PSNA Newsletter No 51 - July 20, 2021
20 July 2021
Newsletter No 51
Kia ora PSNA Supporter
2021 is the turning point in the campaign for Palestinian human rights. The positive signs are everywhere that Israel’s racist narrative is running out of steam with public sympathy and support rising for Palestinians.
We need your help this month to help share and publicise our Palestine Solidarity meetings around the country to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand
Something you can do right now – with just a few clicks…
Please post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram the links to
1. The first two events of the tour in Gisborne and Hamilton – these events are on this week!
2. Please try to remember each Sunday to post the events that are coming up in the week ahead
3. Come to the meeting closest to you when it comes up! We will need help collecting names and selling merchandise!
The full list of events is here (in the order they are coming up):
Gisborne www.facebook.com/events/1212406795871710
Hamilton www.facebook.com/events/467317764365966
New Plymouth www.facebook.com/events/511890530122735
Palmerston North www.facebook.com/events/1979628402213386
Whanganui www.facebook.com/events/817882619112968
Invercargill www.facebook.com/events/1073065233224812
Dunedin www.facebook.com/events/487249982568276
Christchurch www.facebook.com/events/1966947140110700
Timaru www.facebook.com/events/951247862339335
Nelson www.facebook.com/events/3929447933848325
Napier www.facebook.com/events/318193199921010
Wellington www.facebook.com/events/488585722435674
Rotorua www.facebook.com/events/173579434656218
Whangarei www.facebook.com/events/361919825367739
Auckland www.facebook.com/events/1010213499752355
Rawene www.facebook.com/events/674331456857574
Kerikeri Details to come
In case you need to check the dates of events they are on the national poster below.
Brilliant video – watch and share
'So They Know We Existed': Palestinians Film War in Gaza - The New York Times
Click on this link for this brilliant video – in the words and images of Palestinians: https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000007798345/gaza-israel-war.html
Israel called out everywhere as an “apartheid state”
Human rights groups are calling out Israel as an apartheid state.
Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner and good friend of Aotearoa / New Zealand, South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has always described Israel’s policies towards Palestinians as worse than that suffered by Black South Africans under apartheid.
Tutu says when it comes to Israel the world should “Call it apartheid and boycott!”
Human rights groups have begun delivering the same message.
In January this year the largest and most respected Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem released a landmark report calling Israel “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”.
In its report B’Tselem says
“…A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime…”
Three months later B’Tselem was joined by the US-based, Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning-organisation, Human Rights Watch, which released a 213-page report detailing how Israeli policies constitute “crimes of apartheid and persecution” against Palestinians.
These descriptions of Israel are gaining ground quickly. Within the last week a poll conducted by the Jewish Electoral Institute has revealed that 25% of US Jewish voters describe Israel as an “apartheid state”. Such a result even a year ago would have been unthinkable.
UN asks countries to recognise Israeli policies as ““a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
In the last few days the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Michael Lynk, has urged nations to “develop a comprehensive menu of accountability measures to bring Israel in compliance with international law should it continue to defy the international community”
Michael Lynk
In particular he wants countries to recognise the Israeli government sponsoring of Israeli settlers on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank as “a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
Lynk calls these settlers (680,000 across almost 300 illegal settlements) “the engine of Israel’s 54-year-old occupation, the longest in the modern world”.
We are taking this up with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta.
Maryam – a voice of the future
Maryam Falak Falaah, age 13, is from the Maldives. She is now at school in New Zealand and has given us permission to reprint the speech she prepared this year as part of a school project. We were deeply impressed and we think our readers will be too.
Asalamu Alaikum, “Peace be upon you” Wailaukumu salam, “and upon you be peace”.
I am here to acknowledge the ongoing colonisation, ethnic cleansing and violent displacement of Palestinians by the state of Israel.
Many people think the situation in Palestine is so far away that it has little to do with us. They assume that we have enough domestic issues right here at home, that it is someone else’s work to address the rights of Palestinians halfway around the world. However, I know that we cannot talk about justice without addressing the displacement of native people’s wherever they are. Furthermore, we cannot talk about justice without addressing the systemic racism of colonialism.
I recognise the deep trauma and loss of life sustained by systems of oppression in Palestine, the USA, and globally. In my mind, I have faintly painted a picture that all racism and inequality is connected. Now, as I see the dead bodies of innocent children and hear pleas and cries for the suffering to stop, I realise the picture has always been clear but shadowed by the blur of colonialism and white supremacy.
It was clear when protesters who took the streets in the face of police murders seeking to build a nation where black lives mattered were faced with uncalled for violence. It was clear when the NZ police aggressively swooped on non-pakeha households in the early hours of the morning. It was clear when they burst into bedrooms where children were sleeping, and if passports were not shown immediately, men and women in their nightclothes were shoved into waiting police vans.
It was clear when families kneeling during the holy month of Ramadan in the 3rd holiest site in Islam were met with rubber bullets, hand grenades and tear gas. It was clear when kneeling worshipers were kicked, beaten and killed in Al Aqsa mosque, Jerusalem, the true capital of Palestine. It was clear when hundreds were kicked out of their homes in this act of genocide and ethnic cleansing. I hope I have made it evident that if you are willing to stand for justice, why should you stay quiet when hundreds of Palestinians are blatantly killed.
While human rights guarantee the right to life, liberty, and security of people, Palestinians continue to experience random acts of violence by the Israeli military and police, disproportionate violence within the West Bank and Gaza, unprovoked violence in the face of peaceful protest, and misdirected violence by an Israeli state that routinely fails to distinguish between civilian and soldier.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects us against torture and harsh, inhuman, or humiliating treatment or punishment. Palestinians are nevertheless physically and mentally tormented by Israel’s criminal justice system, a word I can only use ironically.
As I speak, the situation for Palestinians on the ground is deteriorating. This is because the Israeli government has shifted further from the right in recent decades, legalising settler colonialism and its associated logics of denial, devastation, displacement, and murder.
For the past 54 years, Israeli authorities have facilitated the transfer of Jewish Israelis to the Palestinian territory and granted them a superior status under the law as compared to Palestinians living in the same region when it comes to civil rights, access to land, and freedom to move, build, and confer residency rights to close relatives. Israel is running modern-day apartheid.
This is why we as New Zealanders should stand with the Palestinian people. New Zealanders must show solidarity. Solidarity requires that we no longer allow politicians or political parties to stay silent on the Palestinian issue.
We must acknowledge the right of an occupied people to defend themselves; if we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, we must put peace first. As Malcolm X said, You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
Despite the odds, despite the significant measures against justice and peace, despite the history of hatred and imperialism, white supremacy, sexism, and homophobia, we can still prevail despite these power structures that have normalised settler colonialism. We can still win. For you cannot undo wrong, you can only do your best to make things right.
I demand that New Zealand finally recognise Palestinian statehood and fight for the freedom of its civilians. We must fight together to resist state violence because state violence in the United States, state violence in Brazil, state violence in Syria, state violence in Egypt, state violence in South Africa, and state violence in Palestine is the same.
We have a chance to commit to political action, grassroots action, local action, and international action that will provide us with what justice demands. And what justice demands is the freedom of Palestinian civilians and their right to their land. If we uphold the correct values and show our solidarity. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Asalamu Alaikum, “Peace be upon you” Wailaukumu salam, “and upon you be peace”.
THANK YOU
Protest the arrest of Shatha Odeh
A Palestinian child, wounded by Israeli air strikes, is treated in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
Shatha Odeh , who works with the Health Works Committee (HWC) in Palestine was picked up from her home by the Israeli Army on 7th July. One month earlier, Israeli military had ordered the closure of the work of HWC. The People’s Health Movement strongly condemns the move and plans a sustained campaign for Shatha's release.
More information is here and you can sign the online petition here
New T-shirts on the way
This great new T-shirt design from Nelson activists will be on sale during the 40th anniversary tour. It says it all.
Over $10,000 raised so far in our appeal for the Gaza Centre for Human Rights whose offices were targeted and destroyed by Israel
We have now collected over NZ$10,000 for this appeal. The money has been warmly welcomed and has been received in Gaza. The Centre is getting itself back on its feet again in its role of collecting evidence for war crimes prosecutions from the latest Israeli outrages.
Donations are still welcome.
Account name: PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK
Account number: 38-9015-0849542-02 (Please put GCHR in the reference)
Ambulances Appeal for Gaza – please donate if you can
After the savage 11-day heavy bombardment of Gaza, the killing of 256 Palestinians, including 66 children there is a desperate need for medical supplies to Gaza. Kia Ora Gaza are co-ordinating the fundraising here in New Zealand. They have raised over NZ$30,000 so far.
Please donate now with a direct payment to their bank account:
Account Name: Kia Ora Gaza Trust,
Account Number: 03-0211-0447718-000 Westpac Bank.
Afterwards, email office@kiaoragaza.net with your deposit details so they can send you an e-receipt.
More details are here on the Kia Ora Gaza website
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
Stories from the Web
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 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)