Nationwide rallies and marches will take place across the country this Saturday, 15 May as New Zealanders express their outrage at Israel brutality and their support for the Palestinian struggle for human rights.
The protest venues can be seen here
These protests mark Nakba Day (Arabic for “catastrophe”) which remembers the mass ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and land by Israeli militias in 1948.
We will be demanding the government speak out and condemn Israel’s racist, apartheid policies towards Palestinians and its rampant brutality against any Palestinian resistance.
So far Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has refused to apportion blame – preferring to tiptoe meekly around the issue – unlike her criticism of China or Myanmar. She is effectively excusing the racist policies and brutality of the highly militarised state of Israel which has the second largest army in the world per capita, against a largely defenceless indigenous population who all live under Israeli occupation and/or control.
We will also be demanding the government implement existing New Zealand policy and insist Israel follow international law and United Nations Resolutions. For example, the government must:
· Demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land (UN Security Council resolution 242)
· Demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli militias (UN General Assembly resolution 194 – reaffirmed every year since 1949)
· Demand the repeal of more than 65 laws discriminating against Palestinian citizens in Israel (illegal under the crime of Apartheid as defined by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court)
· Demand Israel stop building Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land (UN Security Council resolution 2334 which was co-sponsored by New Zealand under John Key’s National government) These settlements are illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The government must back up these demands with sanctions (eg close the Israeli Embassy) till Israel abides by international law and UN resolutions and ends its denial of Palestinian human rights.
Despite our size and location, New Zealand played an important role in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. We can play a similar role in the fight against the apartheid policies of the Israeli regime.
Resurrecting the Nabka – Again
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Israel’s genocidal Nakba against defenseless Palestinian civilians was one of history great crimes.
It’s been resurrected time and again by Israeli regimes in varying levels of intensity.
The latest version since mid-April is ongoing in Occupied East Jerusalem, against besieged Gazans, and sporadically throughout the Territories — extremist settlers involved.
According to Yesh Din volunteers for human rights, “(i)ncidents of violence by Israeli civilians against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence throughout the West Bank” and East Jerusalem.
The practice is widespread, encouraged and supported by Israeli ruling authorities.
Ideologically driven, “violence, damage to property, takeover of Palestinian land, and other offenses” occur regularly — nearly always with impunity.
Investigations when conducted whitewash crimes.
Since the Netanyahu regime escalated state terror against Palestinians in Occupied East Jerusalem last month, settler violence against Palestinians increased. https://stephenlendman.org/2021/05/resurrecting-the-nakba-again/
Along with the rest of us, the Government will issue a prolonged yawn.
Thanks Gaby! 🙂 You give us some light relief from a deadly serious issue 🙂 Your posts are always welcome. Keep them coming.
Dont forget to bring some old shoes too! Send a message.
Why? There will already be a bunch of old boots there.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that Palestinian civilians are “suffering as a result” of Hamas “terrorists” who this week launched a barrage of rockets from Gaza into Israel, prompting Israel Defense Force retaliation.
Andrew
What started the conflict and what must the Palestinians do. Walk off into the sea.
100+ Groups Condemn Israeli Violence in East Jerusalem and Gaza
The groups’ statement says the current conflagration is part of a “broader context of Israel’s ongoing policy to forcibly remove Palestinians from their homes through eviction, home demolition, and displacement.”
by
Brett Wilkins, staff writer
“Israeli state violence is, of course, not limited to Jerusalem. We are horrified by Israel’s use of disproportionate and deadly force against Palestinians in Gaza which have already resulted in the killings of dozens of Palestinians, including children.”
—100+ groups’ statement
The groups—which include peace, faith-based, labor, racial justice, and other organizations—wrote that they “stand in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem currently at risk of losing their homes and call on the Biden administration to immediately and publicly condemn the Israeli government’s plans to forcibly displace 1,550 Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah and Al-Bustan neighborhoods,” while urging the U.S. administration to “exert the utmost diplomatic pressure to prevent these potential war crimes from taking place.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/14/100-groups-condemn-israeli-violence-east-jerusalem-and-gaza
For those with twitter accounts you can get current opinions and developments:
#Gazaundersiege and #Gazaunderattack
Big ups to the Jewish woman who at the rally in Wellington(?) showed courage by standing up and saying “Not in my name!”
No doubt she knew she is likely to be plagued by extreme racist half-arsed kiwi Zionists as being a ‘self-hating Jew’. Even that didn’t stop her taking a moral stand.
On the other hand, the smug cheerleader of death, David Cumin, was interviewed by Simon Mercep. Asked about events that could accelerate a Middle East conflagration, he had to curb his sniggering to give one of his usual shallow, mindless responses in defence of war crimes.
Regardless of the history as to who are the indigenous people the issue is beyond serious.
Rockets of magnitude by Hamas does nothing but
antagonise the Israelis who have sophisticated weaponery.
The UN are a bunch of self appointed highly paid professional career bureaucrats who achieve nothing.
Is a broker required yes,who I don’t know.
New Zealanders braying in the streets in defence of the Palestinians is understandable because that is the current trend in New Zealand.
No thought no research let’s have a protest.
Makes us feel good.
Sanctimonious I am my brothers keeper.
Gosh.
.
Priceless! In your opinion, it is not OK for the racist Zionist state of Israel to be antagonised but fine for them to continue the steady displacement and quiet genocide on those who, under international law, have ownership rights to the land.
Talk about sanctimonious – you really take the cake with your abusive diatribe.
This time the world is watching and it isn’t great for Israel. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/16/joe-biden-feels-political-ground-shift-as-israel-gaza-conflict-rages-on)
John
You really need to do a bit more reading from both sides and the history of the conflict over many decades.
We came out in 1981 to protest strongly when the NZRFU and Muldoon backed by his ” robs mob red squad ” allowed a sports team from the racist regime in South Africa to play bloody rugby here and we came out against French nuclear testing and the yanks sending their warships here but not telling us if they were nuclear armed ( will not confirm or deny ) bullshit that contravened our no nukes no dock decision.
The Palestinian people are imprisoned in their own land with the invader subjecting them to the worst atrocities and yet we ( and the world ) do nothing.
It is a violation against a proud race of people who have been subjected to what the Jews suffered in the holocaust.
Comments are closed.