PSNA Newsletter No 22 - May 8 2020
8 May 2020
Newsletter No 22
Kia ora PSNA Supporter
This week – Sunday 10 May at 7pm – we are holding an Online rally with Gaza for Nakba Day. This is our second on-line rally with Gaza to hear directly from Palestinians on the front line of the Covid 19 pandemic. It’s an astonishing achievement that Palestinians have kept Covid 19 out of the Gaza community so far through quarantining all those entering the strip. However, the danger remains extreme.
One thing you can do now – copy and paste this notice into your social media posts TODAY
Dr Medhat Abbas – Director General of Primary Health Services in Gaza. One of the speakers for our online rally with Gaza for Nakba Day.
“Join the Online rally with Gaza for Nakba Day
Join the Zoom Meeting at 7pm this Sunday 10 May https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85164678448
Nakba Day (15 May – ‘Nakba’ means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic) refers to the mass expulsion, at gunpoint and with many massacres, of Palestinian Arabs (between 750,000 and one million) from Palestine during Israel's creation (1947-49)
We will be hearing from Palestinian medical professionals, community activists and journalists about the huge threat Covid 19 poses to the people of Palestine – and Gaza in particular – and what we can do about it. See you there”
Rest in Peace -Denis Goldberg
On 29 April the world lost one of the heroes of the South African anti-apartheid struggle when 87-year-old Denis Goldberg died.
He was involved in the ANC and sentenced to life in prison in 1964 at the end of the infamous Rivonia trial of activists accused of planning armed struggle to end white rule in apartheid South Africa. Denis was Defendant No 3 (Nelson Mandela was No 1 and Walter Sisulu No 2)
At 31 he was the youngest defendant and served 22 years in prison. Details of the trial and Denis’s life are here
Denis is being remembered for his “unflinching commitment to the struggle against all forms of racism and Apartheid”.
We must also remember what this courageous Jewish South African said about the brutal, racist state of Israel:
“Having lived through apartheid in South Africa. There’s no doubt in my mind that Israel is an apartheid state. I cannot allow in my name, the same kind of oppression to go on against the Palestinians. I have to speak out against it. And I have to try and speak out against it in a rational and calm voice when really I’m very angry about it […] when [Israeli] people say, well, you South Africans, you’re biased against us. We’re not. We’re talking international law…The pro-Israeli lobby, the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and SA Zionist Federation try to say that it [the Palestinian Israeli issue] is not a simple matter, [they say that] it’s complicated. It’s not complicated! It’s very simple, the simplicity is that a dominant group [Jewish Israelis] exclude the indigenous Palestinian people from equal rights”.
Another online event for Nakba Day – Mazin Qumsiyeh speaks
BDS Australia and Sydney Staff for BDS are honoured to present a talk by Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History, professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities, and a long-term activist for justice in Palestine-Israel. Mazin will detail the current political and humanitarian situation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, amid the joint threats of coronavirus and Israeli annexation. After his talk there will be a question period. As well as more than 140 academic papers, Mazin is the author of "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle" and "Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment" (Pluto Press, 2004, 2011). The meeting will be held on Zoom.
Here’s the FB event (and Zoom link) for this event on Tuesday 19th May. New Zealand time 9.00pm https://www.facebook.com/events/2880180992060108/.
Click on the link to join: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/99488383325.
Give PUMA the boot – Boycott PUMA
In an earlier newsletter we asked supporters to write to the Silver Ferns to ask them to drop their PUMA sponsorship because of PUMA’s support for illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
We jumped the gun a bit because May 4 was third international day for the boycott of PUMA.
It’s never too late to take international action so we’d like everyone to do these three things:
1. Post the image above to Facebook or Instagram with the following message: “Israeli settlements force Palestinian families from their homes, crowd Palestinians in refugee camps and limit access to clean water & healthcare. I will #BoycottPuma until @Puma ends its complicity. I won’t be part of #PumaFam” Use the hashtags #BoycottPuma and #PumaFam.
2. Phone or email PUMA New Zealand urging PUMA to stop supporting illegal Israeli settlements. Free call: 0800 800 094 or Email: info-nz@puma.com
3. Phone or email Netball New Zealand urging they abandon their PUMA sponsorship. Phone: +64 9 623 3200 or Email: info@netballnz.co.nz Puma is listening. A Puma lawyer told activists that our calls to boycott Puma are making their lives “miserable.” Ending Puma’s already deeply immoral support for Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights is more urgent than ever.
International Court of Justice – another step towards Israeli accountability
Last month the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, restated her position that Palestine is a state for the purposes of allowing Palestinians to bring war crimes investigations to the court.
This is a victory for Palestinians over attempts by many countries, including Australia, to argue that because Palestine is not a full state recognised by the United Nations it should not be allowed to bring Israeli war crimes to the court.
Dismissing the legal opinions of several states and dozens of international law scholars, Fatou Bensouda’s view, laid out in great detail in a 60-page document, could pave the way for an investigation of alleged war crimes committed in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
“The Prosecution has carefully considered the observations of the participants and remains of the view that the Court has jurisdiction over the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” she wrote.
Bensouda’s decision now needs to be ratified by a bench of three judges at the ICC after which, hopefully, Israel will begin to face accountability for the murder and mayhem it has inflicted on Palestinians over 70 years of occupation.
A big win for BDS in Britain
Here is the message from the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
We have some fantastic news to share with you. Since 2017 the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been fighting the UK Government in the courts, protecting the right to undertake BDS campaigns in the UK. First we won in the High Court, then we lost in the Court of Appeal, but today (29 April) the final verdict from the Supreme Court is in and...WE WON!
Together we have taken on the Government to defeat regulations that would have stopped Local Government Pension Schemes from divesting from companies complicit in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people, and additionally from divesting from the UK defence industry.
The Supreme Court has ruled in our favour and the regulations the Government introduced in 2016 are now finally and definitively declared illegal and thrown out. You can read more here.
This victory shows what we can do when we join together to stand up for justice and for what is right. PSC took on the burden of fighting the case, but were supported with submissions from our colleagues at the Quakers, Campaign Against Arms Trade and War on Want.
This is a great victory. We haven’t faced situations like this before in New Zealand but most importantly it shows the potency of BDS. It is the Achilles Heel of the racist apartheid state of Israel – just as boycotts were for the apartheid state of South Africa.
New digital posters
Here is another sample poster we are working on for the series we mentioned in the last newsletter
We are delighted our new website is up and running
Our new website is at www.PSNA.nz and is slowly being “populated” with campaign material.
Have a look and feel free to send feedback to secretary@PSNA.nz
Two new books provide great reading during the lockdown
Dances with Death - A new book by Palestinian New Zealander – Tuma Hazou
“Written without rancour, Tuma Hazou’s account of his wartime reporting experiences is an engaging, authentic and rare Palestinian account of recent Middle-East events and of nerve-wracking personal trauma” - Janfrie Wakim - Auckland
Tuma is a Palestinian New Zealander. He was planning to attend book launches around the country but that’s not possible. You can purchase a book from Tuma at gandthazou@gmail.com
Still Lives – Marilyn Garson
Canadian-Kiwi Marilyn writes of her experiences working in GAZA under the Israeli blockade from 2011 to 2015. It’s a great book and has been accepted for the Auckland Writers Festival.
Order your eBook here or order a physical copy at www.marilyngarson.com
Guidelines for engaging on social media
Our national committee recently discussed the best ways for us to engage in supporting Palestine in social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc and we came up with these guidelines for PSNA supporters. We would welcome feedback to secretary@PSNA.nz
PSNA Online Policy Guidelines
Social media is an unregulated space where there are many opportunities to get clear pro-Palestinian messages out to a wider audience than through traditional mainstream media. We need as many voices as we can muster speaking out on all social media platforms. Our goal is to amplify the Palestinian side of the issue which has previously been lost in a sea of pro-Israeli lies which has so often dominated media reporting. However, there are potential dangers to avoid. Keep these guidelines in mind when you engage with social media:
When we encounter pro-Israeli trolls on social media we should attack their views rather than attack them personally – stick to the issues and avoid being side-tracked. Be assertive but stay on track.
Remember the real target is the wider social media audience. We won’t convince individual pro-Israeli trolls to support the Palestinian struggle but those reading and watching an exchange are our real audience. We must keep them as the real target for our social media activism.
Calling out racism in all its forms, such as white supremacy, Islamophobia or anti-Semitism builds consistency with the messages of support for Palestinian rights and places into context the fundamental racist premise on which the state of Israel is founded.
People in leadership or spokesperson roles within PSNA and its affiliates should be especially careful in social media interactions because as we become more effective in advocating for Palestine we will face more vitriolic, personal attacks from elements of the extremist pro-Israeli lobby who will look for ways to undermine our kaupapa by undermining us.
New Merchandise
T shirt Free Palestine End Israeli Occupation medium size only $22
Kaffiyeh 110 x 110 $44 + postage
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 Networt
Account number: 38-9015-0849542-00
Or Pay Pal account: admin@palestinesolidaritynz.net
We are happy to provide a receipt upon request (however, we are not a registered charity so this is not tax-deductible)
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 mailto:admin@palestinesolidaritynz.net?subject=Flags and Banners 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: http://PalestineSolidarityNZ.net/index.html
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/671376706283605/
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network email: admin@PalestineSolidarityNZ.net
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)
Regional Branches and Affiliates
Regional
Bay of Islands PSNA Bay of Islands (Email)
Whangarei PSNA Whangarei (Facebook)
Auckland PSNA 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 PSNA Palmerston North (Email)
Wellington Wellington Palestine (Website)
Nelson Te Tau Ihu (Nelson) Palestine (Facebook)
Christchurch PSNA Christchurch (Facebook)
Dunedin Dunedin for Justice in Palestine (Facebook)
Invercargill PSNA Invercargill (emial)
Affiliates