PSNA Newsletter No 86 - December 20 2022
20 Hakihea 2022
20 December 2022
Newsletter No 86
Kia ora koutou,
As this newsletter goes out we are waiting final confirmation of the makeup of the new Netanyahu-led government which promises to be the most extreme fascist government in Israel’s history. This means greater reprieve laws and the inevitability of more brutal killings of Palestinians – Palestinian children included – in the New Year. Already 34 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel’s occupation army in 2022.
In response our campaigning will be stepping up in 2023. We will be involved in more public actions, Palestinian speaking tours and solidarity activity of all kinds. Have a good break in the next few weeks and be prepared to do a bit extra for Palestine in 2023!
In the meantime arrange a screening of the brilliant Netflix film Farha for your family and friends over the summer break. (See later in this newsletter)
Thanks to all our supporters for your support and involvement in 2022. It is deeply appreciated.
This is our last newsletter for 2022. Our next newsletter will be on Tuesday 24th January.
Looking ahead to 2023
2023 is the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) and we will be helping co-ordinate a range of public activities around the country to educate and involve kiwis in supporting the Palestinian struggle.
We will be working with activists in Australia to bring Palestinian voices to the fore on speaking tours and engaging with public and private sector organisations to promote the Palestinian BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) strategy to isolate apartheid Israel.
Early in 2023 will be the speaking tour by Br Peter Bray
We have covered this in earlier newsletters. Brother Peter is Vice Chancellor of Bethlehem University in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.
Here are the dates for the tour.
In the meantime he is producing a series of three videos on life in Palestine. The first two are available here:
The first video is titled Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Place; Palestinians in the Holy Land, and can be viewed here.
The second video, ready today, is titled The Challenges of Ordinary People in Palestine and can be viewed here.
Palestine was the 33rd team at the World Soccer Cup
Palestine was not one of the 32 teams competing at Qatar for the 2022 Soccer World Cup but it was the issue with the highest visibility and most committed active support from soccer fans from across the globe.
PSNA National Chair John Minto wrote this piece “How Palestine has won the World Cup”
Supporters show a flag reading “Free Palestine” during the World Cup soccer match between Tunisia and Australia at the Al Janoub Stadium in Qatar, on November 26. (AP Photo / Luca Bruno)
Essential viewing – yes – ESSENTIAL VIEWING!
Gideon Levy and Ilan Pappe discuss Israeli apartheid
This presentation from the two Israeli heavyweights on Palestinian human rights, Gideon Levy and Ilan Pappe, is a riveting, devastating expose of Israeli apartheid. It is an optimistic presentation despite the obvious increase in repression and brutality presaged by the new ultra-racist Israeli government waiting in the wings. It is essential viewing and can be see on the MLN Youtube page here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMCYjBFZZDs
Make time to watch it!
Love under occupation
Click this link to watch the film.
Watch "Love Under Occupation," a short film by Mondoweiss and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights about a fictional Palestinian-and-foreigner couple taking the next big step in their relationship, and then read on to learn how Israeli apartheid regulations impact Palestinian people, their partners, and their families.
In October 2022 a new set of Israeli regulations went into effect, severely restricting the ability of tens of thousands of foreigners, and Palestinians with foreign passports, to enter and reside in the occupied West Bank.
The “Procedure for entry and residence of foreigners in the Judea and Samaria area” took effect on October 20th, and in 90 pages, it lays out a draconian set of rules and restrictions that apply only to foreigners visiting the West Bank for the purpose of meeting Palestinians in any capacity.
Written and enforced by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the regulations apply to foreigners seeking to enter the West Bank for the purpose of business, education, humanitarian work, and even visiting family.
It subjects these categories of foreigners to increased scrutiny by Israeli officials, disqualifies them from receiving a multitude of visas and permits, and gives Israel the ultimate power to approve or deny their entry into the territory.
Among the hundreds of thousands of people who are going to be affected under these new rules, the people who stand to be affected most are Palestinians and their loved ones: those with foreign spouses or partners, or with family living abroad.
You can share the film on social media here
Just how much extreme race hatred is there in the new Israeli government?
Israeli governments have always been deeply racist in their ideology and policies directed against Palestinians. However, the new government shifts the dial on race hatred to the fascist end of the spectrum.
We are reprinting here two stories from Israel’s Haaretz newspaper which illustrate this. These are behind a paywall and inaccessible otherwise.
Israel Election: Meet the Extremist Lawmakers About to Join the Government
Here's what you should know about the far-right politicians expected to serve in Benjamin Netanyahu’s next ruling coalition.
Itamar Ben-Gvir – Leader of Otzma Yehudit
Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir on Election Night in Jerusalem.Credit: JALAA MAREY - AFP
The once-fringe Religious Zionism party headed by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir will be the third-largest party in the next Knesset, and is expected to be a key member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
With a projected 14 seats, the success of the far-right party – an alliance of Smotrich’s religious Zionist National Union-Tkuma and Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit – constitutes a high water mark for a brand of ultra-nationalism once rejected by the mainstream right.
So, who are the politicians set to change the dynamics of Israeli politics? Here are nine of the most significant...
Bezalel Smotrich
The blue-eyed, bearded settler has become the country’s unrepentant face of political and religious extremism. A resident of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim and co-founder of Regavim – a nongovernmental organization aimed at promoting “Israeli sovereignty” in the West Bank – the 42-year-old Orthodox attorney quickly made a name for himself as a media-savvy and effective voice of the far right.
Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich celebrating on Election Night.Credit: Naama Greenbaum
He led the battle to prevent the dismantling of the illegal Amona outpost in the West Bank and advocated for the so-called formalization bill that would legalize the status of such outposts and the expansion of settlements built on privately owned Palestinian land. He is also a fierce proponent of annexing the territories, believing that Israeli sovereignty should be applied “in all of Judea and Samaria.”
Politically active from a young age, Smotrich was arrested by the Shin Bet security service in 2005, suspected of organizing violent protests against the Gaza disengagement and evacuation of the settlements of Gush Katif – but was never charged. A year later, he declared himself a “proud homophobe” and organized the “Beast Parade,” an anti-LGBTQ march in Jerusalem to protest the city’s annual Pride parade.
After entering the Knesset in 2015 as part of future Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi party, he soon enraged many lawmakers with his rhetoric. In 2016, for instance, he declared his support for the segregation of Arab and Jewish mothers in Israeli hospitals. “It’s only natural that my wife would not want to lie next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might murder her baby in another 20 years,” he said.
Itamar Ben-Gvir
Also an attorney by trade, this 46-year-old resident of the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba spent many years as the go-to legal representative for Jewish extremists who had run afoul of the law. His client list read like a “Who’s Who” of suspects in Jewish terror cases and Israeli hate crimes.
Perhaps his most notorious client was Bentzi Gopstein, director of the anti-assimilation group Lehava.
Born into a secular family in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion, Ben-Gvir turned to the far right during the first intifada in the late 1980s. He joined the youth movement affiliated with Moledet, a right-wing political party that advocated for “transferring” Israeli Arabs out of the country, and later joined Kach – the eventually outlawed Jewish supremacist party founded by U.S.-born Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Around this time, Ben-Gvir – who would eventually be indicted dozens of times on incitement charges – developed enough of a reputation to be disqualified from serving in the army. He famously swiped the Cadillac emblem from Yitzhak Rabin’s car just prior to the prime minister’s assassination, as a sign that the religious extremists could “get” to him.
Despite his current position as the face of the far right, the leader of Otzma Yehudit (which means Jewish Power in Hebrew) only entered the Knesset in 2021. During his time in office, Ben-Gvir – who reportedly used to keep a photo of Hebron massacre perpetrator Baruch Goldstein on his living-room wall – has cultivated a reputation as a firebrand. He has made numerous controversial statements and appeared at politically sensitive sites such as the Temple Mount and Sheikh Jarrah. His party’s campaign slogan was the provocative statement: “Who’s the landlord here?”
Orit Strock
Strock, 62, is a leading figure in Hebron’s Jewish community and the founding chairwoman of the Human Rights Organization of Judea and Samaria, a controversial settlement group.
Orit Strock speaking in the Knesset earlier this year.Credit: Danny Shem Tov / Knesset Spokesperson's Unit
A former Habayit Hayehudi lawmaker who entered the Knesset in 2013, she has consistently expressed hostility to non-Orthodox movements. During her time in the Knesset, she has served as a member on various caucus groups. These include the Caucus for Strengthening the Chief Rabbinate and the Caucus for Strengthening and Preserving Jewish Identity in Israel. She was also chairwoman of the Caucus for the Land of Israel.
Her son, Zvi, previously received a 2.5 year sentence for kidnapping and abusing a Palestinian boy. Zvi Strock and an accomplice beat the youth up, bound him, fired their guns close to him, undressed him and threw him naked at the roadside.
Avi Maoz
Maoz is the chairman of Noam, a far-right party that strongly opposes the rights of the LGBTQ and Reform Jewish communities. It ran as part of the Religious Zionist slate after Netanyahu requested the merger this summer to ensure that non far-right votes were wasted on Election Day.
Noam leader Avi Maoz speaking in the Knesset last year. Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg
Noam, which identifies itself as a party for “normal” people, fights for “Jewish identity,” “family values” and against what it labels “post-modernism.” The party is against the acceptance of LGBTQ citizens, legal recognition of their households and education toward tolerating them. It is also against female conscription in the Israel Defense Forces and mixed prayer at the Western Wall.
The party believes that “foreign powers and many countries” are behind a massive campaign to undermine and alter every value, norm or concept in Israel and alludes to a sort of “deep state” running the judiciary and the education system. Its website encourages supporters to report instances of “awareness engineering” – that is, removing religion from the classroom, or introducing gender-neutral writing in Hebrew.
Simcha Rothman
Rothman is an attorney and activist who founded the Movement for Governability and Democracy, and has been a harsh critic of the decision to prosecute Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Last month, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai warned that Rothman, 42, and his fellow Temple Mount activists could “lead us to another Guardian of the Walls” – referring to the 11-day Gaza conflict in May 2021 – due to his participation in shofar-blowing activities near the Jerusalem holy site.
Unlike some of his fellow party members, Rothman has reached out to the LGBTQ community, recently attending a meeting organized by the group Proud Right-Wing Gays.
Almog Cohen
Former policeman Cohen founded an armed civilian unit in the Negev and styles himself as “the founder of the committee to save the Negev.” He recently appeared to take credit for a violent assault on a Bedouin family that took place nine years ago, posting a photo on Facebook in which he can be seen kneeling on three men who are tied up. Cohen noted in the caption that “those on the ground remember what I did in the army,” adding a winking face emoji.
Almog Cohen during a demonstration outside Be'er Sheva City Hall earlier this year.Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
Haaretz recently reported that Cohen deleted extremist statements he made on social media against the Justice Ministry unit that investigates police misconduct. Most recently, he called the department’s attorneys “the attack dogs of post-Nazism overtaking every corner here.”
Amichai Eliyahu
The scion of a well-known and respected religious-Zionist rabbinical dynasty, Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu is the son of Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and the grandson of the late Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. Unlike many other members of his party, Eliyahu – who is chairman of the Association of Community Rabbis – has endorsed dialogue with non-Orthodox denominations.
Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu (Credit: Yitzhak Kalman)
Eliyahu is a harsh critic of efforts to open public transportation on Shabbat. He tweeted last month that “someone who bought a child on Amazon will not educate us about tolerance and will not impose her values on us” – after Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli, who recently had a baby via surrogacy, inaugurated a new bus route in Haifa.
Limor Son Har Hamelech
A 43-year-old mother of 10 and longtime settlement activist, Har Hamelech was one of the first residents of the northern West Bank settlement of Homesh, which was evacuated and razed to the ground during the 2005 disengagement. A widow whose first husband was killed in a 2003 terror attack in which she was also wounded (she gave birth prematurely several hours later). Har Hamelech is a founder of Homesh Tekhila, which advocates for the resettlement of the Homesh region.
Speaking with the national religious news site Srugim, she recently promised to promote “a return to Homesh and Gaza, and to all parts of our country.”
Zvika Fogel
Fogel is a brigadier general in the IDF reserves and headed its Southern Command prior to his release in the early 2000s. He then spent almost a decade running the Southern Command’s Fire Control Unit. The Interior Ministry appointed him as head of the regional council in the Galilee village of Tuba-Zangariya, a position he quit following a wave of vandalism and violence in 2011. He joined Otzma Yehudit in September.
'A Thousand Palestinian Mothers Will Cry': Far-Right MK Gives Defiant Interview to British TV (Dec 11 2022)
Zvika Fogel from Itamar Ben-Gvir’s extremist party says that Israel is 'too merciful' to the Palestinians, and that such an approach must change.
Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel at the Knesset in November. Credit: Danny Shem-Tov, Knesset Spokesperson’s Office
Far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvika Fogel expressed his desire to scrap the concept of proportionality in an interview with British broadcaster Channel 4, saying that “if it is one Israeli mother crying, or a thousand Palestinian mothers crying, then a thousand Palestinian mothers will cry.”
“Anyone who wants to harm me, I will harm him back. As far as I’m concerned the concept of proportionality should cease to exist,” Fogel hit back to foreign correspondent Secunder Kermani’s question on Palestinians’ own security needs.
Noting that what he was going to say was “unpleasant,” the lawmaker from Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party said: “If it is one Israeli mother crying, or a thousand Palestinian mothers crying, then a thousand Palestinian mothers will cry.”
“We are too merciful. It’s time for us to stop being so,” Fogel added when he was accused of racism.
Although his ultranationalist slate rose to become the third-biggest party in Israel’s parliament in Israel’s November election, Fogel’s low position on the roster means that he is unlikely to receive a ministerial position in the incoming government.
Fogel is a brigadier general in the IDF reserves and headed its Southern Command prior to his release in the early 2000s. He then spent almost a decade running the Southern Command’s Fire Control Unit. The Interior Ministry appointed him as head of the regional council in the Galilee village of Tuba-Zangariya, a position he quit following a wave of vandalism and violence in 2011. He joined Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party in September this year.
The latest killing of a 15-year-old girl by Israeli snipers by its murderous, brutal and cruel occupation army
Message from Defence for Children International in Palestine:
Late Sunday night, Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Jana Majdi Issam Assaf in Jenin. Jana was on her family home's rooftop as Israeli forces conducted arrest operations in her neighborhood, and she sustained three gunshot wounds: two to her chest and one to her head.
You can read the detailed story here.
Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of October and are raiding Palestinian cities and neighborhoods nearly every day. Not a single Israeli soldier has been held accountable for killing these Palestinian children.
Not one!
Farha on Netflix: Organise a screening for family and friends these holidays
Farha is a movie by Jordanian filmmaker Darin Sallam which depicts an Israeli military force murdering a Palestinian family in a village during the 1948 Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”) when over 700,000 Palestinians were driven off their land by Israeli militias. Massacres of Palestinians by the Israeli military were routine over this period and the film focuses on one such incident.
It is based on a story recounted to Sallam's mother by a friend, living as a refugee in Syria, about her experience during the Nakba in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland.
The film has appeared in several film festivals and is Jordan’s entry in the 2023 Oscars. It was released on Netflix on 1 December and is available to watch in New Zealand.
As to be expected, the pro-Israel lobby are furious the truth about the Nakba, which has always been suppressed in Israel, is beginning to get a wider public audience. Media reports here and here discuss the film and the Israeli reaction.
Looking for a last-minute Xmas gift?
How about ordering a copy of this marvellous book by Ramzy Baroud and Ilan Pappe? This is an exceptional book which documents what liberation looks like from multiple Palestinian viewpoints.
A book review by Christchurch-based Lois Griffiths is here
It is presented by outstanding Palestinian author and activist Ramzy Baroud (who toured Aotearoa New Zealand several years back) and renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. It is a not-to-be-missed publication!
We have purchased 50 copies for PSNA supporters and we are selling these at $35 per copy to cover our costs. To get your copy simply deposit $35 in our bank account here:
Account name: PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK
Account number: 38-9015-0849542-00
And then email secretary@PSNA.nz with your address and we will get your copy in the mail! Looking forward to hearing from you!
Palestine Solidarity Conference in Australia
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) invites you to join our 2023 Solidarity Conference!
For three days, we will be holding various workshops centred on the following:
* Palestinian narratives, demands and non-negotiables
* Building skillsets to better organise in AUS and NZ, and
* Planning for an International Day of Action for the 75th Nakba
Pricing:
Online: $20 AUD
In-person: $50 - 150 AUD
Register today to get updates on workshops that will be made available!
APAN Palestine Solidarity Conference, 2023 - building collective resistance
Cost AUS $50 to $150. Register here.
Important stories from the Web
Tribunal rejects anti-semitism accusations against former vicar here
Israel’s Ben Gvir hails here soldier who shot Palestinian youth at point blank range here
How Ben Gvir blows apart security here
Pax Christi’s Statement for International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people here
Dr Alan Kerr the father of pediatric cardiac surgery in Palestine here
Odeh says Palestinian citizens of Israel in terror of incoming government here
Israeli soldiers kill 15-year-old Palestinian girl in Jenin here
Israel set to show UN official proof most slain Palestinian minors have terror links here
After Morocco, Palestinian footballers want to bring the World Cup home here
Promise to make a thousand Palestinian mothers cry here
Palestinians weren’t there at all: Netanyahu spreads racist lies here
Interview with Philip Weiss, founder and editor of Mondoweiss here and click episodes.
Farha is a mild depiction of the Nakba here
Netflix faces backlash over Farha here and Mondoweiss review of Farha here
Reminder: Dates for Palestine Solidarity in 2022
Israel apartheid week has been added to the dates for likely local and national Palestine solidarity activity this year.
28 Mar – 4 Apr Israel Apartheid Week
30 Mar Land Day Palestine
5 Apr Palestinian Childs Day
9 Apr Deir Yassin massacre - Irgun Terrorism - 107-120 Palestinian men, women and children massacred
17 Apr Palestinian Prisoners Day
11 May World Kufiya Day
15 May Nakba Day – marking the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine in 1948
5 Jun Nakba Day - Start of 1967 War - Land Grab – Invasion of Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza, Egypt and Syria - 5 June 1967 – 10 June 1967
20 Jun Attack on Gaza - 6–21 May 2021 (2 weeks and 1 day)
16-18 Sep 40th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres
28 Sep Second Intifada - 28 Sept 2000 – 8 Feb 2005
2 Nov Balfour Declaration
29 Nov United Nations - International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
8 Dec First Intifada - 8 Dec 1987 – 13 Sept 1993
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 PSN Bay of Islands (Email)
Whangarei PSN Whangarei (Facebook)
Auckland PSN 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 PSN Palmerston North (Email)
New Plymouth PSN Taranaki (Facebook)
Wellington PSN Wellington (Email)
Nelson Te Tau Ihu (Nelson) Palestine (Facebook)
Christchurch PSN Christchurch (Facebook)
Dunedin Dunedin for Justice in Palestine (Facebook)
Invercargill PSNA Invercargill (Email)