PSNA Newsletter No 48 - June 8, 2021
8 June 2021
Newsletter No 48
Kia ora PSNA Supporter
Welcome to our newsletter to all the new supporters who have joined in the last few weeks.
Thank you all for standing up with Palestinians here in New Zealand.
The most recent violence launched by Israel against Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, the besieged Gaza strip and against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship has caused a major disruption to Israel’s business-as-usual racism, apartheid and brutality.
Across the world ordinary citizens spoke up loudly while their governments were cowardly. Even the Israeli regime’s closest allies, such as the New York Times (see the link later in this newsletter) have finally begun to give better balanced coverage to the issue – forced to do so by changing public opinion in the US and around the world.
The tide is turning.
Something you can do right now!
We have been deeply worried at the weak and ineffectual response of our government to the latest Israeli violence. Numerous letter PSNA and our supporters have sent over the past two months have had no response.
Send a message to the government that its “complicity by silence” with Israeli brutality is not acceptable.
You can write your own note or copy and paste this note to the Prime Minister.
What are you going to do Prime Minister?
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
(date)
Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister
Parliament Buildings Wellington
j.ardern@ministers.govt.nz
Kia ora Ms Ardern,
The government’s refusal to speak out strongly against 73 years of Israeli racism, apartheid and brutality against Palestinians is not acceptable.
It will be welcomed by apologists for Israel such as the US and Australian governments, but it is “complicity by silence” with Israel’s grave humanitarian crimes against Palestinians.
After four years as Prime Minister you have not moved this issue forward.
Many excellent policy proposals Aotearoa New Zealand should adopt have been put forward so we can stand with Palestinians on the side of humanity.
What are you going to do?
Please don’t pass this message on to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I would like a response from you.
(name)
What has PSNA been asking the government to do?
We have sent several letters to the Minister of Foreign Affairs recently. Here is one of them – no response at yet. We will keep you posted.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Nanaia Mahuta
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
24 May 2021
Nanaia Mahuta
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
Tēnā koe Nanaia,
Government Action essential on Israel Palestine
From previous letters we have sent you in the past two weeks (none of which have received a response) you will know we are deeply disappointed in the government’s ineffectual reaction to the appalling violence unleashed on Palestinians by Israel following their brazen, inflammatory attack on worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday 14 May.
Now a ceasefire is in place is the time to signal to Israel that the Aotearoa New Zealand government is serious about the policies it has on paper. We urge the government to:
1. Ban all trade in military equipment and technology with Israel. This includes purchases from Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems Limited which has been identified as being in serious breach of international law. The New Zealand Superfund withdrew its investments from Elbit Systems in 2012 for this reason. It’s time for the government to do the same.
Our call here in part reflects the response of United Nations experts who said last week
“We call on all States, especially those who support Israel or the Palestinian authorities materially, to cease the export of all military weapons that fuel this conflict and condition all other assistance on compliance with human rights and humanitarian law”
2. Ban all imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This would give some practical effect to the John Key government’s support for UN Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016 which condemned these settlements as a "flagrant violation" of international law which have "no legal validity". It demanded that Israel stop such activity and fulfil its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel has ignored the resolution and every day since has continued to build illegal settlements and steal more Palestinian land.
3. Close the Israeli embassy in Wellington. This embassy is a base in Aotearoa New Zealand for a country which has conducted 73 years of brutal racist policies towards the indigenous people of Palestine and continues today with these policies because there are no accountabilities. One such accountability would be to immediately close the Israeli embassy in Wellington and sever all diplomatic relations with the State of Israel as New Zealand did in 2004.
Please address the points in this letter and respond without unnecessary delay.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Nā,
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
New Israeli government
Israeli Prime Minister-in-Waiting Naftali Bennett and his Yamina Party partner-in-racism Ayelet Shaked
At time of writing a new Israeli government looks set to be sworn in. It’s a hotch-potch of parties with the new Prime Minister set to be far-right Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett.
PSNA National Chair John Minto wrote a blog about the new leadership here (Make sure you click on the link to Shaked’s election video – it has to be seen to be believed)
40th anniversary of the 1981 Springbok Tour
PSNA Chair John Minto’s national tour to coincide with the anniversary of the 1981 Springbok rugby tour is close to being finalised. Here is a DRAFT poster for the tour. We are finalising details of the venues in each centre – full details in the next newsletter.
Auckland Action on Naksa Day – 5 June 2021
PSNA National Committee member Billy Hania speaks to the Auckland rally of more than 1,000 people in Aotea Square on Naksa Day, 5 June, last week. Naksa Day remembers the Israeli takeover of the entire area of historic Palestine in 1967 after the six-day war.
Close the Israeli Embassy
Remember our campaign to close the Israeli embassy in Wellington.
1) Sign the petition to close the Israeli embassy. The petition is on-line here and is in English and Arabic or use the QR code here.
2) Share the petition on social media – the FB event link is here.
Solidarity with Palestine by Artists, Cultural Workers and Scholars of Aotearoa New Zealand
Remember to please help circulate this statement of solidarity with Palestine. It is aimed particularly at Artists, Cultural Workers and Scholars.
They can read and sign on to the statement at this link.
This has been organised by Dr Rand T Hazou, Senior Lecturer in Theatre, School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University
Donations still needed for the Gaza Centre for Human Rights which has been targeted and destroyed by Israel
Since we publicized this appeal in our last newsletter over $8,000 has been donated – we’d love to get over $14,000 to help the center get on its feet again and collect evidence for war crimes prosecutions from the latest Israeli outrages.
Can you make a donation? – account details are below
Here is the background to the appeal from our last newsletter:
The offices of the Gaza Centre for Human Rights have been targeted and destroyed by a missile from an Israeli fighter jet.
New Zealander Julie Webb-Pullman has been working for the Centre for several years as an international expert on gathering evidence of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. (Julie is currently waiting to return to Gaza after being delayed in New Zealand through Covid 19)
GCHR offices destroyed by Israeli missiles
So far the Centre, under Julie’s guidance, has sent over 2,000 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.
Earlier this year the International Criminal Court made the formal announcement that they are opening an investigation into allegations of grave Israeli breaches of International Humanitarian Law. Israel is furious and has tried to stop the investigation.
Now Israel has seized the opportunity to hit back with missiles from an Israeli fighter jet.
The Centre is making an appeal for funds to get back up and running and PSNA is coordinating fundraising here.
People can donate to:
Account name: PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK
Account number: 38-9015-0849542-02 (Please put GCHR in the reference)
Or click here.
This is a message from Julie describing the photo and the damage.
I would really appreciate it if you could also appeal for funds for Gaza Centre for Human Rights - our offices were directly targeted and destroyed a few days ago. We need to replace printers, photocopiers, furniture etc.
Our electronic backup files are safe, but all of the original documents have been destroyed.
Attached is a picture of the destruction - our offices were on the third floor, the translators' office is the one with the blue wall, my office is at the front. Was.
Like almost every building in Gaza, it is a mixed residential and office tower.
We expect the New Zealand media will report on this and the government will condemn outright this bombing of a human rights organisation.
An appeal for funding Majdoleen Hussein
We regularly receive appeals for funds to help individual Palestinian families or individuals and while these are all worthy we cannot take on such a role. However a Nelson supporter has sent us this appeal for a young Palestinian woman called Majdoleen Hussein with the recommendation below. We thought we should give members the opportunity to donate if they wish.
“I wonder if this GoFundMe campaign might be of wider interest to members of the national group https://gofund.me/44c69669
We met Majdoleen & her family when we were in Palestine in 2018. She is a colleague of our daughter. They met while working together doing a Medical elective in the occupied West Bank. Majdoleen is an amazing young woman who has jumped (& still jumping) many hurdles to pursue a career in Medicine. Her bio in the Campaign notes speaks for itself. We would love to see more Kiwis get behind her and wonder if it would be possible to include an article and link in the next PSNA newsletter”
Some good reading
Amongst the thousands of good articles on-line here are a few worth reading.
New York Times puts the faces of 67 slaughtered Palestinian children on their front page
Ammar Rashid gets to the heart of the US/Israel relationship in this EXCELLENT article
Rashid Khalidi (the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies) from Columbia University spoke to the United Nations arguing the UN Security Council must push for a multi-lateral approach to peace and end the unilateral (US led) biased approach
Al Jazeera journalist, Givara Budeiri, was assaulted handcuffed, manhandled, arrested and dragged away to the police station while reporting on a protest against the proposed evictions from Sheikh Jarrah
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)