PSNA Newsletter No 96 - May 23 2023
23 Haratua 2023
23 May 2023
Newsletter No 96
Kia ora koutou,
Nasser Mashni tour of Aotearoa New Zealand
We are looking forward to Nasser’s tour taking place next week!
Nasser is the current President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, having served for the past 6 years as a committee member, Treasurer and Vice President.
Nasser is the son of a Palestinian refugee, resettled in Australia. He is a co-founder of Australians For Palestine and a founding board member of Olive Kids – The Australian Foundation for Palestinian Children.
Nasser has been a guest on various government and commercial TV and radio networks and written for a number of news outlets. He produces a weekly radio show and podcast called Palestine Remembered that is broadcast on Australia’s Community Network stations.
With his father’s legacy in mind, Nasser is determined to continue the struggle for justice and a free Palestine.
Public Meetings for Nasser Mashni tour:
Monday May 29 Dunedin:
6.30pm, Dunedin Community House, Alex McMillan Room, 301 Moray Place, Dunedin. Facebook Event here https://www.facebook.com/events/905322327207242/
Tuesday May 30 Christchurch: (two meetings)
University of Canterbury
12.00noon, 90 Ilam Road
Bentley's - Haere-roa, 2nd floor
Hosted by Muslim student group
Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/702373791653303
Central City Christchurch
7pm, Transitional Cathedral
234 Hereford Street, Christchurch
Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1678080992646518
Wednesday May 31 Wellington: (two meetings)
Victoria University
12.15pm, Student Union Building (SU217)
Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1207559446619408
Central City Wellington
7pm St Andrews on the Terrace
30 The Terrace, Wellington
Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/212524114886936
Thursday June 1 Hamilton
5.30pm, Go Eco, 188 Commerce Street, Hamilton
Event here: https://fb.me/e/Z8JCi17j
Friday June 2 Auckland
6.30pm, Mt Albert War Memorial Hall
Councillors Drive, Mt Albert, Auckland
Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1136680291057690/
Two things you can do now with just a few clicks…
Help to publicise the public meeting for Nasser in your centre (or the closest one to where you live!) Go to the link above for the meeting and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media accounts.
Email 10 friends/family and send them the link to the local meeting and encourage them to come!
Poster for Nasser’s first meeting in Dunedin
Nakba pictures from around the country
Nakba Day events took place around the country on Saturday 13th May and Monday 15th May. Here are a few pictures which caught our eye.
Auckland
Auckland
Auckland – former Auckland mayor Dove Myer Robinson raises the flag!
Hawkes Bay cavalcade gets ready to go
Hawks Bay
And in the most unlikely places… (Hawkes Bay again)
Hawkes Bay Thank you!
Wellington – the full story with video is here.
Our first direct appeal for donations - $10,000 target
Thanks so much to everyone who made a donation towards this appeal in the last newsletter – it was very gratifying to receive the donations which often had words of thanks and encouragement. Thank You. We have over $4000 now towards this target – if you haven’t made a donation yet please do so if you can – details below.
The easiest way to donate is to transfer your donation into our account and then email secretary@PSNA.nz for a receipt.
Our account name is: PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK
Our account number is: 38-9015-0849542-00
Thank you for considering this appeal. We look forward to hearing from you.
A thank you from Palestine
This is PUMA – new website reveals the true face of PUMA
(send them a message - see below)
PUMA’s AGM is May 24th - SEND THEM A MESSAGE
BDS Australia joins the international #BoycottPuma campaign now in the week before Puma’s 2023 AGM to increase our pressure on Puma to end its complicity with Israeli apartheid and end all sponsorship of Israeli football teams on occupied Palestinian lands. Click here
Palestinian Christians: Online launch of document on ongoing forcible displacement and dispossession of Palestinian Christians
(Thursday 25th May, 9am New Zealand time)
9am 25 May New Zealand time - to join the event, please register here.
The minister tweets again…
Deputy leader of the Australian Greens – Senator Meheen Faruqi delivers great speech in Australian parliament
The link to Mehreen Faruqi’s speech is here
Watch out for this man promoting racism and apartheid
Here he is – the Israeli ambassador – watch out for him around Aotearoa New Zealand – if you hear of any planned appearances or speaking engagements please contact us urgently: Email apartheid-Israel@PSNA.nz or text 027 4 APARTHEID or 027427278.
Israeli ambassador Ran Yaakoby
“The Palestine Laboratory” – important new book by Antony Loewenstein
This important new book by Australian writer Antony Loewenstein is coming out next month and we hope to have Antony over here promoting his book in the next couple of months. In the meantime here are three internationally-renowned endorsements for the book.
‘This is a must-read on a hidden and shocking aspect of the Israeli colonisation of the Palestinians. This book shows clearly that this kind of export is now Israel’s most significant contribution to the global violation of human rights.’
Ilan Pappe, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and Ten Myths About Israel
‘A triumph of investigative journalism. It exposes the ruthlessness with which Israel exploits the experience gained from the illegal occupation to export all kinds of military hardware as well as the technology of surveillance, espionage, cyber warfare, phone-hacking, and house demolition. It also shines a torch on the dark side of Israel’s support for despots around the world. Altogether, a profoundly depressing audit on a country that used to boast of being “a light unto the nations”.’
Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab world
‘A sad and sordid record of how “the light unto the nations” became the purveyor of the means of violence and brutal repression from Guatemala to Myanmar and wherever else the opportunity arose.’
Noam Chomsky
More details of the book can be read here and all reviews so far can be found here.
And here is the link to an excellent article in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month by Antony Loewenstein – https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-may-13-edition-20230405-p5cygt.html
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….
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
Important stories from the Web
General:
In State Repression and Its Justification, India and Israel Have Much in Common here
Petition calling for New Zealand to recognize Palestine as a state delivered to parliament here
Nakba:
The Nakba at 75: Palestinians struggle to get recognition for their catastrophe here
The people of “the camp” here
75 years of Palestinian statelessness but also persistence here
Palestine History doesn’t start with the Nakba here
Nakba denial is at the heart of pro-Israel lobbying here
The Palestinian catastrophe Al Nakba and Australia’s responsibility here
The Nakba began 75 years ago and is ongoing: It’s time to end it here
The Nakba was not an event here
End the ‘Memoricide’: Planting for Nakba Day here
The violence in colonisation of Palestine and Aotearoa here
Nakba at 75: Israel’s state-building project is unravelling – from within here
US:
Kevin McCarthy blocks Nakba event from happening in capitol – says he will honour Israel instead here
Jewish leaders object to Michigan School talks by Palestinian activist here
Israel and US officials push to have Nakba events stopped here
Historic bill would stop New York from subsidizing illegal Israeli settlements here
Israel:
Liberal Israeli icon calls to raze Gaza neighbourhoods here
Israel treats Palestinian territories like colonies says UN rapporteur here
On anniversary of Shireen Abu Akleh’s death new report details Israel’s history of killing reporters with impunity here
US release security coordinator report on Shireen Abu Akleh murder and acknowledge FBI investigation here
Far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir says Israel in charge on visit to Jerusalem holy site here
Israel’s real crisis of democracy is that it’s not a democracy here
Jerusalem: Palestinians assaulted as Israeli ministers join divisive 'flag march' here
Israeli Video Calls for Jewish Racial-Blood Purity, Expelling Palestinians “by Force” here
The annual flag march is a sign of Israeli weakness and colonial insecurity here
US press distorts or ignores violent Jewish supremacist flag march in Jerusalem here
Palestine:
Mistahi: Great song celebrating the Palestinian resistance here
Gaza: Israel's killing of Palestinian children leaves classmates in shock here
To assassinate resistance leaders Israel kills entire families in Gaza here
Names and faces of 13 Palestinians killed in Gaza here
Palestinian flag march tells occupation Gaza will not be defeated here
West Bank shocking restrictions imposed on foreign entry here
A just and democratic society that benefits all: that’s what Palestinians are fighting for here
Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing made clear that Israel’s war on Palestinian journalists is part of its war on Palestine 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)