PSNA Newsletter No 45 - May 4, 2021
4 May 2021
Newsletter No 45
Kia ora PSNA Supporter
Human Rights Watch declares Israel policies against Palestinians as the crime of Apartheid!
The largest human rights organisation in the United States (and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize!) Human Rights Watch (HRW) is the latest major group to label Israel an Apartheid State. HRW, headquartered in New York, has produced an in-depth and comprehensive 213-page report detailing how Israel is engaged in the crime of Apartheid as defined by international conventions including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
You can watch an excellent three-minute summary of the Human Rights Watch report here.
HRW has called for an international UN inquiry and for sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes. The HRW report, titled "A Threshold Crossed - Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution" has received wide coverage across the globe from the BBC in London to the New York Times in the USA.
Palestinians, South Africans and others have long held that Israel policies are comparable to those of the former South African apartheid regime. For example in January this year, the largest and most respect human rights group in Israel, B’Tselem, declared Israel was practising apartheid in their landmark report entitled “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”.
Human Rights Watch is now saying there is a legal case that the Israeli regime is also complicit in the crime of Apartheid as defined by international law.
The international community is slowly but surely moving towards the condemnation and isolation of Apartheid Israel, just as it did in relation to Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.
Three important things you can do right now…
Send the link to the three-minute HRW video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TLe4J7Dvd0, to all your email contacts for them to see it.
Post the link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TLe4J7Dvd0, on your facebook page, twitter feed etc
Send a message to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, urging the government to recognise Israeli oppression of Palestinians as apartheid. You can send your own message or copy and paste this note here:
Date
Nanaia Mahuta
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Email n.mahuta@ministers.govt.nz
Kia ora Nanaia,
Israeli policies towards Palestinians are apartheid policies.
The Nobel Peace Prize winning human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch, has declared Israeli policies towards Palestinians constitute the crime of apartheid.
The full HRW report is here and a three-minute video of the main points is here.
We know you are busy but please take the time to watch the three-minute video.
The world is moving against Israel’s racist, apartheid policies and I request the government join the right side of history with a formal declaration that New Zealand accepts Israel’s policies towards Palestinians are apartheid policies.
I look forward to your response.
<your name>
Thanks for helping push the Human Rights Commissioner in the right direction…
In our last newsletter we asked supporters to email the Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt, and urge him to reject outright the adoption of the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-Semitism. The IHRA “definition” is being used around the world to attack pro-Palestinian activists with false smears of anti-Semitism.
We are pleased to report the Commissioner has finally decided to reject the IHRA definition. Hunt says:
22 April 2021
Tēnā koe
Thank you for your email.
In recent days, I have received a large number of similar emails regarding the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
The Human Rights Commission has not adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and it has no plans to do so.
The Commission undertakes a lot of work against racism, Islamophobia, and other very serious forms of intolerance in Aotearoa, including antisemitism. As you may know, the Race Relations Commissioner is leading work alongside the Government’s plan to develop a National Action Plan against Racism.
It is possible to be critical of the actions of the Israeli government, and supportive of Palestinian human rights, without being antisemitic. But this requires some understanding of antisemitic tropes, so that they can be avoided. The Commission is preparing a short paper advising on antisemitic tropes, and this will be published on the Commission’s website within the next few weeks. I will let you know when this short note is published. I hope you will find it useful. The Race Relations Commissioner and I will be very pleased to discuss the note with you, if you might find this useful.
I appreciate you taking the time to write to me.
Paul Hunt
This is an important step forward. The Human Rights Commission should not promote a “hierarchy of racism” but must oppose all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism, equally, as PSNA does.
World Keffiyeh Day – May 11
Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt wearing his keffiyeh
World Keffiyeh Day is celebrated annually on May 11th as a visual way to raise awareness about the Palestinian cause by simply wearing the Keffiyeh/Kufiya - one of the most iconic symbols of Palestinians.
So, on 11 May put on a keffiyeh, take a photo and post it on social media.
World Keffiyeh Day has deliberately been set a few days before Nakba Day, 15 May, to help bring more awareness to the Nakba which led to the displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland, leading to millions of Palestinian refugees all over the world today.
If you don’t have a keffiyeh you can order one from Preserved Identity here. Preserved Identity sources keffiyehs made by Palestinians in Palestine.
1981 – Fighting apartheid in South Africa
2021 – Fighting apartheid in Israel
We are making excellent progress in setting up public meetings around Aotearoa to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Springbok Tour protests.
The meetings are being held in each centre to coincide with the dates of the games played in 1981.
PSNA Chair John Minto, who was National Organiser of HART in 1981, will be speaking at the meetings alongside local activists from 1981.
If you can help organise the public meeting in your area then please write to secretary@PSNA.nz and let us know.
Congratulations Auckland! 20 years of regular monthly pickets
This month on May 1, Palestine Solidarity activists in Auckland celebrated 20 years of regular monthly rallies (first Saturday of the month from 2:00 - 3:00 pm at Aotea Square) in support of the Palestinian struggle.
Wow!
Warm congratulations from all the movement! We take off our hats to you!
Nakba Day (the catastrophe) – 15 May
Many centres around Aotearoa are planning public activities for Nakba Day. For example Christchurch are holding a vigil with distribution of leaflets etc at the Bridge of Remembrance from 12 noon to 1.30pm. Get in touch with what’s happening in your local area. If you are not sure who to contact email secretary@PSNA.nz
A reminder about Nakba Day
Palestinians are driven from their home at gunpoint during the Nakba (1947-49)
The Palestinian "Nakba" ("catastrophe" in Arabic) refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinian Arabs (between 750,000 and one million) from British Mandate Palestine during Israel's creation (1947-49) The Nakba did not end in 1948 and continues today, in the form of Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements and denial of the internationally recognised legal right of return of millions of stateless Palestinian refugees.
Elbit Systems can’t be trusted
Huge Israel weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems Limited is in trouble in Australia over Australian use of its Battle Management System which is hugely expensive – its exploiting its monopoly – and has serious security concerns around it with allegations is “backdooring the system for information".
As the story indicates, even the US military don’t trust the company.
Here in New Zealand we are still pursuing the Minister of Defence over decisions to purchase military equipment from Elbit Systems despite the company being complicit in grave breaches of international law.
Wellington Phoenix muck up but then apologise
Wellington Phoenix soccer team has an Israeli player, their striker Tomer Hemed. We have been asked many times if this is a breach of BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel. The answer is no because Hemed is not representing Israel when he plays.
However, Hemed crossed the line last week when, after scoring a winning goal, he ran to a group of Israeli supporters, took one of their Israeli flags and wrapped himself in it.
Hemed running to get an Israeli flag.
The video of the incident is here. Watch from 5 minutes and 20 seconds in. . .
The Israeli flag is a symbol of brutal, racist oppression of Palestinians and has no place on any sports field. Note that this happened in the same week Human Rights Watch declared Israel complicit in the crime of apartheid (see first story in this newsletter)
Wellington Phoenix subsequently encouraged supporters to “Grab your Israeli flag” but then withdrew and apologised when challenged by PSNA Secretary Neil Scott and others on social media.
We are writing to the football club to ensure they do not in any way support of encourage support for the racist, apartheid state of Israel. This behaviour wasn’t acceptable in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and is not acceptable in the fight against apartheid in Israel.
“Death to Arabs”, “May your village burn” - the far-right racism that drives Israeli hatred of Palestinians
By PSNA Chair John Minto
In a sickening but unsurprising development, last week a crowd of hundreds of far-right Jews marched in Jerusalem chanting “death to the Arabs” and “may your village burn”. Israeli police turned up and attacked a Palestinian counter-demonstration.
There are numerous reports on the violence, for example here, here, here, and here.
These far-right demonstrators who support the fascist party, Lehava, have been emboldened by three things: Firstly, Lehava gained seats in the Israeli parliament in last month’s election. Secondly by Israeli Defence Force moves to ban Palestinians from near the Damascus Gate, a regular and traditional gathering place for Palestinians during Ramadan and thirdly, the Israeli regime’s systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem.
A Lehava leader, Jewish Rabbi Benzi Gopstein, is on record saying that Christian churches in Israel must be burnt because Christians worship idols and idols must be destroyed. In 2014 Lehava held a demonstration at which members chanted "death to the Arabs" outside a wedding between a Muslim and Jewish woman who had converted to Islam.
But more important than the details of the demonstration or the history of Lehava itself is the incitement to hatred against Palestinians by Israeli political leaders for over 70 years. Reporting on the racist filth of various Israeli Prime Ministers would require several volumes but a small selection from the current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will suffice to make the point.
Netanyahu is on record as saying:
· “The way to deal with Palestinians is to beat them up. Not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until it’s unbearable”
· “Israeli is not a state for all its citizens” (ie Jews are first class citizens while Palestinians are lesser beings)
· Palestinians are an “existential threat” to Israel”.
Looking at the history of racism from Israel’s leaders, its small wonder that young Jews take on the race hatred of Palestinians just as young Germans, for the same reason, took on race hatred of Jews in Nazi Germany. Genocidal behaviour always starts with words.
The same racism is evident in the pro-Israel lobby around the world and New Zealand is no exception. So what did the Israeli political leadership say about the fascist protest and threats of genocide? Nothing. Instead, Israeli Internal Security Minister Amir Ohana released a statement condemning “attacks by Arabs.”
Most countries have reported the violence as clashes between “extremists on both sides”. This is cynical and wrong because at the heart of the issue is the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their land by Israeli militias in 1948 (and which continues today), the subsequent Israeli military occupation and control of the entire area of historic Palestine from 1967 (which continues today), the medieval Israeli blockade of Gaza from 2006 and Israel’s racist, apartheid policies against Palestinians.
The New Zealand government has remained silent. The indigenous people of Palestine have been left to face threats of genocide with the New Zealand government busy washing its hands on the side-lines.
Some important stories from recent weeks
Gideon Levy - "We Can Keep Lying to Ourselves on 'Apartheid,' but Israel Has Crossed the Line" here
Carnegie Endowment - Approaching Peace: Centering Rights in Israel-Palestine Conflict Resolution here
B'Tselem - A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid here
After the Two-State Solution - New Israel-Palestine Peace Efforts Must Focus on Equality here
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
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)
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 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)
New Plymouth PSNA New Plymouth (Email)
Wellington PSNA Wellington (Email)
Nelson Te Tau Ihu (Nelson) Palestine (Facebook)
Christchurch PSNA Christchurch (Facebook)
Dunedin Dunedin for Justice in Palestine (Facebook)
Invercargill PSNA Invercargill (Email)