifada - 28 Sept 2000 – 8 Feb 2005
2 Nov Balfour Declaration
29 Nov United Nations - International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
8 Dec First Intifada - 8 Dec 1987 – 13 Sept 1993
Are you able to donate a cup of coffee a month to the campaign?
We will need some serious money to make our campaign as effective as possible. For example, we will need somewhere in the vicinity of $25,000 to bring speakers to New Zealand over the next year and organise large public meetings to help spread the message.
You can help. Are you able to donate a cup of coffee a month to the campaign? In other words, can you afford to make an automatic payment of $5 per month to support the Palestinian struggle? (If you can afford more that would be great!)
Our account details are:
Account name: Palestine Solidarity Network
Account number: 38-9015-0849542-00
We are happy to provide a receipt upon request (however, we are not a registered charity so this is not tax-deductible)
In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter – an invitation to subscribe from Leslie Bravery
Because of mainstream news media complicity, daily headlines and commentary only occasionally ever mention the relentless Israeli violence in Palestine, not even the frequent air strikes!
However, daily news and statistics regarding the violence Palestinians are forced to live under are regularly reported on in the “In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter”, sourced and compiled for easy reading and correlation chiefly from the Palestinian Monitoring Group's daily situation reports.
The In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter continues to be circulated, by email, worldwide to subscribers only, as it has been over the last two decades.
Please contact lesliebravery@icloud.com if you also wish to become a subscriber.
Merchandise for sale
We have Merchandise you can buy including T-shirts from our website.
Go here - https://www.psna.nz/shop
More ways you can get involved
Forward this Newsletter – If you know people who may be interested in this movement, please forward this Newsletter to them.
Join in local activities in your area monthly Rallies - In Auckland at 2.00 pm on the first Saturday of every month. Please consider doing the same in your community. Contact Secretary@PSNA.nz if you would like to know where and how to get Flags and Banners
Help set up a Students for Justice in Palestine groups on your campus
Tell Your MP your opinions on Divestment and Sanctions of Israel.
Write Letters to Newspapers – Call Talkback Radio
Keep in touch with the campaign on social media
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network website: https://www.PSNA.nz
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/671376706283605/
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network email: Secretary@PSNA.nz
The Palestine Human Rights Campaign produces the In Occupied Palestine newsletter. It is a regular daily newsletter on the daily situation in Palestine, compiled by Leslie Bravery and emailed to subscribers. If you would also like to become a subscriber, please contact Leslie at “lesliebravery @ icloud .com” (remove the spaces to use as an email address) for further information.
Keep Updated on our Facebook pages and websites (listed below)
Human rights for Uyghur refugees - In line with our support for human rights for the people of Palestine we have added our name to the petition in support of human rights for Uyghur refugees so they can be included in the government’s refugee quota. PSNA members who wish to also sign this petition can do so here - https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/open-letter-let-s-show-compassion-to-the-uyghur-community
PSNA Groups
PSNA National Committee
Website: www.PSNA.nz
Chair - John Minto: Chair@PSNA.nz
Secretary - Neil Scott: Secretary@PSNA.nz
Regional Groups
Bay of Islands PSN Bay of Islands (Email)
Whangarei PSN Whangarei (Facebook)
Auckland PSN Auckland – Tamaki Makaurau (Website)
Hamilton Palestine Human Rights Campaign Waikato (Facebook)
Tauranga Tauranga Moana 4 Palestine (Facebook)
Napier/Hastings Aotearoa Standing with Palestine (Facebook)
Palmerston North PSN Palmerston North (Email)
New Plymouth PSN Taranaki (Facebook)
Wellington PSN Wellington (Email)
Nelson Te Tau Ihu (Nelson) Palestine (Facebook)
Christchurch PSN Christchurch (Facebook)
Dunedin Dunedin for Justice in Palestine (Facebook)
Invercargill PSNA Invercargill (Email)