PSNA Newsletter No 89 - February 14 2023
14 Hui-tanguru 2023
14 February 2023
Newsletter No 89
Kia ora koutou,
The last fortnight has seen a major win for the BDS movement in South Africa through the cancellation of a South African Rugby Union invitation to an Israeli Rugby team to take part in a provincial rugby competition in March (more details further down) and also revelation of soaring Superfund investments in companies complicit in building and maintaining illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
This newsletter gives the background to these two issues and then we ask you to send three emails in support!
Superfund investments in Palestinian oppression soar – PSNA demands government action
PSNA Media Release 12 February 2023:
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta demanding the government direct the New Zealand Superfund to end investments in Israel’s brutal oppression of Palestinians.
“The Superfund must withdraw its investments in the 112 companies identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council as complicit in the building and maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land”, says PSNA National Chair, John Minto.
Two years ago the Superfund had $73 million invested in these companies. Today it is $125 million as broken down here:
“Israel’s apartheid regime is the beneficiary of these Superfund’s irresponsible, human-rights-busting investments”
“New Zealand is shamed by the Superfund’s callous disregard for Palestinians”
Two years ago the Superfund withdrew investments from five Israeli banks who were building and supporting the illegal settlements but ignored the majority of these complicit companies.
We expect the government to act. These reckless investments should be ended by lunchtime tomorrow.
Sports boycott of Israel bites hard
Good news from South Africa last week.
Within a few days of announcing an Israeli rugby team had been invited to take part in South Africa’s Currie Cup provincial rugby competition the invitation was withdrawn under a welter of criticism. A marvellous victory for BDS.
The coalition fighting the invitation in South Africa included activists from the 1970s and 1980s in the fight against South African apartheid as well as BDS South Africa, PACBI and the Palestinian BNC.
South African media contacted PSNA National Chair John Minto to comment because John is also former National Organiser for HART (Halt All Racist Tours) which successfully campaigned to stop rugby contact between New Zealand and apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.
John’s interview with Salaamedia is here.
Israel is a full member of the International Rugby Board and the International Olympic Committee. As we did in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, we need to work on our own rugby union and Olympic Committee to begin pressure to get Israel thrown out of these bodies.
As activists in the SACOS activists used to say “you can’t have normal sport in an abnormal society”. It goes without saying that an apartheid state is as abnormal as it gets…
More details from Africa for Palestine here.
Three important messages you can send now with just a few clicks…
1. Email this letter to the New Zealand Superfund
Matt Whineray
Chief Executive Officer
NZ Super Fund
enquiries@nzsuperfund.co.nz
Kia ora Matt,
New Zealand Superfund investments in companies violating international law
In early 2021 the Superfund had $73 million invested in the 112 companies identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council as in breach of international law through helping build and maintain illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
Today, based on the latest publicly available portfolio on your website, these Superfund investments have now increased to $125 million.
While the Superfund has been increasing its investments in companies in breach of international law and United Nations resolutions, late last year Israel elected its most extreme right-wing government ever which includes a Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who believes the “the way to deal with Palestinians is to beat them up - not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until its unbearable”; a Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who openly admires the anti-Palestinian terrorist Baruch Goldstein who massacred 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahimi mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in 1994 and a Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who believes all Palestinians should be ethnically cleansed from historic Palestine.
You should also be aware the new Israeli regime has announced its top priority is to expand illegal settlements in defiance of international law and United Nations resolution. Successive New Zealand governments have condemned these settlements as a “blatant violation of international law” as in United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 which was sponsored by New Zealand in 2016 under the previous National-led government under John Key’s leadership.
It is clear the Superfund is not actively engaged with this critical issue of international human rights violations and appears to have little regard for the United Nations Human Rights Council or New Zealand government concerns.
I urge you to change direction and immediately withdraw all $125 million invested in the 112 companies in breach of international law.
Please respond without unnecessary delay.
(Your name)
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2. Email this letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hon Nanaia Mahuta
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
n.mahuta@ministers.govt.nz
Kia ora Nanaia,
New Zealand Superfund investments in companies violating international law
In early 2021 the Superfund had $73 million invested in the 112 companies identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council as in breach of international law through helping build and maintain illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
Today, based on the latest publicly available portfolio on their website, these Superfund investments have now increased to $125 million.
You should also be aware the new Israeli regime has announced its top priority is to expand illegal settlements in defiance of international law and United Nations resolution. Successive New Zealand governments have condemned these settlements as a “blatant violation of international law” as in United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 which was sponsored by New Zealand in 2016 under the previous National-led government under John Key’s leadership.
I am asking the government to write directly to the Superfund Guardians to draw their attention to the new Israeli government’s “top priority” and pointing out to them New Zealand’s bi-partisan support for international law and United Nations resolutions.
I look forward to hearing from you.
(Your name)
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3. Email this letter to the South African Rugby Union
Mark Alexander
President
South African Rugby Union
yourview@sarugby.co.za
Kia ora Mr Alexander,
Congratulations but…
I’m pleased to be able to write to you to congratulate you on SARU’s decision to cancel the invitation to an Israeli rugby team to compete in a South African provincial competition next month.
I was astonished SARU issued the invitation in the first place because Israel is a racist apartheid state. I hope you are aware that as well as Palestinian groups such as Al Haq, every major international human rights organisation has now condemned Israel for its apartheid policies against Palestinians. For example UK based Amnesty International, US based Human Rights Watch and the largest and most respected human rights organisation in Israel, B’Tselem have all condemned Israel as an apartheid state.
To put it simply, Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime is denying human rights to Palestinians; surely this sounds familiar to SARU? Wasn’t it another European settler colonial regime which denied civil, political, human and sporting rights to black South Africans, just as Israel denies the same to Palestinians today?
And just as black South Africans asked the world to boycott apartheid South Africa to bring pressure for political change – a successful part of the South African liberation strategy – Palestinians are asking the world to boycott Israel to help bring pressure for equal rights for everyone living in historic Palestine.
Racism has no part in any society or in any sport – either in South Africa or Israel.
I would welcome your assurance SARU will condemn Israel’s refusal to provide equal political rights, and equal sporting rights, to Palestinians and will refuse to have any dealings with Israel till it abandons its apartheid policies.
I look forward to hearing from you.
In solidarity from Aotearoa New Zealand.
(Your name)
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And a very warm thank you to our supporters who regularly take the action we request in each month’s newsletter…
We know these letters and communications have an important impact for Palestine.
So thank you – and before you read on please send the letters above
Also, please consider BCCing Secretary@PSNA.nz so we can track how many emails the Prime Minister receives.
Or forward your email to me after you have sent them.
With each newsletter, the number of emails sent grows.
The more emails we send, the more traction we get.
Nga mihi
Neil (Secretary)
An evening with Amer Zahr
Palestinian Youth Aotearoa has organised an evening with Palestinian comedian Amer Zahr
The details have been confirmed as:
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Tuesday February 28th
Fickling Convention Center
546 Mount Albert Road, Three Kings, Auckland
Tickets are available here
More details will be available on the PYA website
To get you in the mood, watch these:
Early warning: Israel Apartheid Week – 13th to 27th March
Watch for details in your local area of events organised to mark Israel Apartheid Week coming up next month. If you do not have a local group then you can contact secretary@PSNA.nz and have a look at the BDS movement guide to IAW activities around the world.
Israel is an apartheid state as spelt out recently by Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq.
Alongside Palestinian groups, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s largest and most respected human rights group, B’Tselem, have all declared Israeli policies as apartheid.
B’Tselem summed it up neatly with the title of their 2021 report “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”
Alongside Palestinian groups, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s largest and most respected human rights group, B’Tselem, have all declared Israeli policies as apartheid. B’Tselem summed it up neatly with the title of their 2021 report “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”
Message received from Al Shabaka – the Palestine Policy Network
Dear PSNA,
The Al-Shabaka staff and board are pleased to share our new institutional language, including rearticulated vision and mission statements, organizational values, and a theory of change.
Launched in 2010, Al-Shabaka has since operated under its founding mission: to educate and foster public debate on Palestinian human rights and self-determination within the framework of international law. Throughout this time, and among other notable shifts, Palestinians gained new ground in shaping global discourse vis-a-vis Palestine; international human rights organizations at long last heeded the Palestinian call to recognize Israeli apartheid; and Palestinian grassroots organizers forged new ties in global solidarity.
Each of these developments has informed and shaped our work at Al-Shabaka. As years passed and new strides were made, we found ourselves being pushed beyond the bounds of our original mission: International law was no longer vast enough to encompass the framework of our analysis; we sought to be more intentional about centering Palestinians as our primary audience and affirming our accountability to the Palestinian people as a whole; and we grew more focused on envisioning a liberated future.
Our Process
As our strategic cycle came to a close in 2022, the moment felt rife with opportunity to draft new language to better reflect the direction in which our work was already moving. It also presented an opportunity to further consider how we want to continue to evolve. During this process, we solicited vital input from hundreds of policy network members, partners, and supporters through surveys, focus groups, and interviews. We then took this feedback inward, with numerous collective discussions among the staff and board, and an in-person team retreat. This provoked challenging questions about our role as a policy think tank, how we create impact, and how we should prioritize our resources. We asked ourselves:
What does it mean to be a Palestinian policy think tank in service of liberation?
How does being part of an emancipatory struggle inform our priorities and where we commit our time, energy, and finances?
What does success look like in this space, and how may it differ from other policy think tanks?
We returned to these questions time and again. In doing so, we began to craft new language for Al-Shabaka that ultimately led to a profound and energizing reaffirmation of who we are as an institution, and of the change we hope to create and contribute to.
What follows is the culmination of this effort.
Our Vision
We envision the Palestinian people articulating and determining the contours of a liberated future.
We believe that transformative change and liberation are processes that must come from within. Our vision is of a world where Palestinians are at the helm of determining their collective future, relying on language recovered and reclaimed after generations of attempted silencing and erasure. It is a world free from settler colonization, apartheid, and imposed agendas and discourses.
Our Mission
Al-Shabaka convenes a multidisciplinary, global network of Palestinian analysts to produce critical policy analysis and collectively imagine a new policymaking paradigm for Palestine and Palestinians worldwide.
We believe that Al-Shabaka can serve the liberation movement by carving out space for Palestinians to critically examine their histories and conditions, to inform frameworks of solidarity organizing, and to articulate visions for liberation and what follows.
While tangible policy change designed to advance Palestinian liberation remains out of reach, we work to prefigure what liberated policymaking could look like: Palestinian-led, consensus-driven, pluralistic, and radically democratic. By putting these values into practice in our present work, we ready the ground for future actualization as a collective whole. Our policy network of over 200 Palestinian experts, analysts, and practitioners is fundamental to this effort, and it is through the engagement of our members that we can begin to conceive this new policy paradigm.
This work is fundamentally guided by a core set of institutional values - at the forefront of which is decolonization. We understand decolonization as the critical awareness and dismantling of colonial power and primacy, and the reclamation and re-centering of indigenous knowledge, land, and culture. Such a process is an essential step in building a self-determined future.
Looking Forward
We hope that you are as inspired by this new articulation of our work as we are, and we invite you to delve further into our theory of change, institutional values, and key strategies for the forthcoming years by clicking here, or navigating to our site. We look forward to sharing our future work with you and, as always, appreciate your readership and support.
The Al-Shabaka Staff and Board
"Normalizing Israel- Whose Agenda?"
The first MLN webinar for 2023 will take place on 25th February 2023 at 9pm (NZ time)
Apologies the poster for this webinar is not available yet – we will circulate it separately before the event.
These MLN webinars are excellent. The full range of webinars from 2022 can be found at the MLN website here
The latest newsletter from Mazin Qumsiyeh
who describes himself as:
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director Palestine Museum of Natural History Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability Bethlehem University Occupied Palestine
Websites:
Facebook pages
We are gratified to the many who responded to the last message that included our annual report (available here https://www.palestinenature.org/annual-reports/ showing significant progress 2017-2022) and soliciting support ( https://www.palestinenature.org/donations/). With words of encouragement and in some cases with deeds they give us the energy to redouble our efforts.
Here we want to elaborate on the NEED for this expanding oasis of hope.
Since this is a group/team effort, we DO NEED YOU. More funds are needed the cost of the renovation and building (See 3D designs here https://bit.ly/3XVrhFx): mechanical, electrical, elevator, solar panels, wheelchair accessible outdoor ramps, landscaping, cafeteria, gift shop, plus new interactive exhibits in areas like natural history, conservation, ethnology, land of Canaan, olive tree, etc). We are also planning an additional green building. Funds are also needed to create an endowment from which income helps run this unique operation, an oasis of peace, research, education and conservation in the middle of turbulence and conflict.
Email us for details info@palestinenature.org
The 2022 annual report is here https://www.palestinenature.org/annual-reports/PIBS-Annual-Report-2022.pdf
We need you. Any donation amount is welcome https://www.palestinenature.org/donations/ but YOU can still help in other ways so contact us.
Our institute is our community (globally) whose proven success depends on volunteers, staff, donors and supporters. This must continue and increase with your help in 2023. For examples to inspire you:
See this activity https://bit.ly/3Y8D4Qy we just did last Friday for Children with special needs,
Our mobile educational unit (mobile museum), today and tomorrow is in Yatta schools (marginalized targeted communities) inspiring and empowering new generations of Palestinians, and
here is a new research article (one of many) just published in the prestigious journal Diversity: Qumsiyeh, MB and B. Al-Sheikh 2023 "Flora and Conservation Issues in Two Protected Areas in
Palestine: Wadi Al-Zarqa Al-Ulwi and Wadi Qana" Diversity 15, no. 2: 142.
https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020142 part of the Special Issue "Ecology, Conservation and Restoration of Plant Species” available online:
PDF Version: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/15/2/142/pdf
Stay human
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Petition to Close the Israeli Embassy
If you haven’t signed our petition to close the Israeli embassy yet…
Scan and Sign here
Or Click and Sign here
Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open…
Protesting the Israeli Ambassador
The Israeli ambassador Ran Yaakoby is active around the country promoting positive messages about Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians.
We are keen to be there whenever he speaks to protest and call out Israel’s racist apartheid policies.
If you find out any speaking engagements Ran Yaakoby has please let us know by texting 027 4 APARTHEID (0274272784) or email apartheid-israel@psna.nz
Ran Yaakoby - Israels ambassador to Aotearoa New Zealand
Back in the 1980s the New Zealand Anti-Apartheid movement launched a campaign to close the South Africa consulate in Wellington. A critical part of this campaign was to target the South African Consul General with public protest whenever he turned up to promote apartheid. The campaign was successful with the government forcing the closure of the consul-general’s information service (its propaganda wing) In a fit of pique the South African government then closed its consulate entirely – a victory in the campaign to isolate South Africa’s apartheid regime.
In 2023 the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa is launching a similar campaign to close apartheid Israel’s embassy in Wellington. We need our supporters everywhere to help by letting us know whenever Ran Yaakoby is to speak and we will be there to protest. Help to spread the poster above among family, friends and work colleagues.
If you see him on the street give him a piece of your mind.
We will not stand by while the racist Israeli government continues its brutal oppression of Palestinians.
Join the campaign to close the racist Israeli embassy!
Health report from Gaza for 2022
Jewish colonies in Palestine caught Einstein’s eye
Rainy, gloomy weather greeted Albert Einstein on his only trip to the Holy Land 100 years ago, in early February 1923. “Arab villages, Jewish colonies, olive trees, cacti, and orange trees” were the first sights to catch his eye, as he noted in his journal, in German.
The full piece is behind a paywall here
Were Einstein to visit Palestine today he would be astounded at the extent of the illegal Israeli colonies across Palestine and the mass destruction of Palestinian villages by Israel in its ethnic cleansing operations against Palestinians.
Important stories from the Web
American values on show in Jerusalem here
CIA warns tensions resemble second intifada here
US views Smotrich control of West Bank as move towards annexation here
Jews must not side with Palestinians “our mortal enemies” here
Palestinians lend helping hand to quake-hit Turkey and Syria here
Apocalypse in Palestine – the rise of Israeli fanaticism here
New Jersey Palestine solidarity organisations oppose resolution to adopt IHRA definition of anti-semitism here
Israeli settler terror in the occupied West Bank here
Palestinian Authority suspends security co-operation with Israel here
Israeli army kills 5 Palestinians in raid on Aqbat Jabr refugee camp here
JP Morgan warns about investment risk in Israel here
Three quarters of Arabs identify with Palestinian cause here
Israel authorise new illegal settlements despite US opposition here
United Nations Palestine Rights Committee Bureau rejects Israeli retaliation here
Despite fear of war Gaza’s people cheer for occupied West Bank resistance here
Latest Blinken visit offers nothing to Palestinians here
Israeli forces kill Palestinians in Jericho raid here
From South Africa to Israel: the three pillars of apartheid here
Israeli squatters go wild in Israeli-occupied West Bank here
NPR and J-Street refuse to call Neve Yaakov a settlement in occupied East Jerusalem here
Israel helps Ukraine whitewash its Nazis here
Israel promotes iron-fist weapons in London here
Palestinians see no pressure on Israel to change from Blinken’s visit here
Israel’s collective punishment against Palestinian here
Israel/OPT: Palestinian lives in peril as Israel reinforces apartheid here
Op-Ed: Palestinians in Israel have new cause to fear for their future here
Jewish National Fund: A century of land theft, belligerence and erasure here
Explaining Israel’s oppression, cruelty, evil, apartheid and colonisation here
Reminder: Dates for Palestine Solidarity in 2023
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)