PSNA Newsletter No 58 - October 26, 2021

26 Whiringa-ā-nuku 2021
26 October 2021

Newsletter No 58

Kia ora Palestinian Human Rights Supporter

Act now! - Israel launches outrageous attack on six Palestinian human rights organisations

Within the last few days Israel has taken two steps to further undermine the Palestinian struggle for human rights and self-determination:

They have labelled six Palestinian human rights organisations as “terrorist” groups. Details here and here. These organisations have been targeted because they are effective in bring Israel’s daily human rights abuses to international attention – and demanding accountability for Israel at the International Criminal Court. Israel’s attack authorises the Israeli authorities to close their offices, seize their assets and arrest and jail their staff members, and it prohibits funding or even publicly expressing support for their activities.

They have announced approval for the building of 1300 new houses for Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian Territories. Details here. This theft of Palestinian land has gone on every day since 1948

At time of writing this newsletter the Aotearoa New Zealand government has been silent – as they have been all but silent on every Israeli abuse of Palestinians over the past four years. It’s not on.

PSNA has written to the government on this – see our media release here.

Let’s all do something about this now!

Act now! - Copy and paste this letter into an email and then BCC the Labour Party MPs listed below.

Kia ora,

Palestinians are under attack again – the government must speak out – silence in the face of oppression is complicity

The Labour government must break its silence over the on-going abuses of Palestinian human rights, the theft of Palestinian land and the outrageous attacks on Palestinian human rights organisations.

Over the last five days the Israeli government has:

1) Labelled six Palestinian human rights organisations as “terrorist” groups. Details here and here. They have been targeted because they are effective in bring Israel’s daily human rights abuses to international attention – and demanding accountability for Israel at the International Criminal Court.

This criminal designation of legitimate human rights groups is the mark of a racist, totalitarian state.

Here is the joint statement from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch:

“This appalling and unjust decision is an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement. For decades, Israeli authorities have systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticize its repressive rule over Palestinians. While staff members of our organizations have faced deportation and travel bans, Palestinian human rights defenders have always borne the brunt of the repression. This decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organizations. The decades-long failure of the international community to challenge grave Israeli human rights abuses and impose meaningful consequences for them has emboldened Israeli authorities to act in this brazen manner.

How the international community responds will be a true test of its resolve to protect human rights defenders. We are proud to work with our Palestinian partners and have been doing so for decades. They represent the best of global civil society. We stand with them in challenging this outrageous decision.”

2) Announced approval for the building of 1300 new houses for Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian Territories. Details here. This theft of Palestinian land and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements has gone on every day since 1948 and it is continuing today under Israel’s racist policies against Palestinians.

This is an issue for every Labour MP in a majority Labour government.

Don’t leave this to someone else or say it isn’t a priority for Labour. Human rights are always a priority in any decent government.

Please insist the Labour government speaks out on the side of Palestinians just as previous Labour governments spoke out on the side of black South Africans under apartheid.

Silence is not an option – it is complicity with injustice.

Please write and let me know what you have done in response to this email.

Nā,

(Your name)

Email addresses of Labour MPs (copy and paste them into the BCC for your email)

Before you read on – have you sent the letter above to all Labour Party MPs? Please do it now!

Live Zoom seminar this Saturday 9.30pm featuring Ilan Pappe – hosted from Aotearoa New Zealand

At this webinar we will discuss the connection between Islamophobia and the struggle for liberation in Palestine. We will explore the misconceptions about Islam, the weaponization of Islamophobia in the service of Israel and record its destructive impact on the life of Muslims all over the world.

The links for the webinar are:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89620440887?pwd=eUhZMUtYS0JYV1RaT2pQOFdSZ1pydz09
Password: Palestine

Facebook Live Streaming: https://www.facebook.com/PalestineUpdates11

Rescheduled meetings

40th anniversary of the 1981 Springbok Tour

The meetings still to come are listed below. Please note the Auckland meeting has now become a zoom meeting – please help spread the word about these remaining meetings.

Auckland:

Sunday 14th November,
4:00 pm
Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, 4pm
Details of event here

Whangarei:

Tuesday 16th November
6:00 pm
116 Community Centre, 116 Bank St
Details of event here.

Rawene

Friday 19th November
5.30pm
No 1 Gallery, Rawene.

Kerikeri:

Saturday 20th November
7:00pm
Turner Centre
Details of event here.

Other meetings will be included in future newsletters.

Or check the PSNA Facebook events page here.

Palestinian Stories on Netflix

Netflix is issuing 24 Palestinian films at the end of October

Discover all the greatness of Palestinian cinema with this heartfelt, humorous and captivating collection that features award-winning films and film makers. They will be available here: https://www.netflix.com/fr-en/browse/genre/81515124

The full list of films:

■ Salt of this Sea (by Annemarie Jacir)

■ When I Saw You (by Annemarie Jacir)

■ Ghost Hunting (by Raed Andoni)

■ Ave Maria (by Basil Khalil)

■ Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (by Mai Masri)

■ Children of Shatila (by Mai Masri)

■ 3000 Nights (by Mai Masri)

■ A Man Returned (by Mahdi Fleifel)

■ A Drowning Man (by Mahdi Fleifel)

■ 3 Logical Exits (by Mahdi Fleifel)

■ A World Not Ours (by Mahdi Fleifel)

■ Xenox (by Mahdi Fleifel)

■ Divine Intervention (by Elia Suleiman)

■ Paradise Now (by Elia Suleiman)

■ Chronicle of a Disappearance (by Elia Suleiman)

■ In Vitro (by Linda Sarsour)

■ Maradona’s Legs (by Firas Khoury)

■ The Crossing (by Ameen Nayfeh)

■ Bonbone (by Rakan Mayasi)

■ Condom Lead (by Arab and Tarzan Nasser)

■ Mars at Sunrise (by Jessica Habie)

■ Girafada (by Rani Massalha)

■ Samouni Road (by Stefano Savona)

■ The Wanted 18 (by Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan)

The 2021 Edward Said Memorial Lecture – a conversation with Noam Chomsky

**Online via Zoom on Sunday 7 November 2021.**

Registration can be found Here.

Preserving Palestinian history and Culture

**Sally Rooney with one of her bestsellers**

https://www.palestinemuseum.us/

If you have read this far and not sent your email to all Labour MPs then please go back and do it now!

An Excellent Interview by Kim Hill with Miriam Margolyes

Kim Hill from Radio New Zealand interviewed Miriam Margolyes and in the middle of the interview, Kim asked Miriam about Palestine/Israel.

You can find the interview here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018817611

Miriam’s comments start at 36:15 in and ends 39:30

3 minutes and 15 seconds

Or you can find the relevant part here - https://youtu.be/l89UMXDWVVA

Stories from the Web

Lies told about Sally Rooney’s principled stance here
Palestine Underground – a new face for local radio here
Netflix launches 32 award-winning Palestinian films here
Ongoing settler attacks on Palestinians during olive harvest here
Amazon Workers condemn Project Nimbus military contract with Israel here
No Tech for apartheid campaign 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

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)