PSNA Newsletter No 92 - March 28 2023
28 Poutū-te-rangi 2023
28 March 2023
Newsletter No 92
Kia ora koutou,
While the media continues to focus on demonstrations in Israel against the new far right government’s plans to weaken the courts, the racist, apartheid regime continues its rampage against Palestinians. Finance Minister, best described as a fascist as well as a racist, has said Palestinians don’t exist; demolition of Palestinian property has doubled and Jewish radicals, emboldened by their racist leadership have attacked Jerusalem’s Church of Gethsemane during Sunday’s worship.
On the positive side our government has become more vocal in pointing out Israel’s breaches of international law and an opinion piece on Mondoweiss suggests the Israeli protests have opened a crack in apartheid and our job is to widen it.
75th anniversary of the Nakba
International Day of action – Saturday 13 May
Saturday 13 May is the international day of action marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) which marks the ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their land and homes by Israeli militias in 1948. The Nakba continues today with ethnic cleansing, house demolitions and land theft across Palestine.
Marches and demonstrations will be held across the world and here in Aotearoa New Zealand, because we are close to the international dateline, we will be the first country to be taking action.
Mark this day in your calendar now – details of protest activity around the country will be in the next newsletters leading up to Saturday 13 May.
New Animated Film Explainer on Israeli Apartheid
For more than seven decades, Israel has maintained a regime of institutionalized racial discrimination and domination over the Palestinian people as a whole. Al-Haq's new animated film titled, 'Israel's Settler Colonial Apartheid Regime: Segregating the Palestinian People,' explains the origins and evolution of Israeli apartheid.
The film accompanies a landmark Palestinian coalition report: 'Israeli Apartheid: Tool of Zionist Settler Colonialism,' which was launched by Al-Haq in November 2022.
Aotearoa New Zealand government speaks out
It’s good to see the Aotearoa New Zealand government speaking out more frequently and clearly on Palestine. Israel’s new far-right apartheid regime of racists and fascists has reinstituted settlements Israel withdrew from in 2005. This is another outrageous provocation to Palestinians and the international community. More details are here
An important thank you message to the minister now with just a few clicks…
Hon Nanaia Mahuta
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
n.mahuta@ministers.govt.nz
Kia ora Ms Mahuta,
Thank You
I was very pleased to see you send a clear message of concern to the Israeli government regarding their reinstatement of settlements they disengaged from in 2005. As you pointed out this will encourage Israeli settlers to expand further illegal settlement building on Palestinian land.
I urge you to keep speaking out like this because Palestinians suffer under a vicious apartheid regime which is backed up with a brutal military occupation.
You are the biggest voice Aotearoa New Zealand has to speak out on our behalf. Please keep using it on behalf of the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination.
<your name>
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Nga mihi
Neil (Secretary)
Is your property an “apartheid free zone”?
These are popping up on letterboxes and fences all over the country – to get your “Apartheid free zone” coreflute to stick on your letterbox or your front fence just deposit $5 in:
Account Name: Palestine Solidarity Network
Account Number: 38 9015 0849542 00
and send an email to secretary@PSNA.nz with your address and we’ll send you one - or as many as you’d like for your neighbours and friends….
Normalisation with Israel – whose agenda?
This excellent webinar was held on 11 March – You can watch it online here
Israel Apartheid Week
Thanks to everyone who shared our posters on social media – we had excellent positive responses from around the country – even from South Africa where our posters were adapted for use in their Israeli Apartheid Week activities! Feel free to keep sharing them. The Desmond Tutu one is below. If you can’t find them all go to this link to our previous newsletter.
The pro-Israel lobby goes nastier than usual at Auckland University
Earlier this month a well-paid, pro-Israel propagandist Yoseph Haddad turned up at Auckland University to try to do a hatchet job on Students for Justice in Palestine.
Firstly, Haddad posted on twitter to say he had met with “senior officials” at our largest universities and “we agreed on a number of steps that will allow for a counter-stage for the Israeli side”.
A few days later Haddad posted a video on Youtube with an “interview” with a member of Students for Justice in Palestine and a PSNA national committee member in the hope of disrupting and undermining the campaign for Palestinian human rights and criticism of Israel.
Instead of an “interview” it amounted to a 19-minute tirade with finger-pointing, table-slapping and general bully-boy behaviour. True to form for the pro-Israel lobby, Haddad did not reveal he was recording and filming the conversation. The microphone was hidden behind his lapel and the video recording was done unobtrusively from a distance by Perry Trotter – a co-founder of the Israel Institute. The well-known anti-Palestinian racist and Auckland University lecturer, Dr David Cumin, tweeted in support of Haddad. No surprises there.
It was a crude attempt to harass, entrap and encourage abuse against students standing up for Palestinian human rights.
Mr Haddad is a highly-paid pro-Israeli propagandist who has the sole objective of undermining and discouraging criticism of Israel.
It turns out Haddad had not met with “senior officials” at Auckland University and had received no assurances or made any agreement with the University as he claimed.
Students for Justice in Palestine put out an excellent statement in response to Haddad.
Auckland University has since provided support for the students abused by Haddad and Haddad’s photo has been passed to the university security staff so action can be taken if he turns up again.
In addition, Auckland University discussed Haddad's abusive behaviour with the Auckland Police.
Israelis Know That True Democracy Will Spell the End of Zionism
(We sometimes reprint entire articles because they are important and are often behind a paywall so can’t be read from a link by most supporters. Here is one from Israeli columnist Gideon Levy writing in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper last week)
The greatest threat facing Israel is the democratic threat. There is no greater danger to the regime in Israel than its turning into a democracy. There is no society that opposes democracy like Israeli society. There are plenty of regimes opposed to democracy, but not a free society. In Israel the people, the sovereign, is opposed to democracy. This is why the current struggle, which presumes to be about democracy, is a masquerade. It is designed to maintain the pretence of democracy.
To most Israelis, real democracy is tantamount to “the destruction of Israel.” They’re right. True democracy will bring an end to the Jewish supremacism they call Zionism, and an end to the state they call Jewish and democratic. Therefore the threat of democracy is the existential threat, against which all Jewish Israelis unite: Should democracy be instituted for all the state’s residents, it will bring an end to the pretend democracy.
Therefore, the leaders of the protest make sure to steer clear of any true contact with democracy, lest the entire thing collapse like a house of cards. It is not due to racism or hatred of Arabs that they don’t want Palestinian flags or protesters – they are good people, after all – but only due to the understanding that raising the question of apartheid will render their struggle ludicrous.
The mere mention of the idea of one democratic state, in which one person equals one vote and all are equal, evokes an instantaneous and hostile reaction among liberal and conservative Israelis alike: “What does that have to do with anything?” followed by “It’s never worked anywhere,” ending with “destruction of Israel.” No less. There is no other country whose citizens view becoming a democracy as tantamount to destruction. There is no other fight for democracy that utterly ignores the state’s tyranny in its own backyard.
As I write these words, early Wednesday morning, the protesters’ shouts in front of the Eretz Israel Museum thunder in the background, “Democracy, democracy.” As legendary left-wing leader Moshe Sneh once famously put it, in notes for his own speech: “Raise your voice here, as the argument is weak.” Raise your voices, comrades. Even if all your demands – as justified as any – are fully met, Israel will not become a democracy.
When democracy is shouted with pathos by hoarse throats, while a half hour drive away from the demonstration soldiers snatch civilians from their beds night after night with no judicial warrant; a town is under curfew because it fell victim to a pogrom; a thousand people are in prison without trial and rock-throwing teens are shot to death as a matter of course, the hypocrisy is impossible to stomach.
The most terrible articles of Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s plan are glorious monuments to democracy compared to the occupation regime. Even if the Likud Central Committee were to choose all the Supreme Court Justices, one for each Likud voting district, that new court would be a beacon of world justice compared to the military tribunals. And how can you ignore the military tribunals, when fighting for Israel’s justice system? Are they not part of the justice system? Are they outsourcing? A foreign legion? Are they not where many of Israel’s judges take their first steps? Or shall we repeat the lies about an emergency situation and temporary state of things?
Keep protesting vigorously, do all you can to topple this bad government, but don’t utter the name of democracy in vain. You aren’t fighting for democracy. You’re fighting for a better government in your view. That’s important, it’s legitimate and it’s impressive. But had you been democrats, you would fight for a democratic state, which Israel isn’t – and which you aren’t.
You’re fighting against a horrible government, which must be fought because it is destroying the fabric of society with terrifying speed. It is demolishing our good lives, our flourishing economy, science, culture, the justice system and also the most sophisticated military in the world. Shame, shame, shame. It must be fought; and when you have time, fight for democracy.
Thanks and appreciation to PSNA
Out of the blue this week came this note of thanks and appreciation from acknowledgement from Essam Youssef, President Director of Miles of Smiles – the humanitarian aid organisation for Gaza. Kia Ora Gaza has had a partnership/collaboration with MoS since the 2012 international land convoy to Gaza, including co-sponsorship of an ambulance on the November 2021 solidarity convoy of 37 new ambulances to Gaza, and the $NZ10,000 donation by Kiwis for the recent MoS/Medics Worldwide medical aid convoy to Gaza - all missions generously supported by PSNA and PHRC members.
Zionism During the Holocaust
Don’t forget to be on the lookout for this man…
Israeli Ambassador Ran Yaakoby
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 about any speaking engagements Ran Yaakoby has please let us know by texting 027 4 APARTHEID (0274272784) or email apartheid-israel@psna.nz
Background
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.
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
Israel’s nuclear Inventory
Fact Sheet: Israel’s Nuclear Inventory here
Important stories from the Web
General reading
Nidal Khazem: profile of a slain resistance fighter here
Israel’s liberals need to support Palestinian rights if they care about democracy here
What the Saudi-Iran deal means for Palestine, Israel, the U.S., and the Mideast here
Why is the EU suddenly worried about Israeli democracy? Here
The Israeli protests have opened a crack in apartheid. Our job is to widen it here
Protests assist Israeli state propaganda here
‘Til Kingdom Come unpacks the power and politics of Christian Zionism here
The danger of treating Smotrich as an anomaly here
Hezbollah, Hamas seek to exploit Israel's internal weakness to attack here
Movie: The wrong sort of Jew here
Israel is not, cannot be democratic based on Jewish superiority here
Before Zionism: The shared life of Jews and Palestinians here
United States
Gallup poll: support for Palestinians continues to grow among Democratic voters here
State Department human rights report whitewashes Shireen Abu Akleh killing here
Pro-Israel Lobby Doesn’t Deserve Exemption From Criticism of Money in Politics here
Israel’s brutality
In Paris speech, Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims Palestinians don’t exist here
Far-right Minister Smotrich: There’s No Such Thing as the Palestinians here
Demolition of Palestinian property doubles here
In Paris speech, Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims Palestinians don’t exist here
Enforcing Apartheid in the West Bank here
Israeli Forces Shot Directly at Sheltering Civilians During Deadly West Bank Raid, Report Says here
Jewish radicals attack Jerusalem’s Church of Gethsemane during Sunday’s worship here
Rachel Corrie – 20 years on
20 years later Rachel Corrie lives 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)
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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)