Palestinian solidarity protests will continue and grow next weekend

By
John Minto
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46
682

PSNA met online tonight and decided to organise nationwide protests again next Saturday 22 May.

We were very pleased with the 4,000 people who turned out in 10 centres around the country last Saturday – the largest public protests on this issue for many years – and we expect this coming Saturday to be significantly bigger given the escalating attacks on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, across the occupied West Bank, through Israel itself and now in cruel, cowardly attacks on Gaza.

The focus of the protest will again be the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and their failure to offer more than pious words and ineffective platitudes in the face of horrendous war crimes.

The very least the government can do is reinforce its existing bipartisan policy – support for United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

We agree with the sentiments of Professor Robert Patman from Otago University on Television One News tonight when he said the government should act on United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 which was co-sponsored at the UN by the previous National government.

Resolution 2334 provides a framework for a lasting peace which can only come based on justice for Palestinians. Giving this policy real teeth – accountability for Israel – would be the most important step New Zealand could take to move the region forward in a positive direction.

We have written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister today along these lines.

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46 COMMENTS

  3. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125143868/thousands-march-aucklands-queen-st-in-support-of-palestinians

    What happens in NZ matters …

    “Despite our size and location, New Zealand played an important role in the fight against apartheid in South Africa,” Minto said.

    Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” ,,,, I would add ‘and it does not happen by itself ….

    ….Well done John ,,, Keep up the good work ,,, keep on getting the truth out.

    https://youtu.be/HnZSaKYmP2s?t=1560

  4. John Munro along with his follower supporters, including the Palestinians need to stop supporting Hamas, who discriminate against women, and kill people who are homosexuals.

    You will never hear them talking about the atrocious things Hamas does in Gaza because majority of them are anti-Semitic!

    Long live Israel!

    • I personally don’t know John Munro, who is her. Hamas was a democratically elected government. Apparently although you are appalled at the things they have done – Hamas that is, you support the apartheid state which has 65 laws that are against Palestinians living in the apartheid state of Israel.

      If I criticise Israel and the atrocities the government has carried out over the years does that make me anti-semitic, apparently in the eyes of many – but not all – Jews.

      I can think of many Jews who are appalled at what Israel has done, what are they?

    • Anna, please don’t mention Hamas/Islam killing homosexuals as this fact is not only never mentioned by Minto/Bravery or indeed Lois, but the treatment of women as chattles is also the elephant in the islam room that is never mentioned….
      But those pesky Israelies and their democracy!
      And Israel also have a muslim arab party. The neighbouring islamic countries have a jewish party as part of their political landscape..ohh wait!

      • Regarding the murder of homosexuals story, the source was, of course Israeli. We all know how honest they are (https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israeli-military-accused-media-trick-hamas-77698848). Anyway, the story from other sources which seem pretty credible was that the men that were shoved off the building had provided intelligence for Shin Bet. What a sick diversion though. The question should be, ‘How many kids did you kill today Israel?”

        As for the treatment of women, the Palestinians seem to be treated better than those of the Abraham Accords outfits that Israel now fawns over, or even many in NZ for that matter. What are you doing to sort that out apart from bleating? It’s understood that all three activists that you treat with such distain are also active campaigners against gender violence in NZ.

        Israel’s democracy is totally dysfunctional. When do you think they are likely to stop practising with elections every four months or so? Perhaps when they have a more extremist right wing government that a another description will be more appropriate?

        Now for the real killer laugh – Arab Parties! They have even less influence than the Knesset cleaners, as you well know.

    • Is it anti Semitic in your view that Israeli law forbids jewish women to have relations with non jewish males. Both parties face jail terms with the non jewish men serving longer. This is racism plain and simple.

  5. Israels ‘Cowardly attacks’?
    Almost 1500 rockets fired into Israel…at what point does a sovereign country not retaliate?

    • When do oppressed people just quietly wait for death in open prisons and aerial turkey shoots? Don’t forget, Germany was a sovereign country during the holocaust. Would you have defended its actions on the basis of sovereign rights?

      It seems you really don’t think things your arguments through very well at times Im right.

      • Another brainless analogy from aom. ALL the countries fighting Germany were sovereign states and they did NOTHING to stop the Holocaust, indeed, didn’t even acknowledge it was happening, or, when they had aerial access, finally bomb the railheads. Nice of you to inadvertently and accurately compare Hamas to Nazis though, and also imply they started this conflict as Germany did WW2. Don’t think things through very well, do you?

        • It becomes more obvious how History is bent into service by nefarious agencies and is picked up and promoted by ignorant people.
          “they did NOTHING to stop the Holocaust”
          Before even the most scanty and unreliable reports of any Nazi Holocaust activities reached the West, the Allies had been fighting Germany for three or four years. In fact the Holocaust did not enter public discourse until the 50s, after the War.
          I think you owe an apology Gaby. Particularly to New Zealanders who, if memory serves, experienced more casualties per capita than any other nation among those Allies.
          With this statement you are verging on the disgusting.

    • I’m Right ,,,, right like Bolsanaro ,,, Modi ,,,, Trump ,,, and other Israel /Netenyahoo friends . https://youtu.be/ncmLnEKPA1o?list=LL&t=8281

      I’m Right ,,,and Anne ,,,, are being anti-Semitic in pushing the Netenyahoo / Israel speak for, or represents, all Jews. https://youtu.be/ncmLnEKPA1o?list=LL&t=6718

      And both are pushing the Racist, Islamophobic, Lie ,,,, that Palastinians / Hamas kill Homosexuals for the crime of being homosexual ,,,

      In the second link I’ve dropped it into the exact part refuting and putting straight the Israeli ‘Hamas kills gay people’ propaganda … Israels “Pink-washing” and “Libel”
      https://youtu.be/ncmLnEKPA1o?list=LL&t=8371 ,, 2:20.20

      We’ll give Anna the benefit of the doubt ,,,,and presume she’s just ignorant ,,,, with her “Libel” ,,, she should learn some real Zionist history.
      “Nazi-Zionist cooperation medal offered at auction” https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239848
      ‘I’m Right’ on the other hand ,,,, is probably like the right wing politicians listed above .

    • Ryan Dawson talks with Ted Postol, professor emeritus of Science, Technology and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the realities of Palestinian rockets – the capabilities and strategies involved and the effectiveness of Iron Dome.
      Technologyhttps://www.ancreport.com/ted-postol-debunks-the-iron-dome/

  7. Astounding the Hamas controlled Palestinian morals couldn’t be more anti what we believe in New Zealand yet there exists in New Zealand support for their beliefs
    Perhaps instigated by MMP list MPS who have extreme anti Jewish bias?
    Bringing their hatred to New Zealand.
    Don’t need or want their ability to hate.
    We New Zealanders don’t and never will want to murder people who have different sexuali feelings or political beliefs.
    Try being different ,for just as an example in Iran.Chances high you will be killed
    Be different in your beliefs in NZ you most definitely won’t be killed but listened to.
    So really what is this all about.?

    • If one wants to learn about hate, the object lesson is to read the extreme racist propaganda that emanates from Israel! If that is not convincing enough, just read credible reports from non-Israeli news sources.

      It’s bloody priceless going on about list MPs of overseas origin. They offer far more unbiased and informed information than yourself and your dishonest extremist right wing racist Zionist mates at IINZ.

      Instead of your distractions about alleged (unproven) sexual or political beliefs, tell us: HOW MANY CHILDREN DID ISREAL KILL TODAY???

    • Where is the support for Hamas beliefs in Aotearoa? I haven’t seen it.
      I don’t know anyone who has extreme anti Jewish bias in parliament at least.

      Seeing as you dont seem to understand what this is about, it is about a bullying highly militarised country, backed by the U.S. and no other country, further pushing people out of the land that they had.

    • My understanding of “Hamas controlled Palestinian morals” obviously differs from yours John and I am intrigued as to why this should be. May I ask you to give me a reading list of the books and/or websites that inform your opinion please.
      My own opinions have been influenced by (apart from closely following the Palestine situation since the 1967 War when I supported Israel), among others, the well known Catholic Patriarch of Gaza:
      “Father Manuel Musallam, a noted Palestinian priest and head of the World Popular Organization for Jerusalem Justice and Peace, has defended the Hamas Movement against a recent smear campaign targeting it and accusing it of persecuting the Christians in Gaza.

      “I am asking those who claim that Hamas persecutes the Christians in Gaza, ‘Who are you?’” Father Musallam questioned in press remarks to al-Resalah Net.

      “Our destiny is one, our land is one, and we are carrying the same rifle, walking in the same direction and facing the same fate. If Hamas was not a friend who else could be?” the Palestinian priest said.

      He applauded the positions of Hamas and its leadership toward Christians, describing their remarks in this regard as “always clear and supportive towards the Christian spectrum.”

      “We do not doubt for a moment that we are one people and one blood, and that no propaganda by Zionists, fundamentalist Christians or traitorous collaborators can separate us,” the Father said.

      https://english.palinfo.com/45697

      Donald Neff, Time Magazine’s Israel bureau chief also:
      Hamas: A Pale Image of the Jewish Irgun And Lehi Gangs
      https://www.wrmea.org/006-may-june/hamas-a-pale-image-of-the-jewish-irgun-and-lehi-gangs.html

      Hamas leader Khalid Mishal has rarely been heard in the Western press. Here is one occasion when he made it into the Guardian in 2006.
      “Palestinians voted for Hamas because of our refusal to give up their rights. But we are ready to make a just peace” – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/31/comment.israelandthepalestinians
      There is more here:
      https://www.theguardian.com/profile/khalidmishal which I include as most commenters on the evils of Hamas have never heard or read a word any member of that organisation has written or said.

      So show me yours.

  10. And in the meantime, let’s all forget about the rather larger number of civilian deaths in Myanmar, due the the Military there

    • Can’t you, like most HR activists walk and chew gum? This discussion isn’t about Myanmar in case you didn’t notice.

  11. “Western media and politicians are now firmly coalesced around the Israeli government narrative. Israel is unwillingly fighting a war of self-defence in Gaza after hostilities were commenced by aggressive Hamas military attack. The storming of Al Aqsa mosque, the shooting at people in prayer, the right wing mobs attacking East Jerusalem, the Krystallnacht style destruction of Palestinian businesses and lynching of Arab Israelis, none of that ever happened at all. What happened was that Hamas launched a missile war and Israel was obliged, ever so reluctantly, to exercise its right of self defence, with enormous care not to hit civilians, except that, entirely accidentally, the IDF has killed a couple of hundred civilians including scores of children.

    Palestinians die in the passive tense in western media. The media always says they “have died”; they were never “killed”, and there is virtually never any attribution of the death. By contrast, Israelis are active tense “killed by Hamas” or “killed by missile strikes”. Look out for this journalistic sophistry – once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

    I used to be a firm opponent of missile strikes from Gaza. My view was firstly, that they cannot be militarily targeted so constitute an attack on civilians, secondly that they were a gift to Israeli propaganda, and thirdly that they were militarily ineffective. All of those remain true, and yet my view has changed and I find myself celebrating the fact that Hamas has, against all odds, managed to acquire more and better missiles. Part of that change of view is that I have come to see that there is no such thing as an innocent adult coloniser. But the bigger part is that I cannot see what on earth else the Palestinians are supposed to do.”
    – Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/05/what-is-left-for-palestine/

  12. Israel escalates assaults on Palestinians with US backing
    A single bombing in Gaza City overnight Saturday—the deadliest since Monday—killed at least 42 people, including 12 women and eight children, and wounded 50 others, numbers likely to rise as rescuers bring out victims from under the rubble. Another airstrike hit a house in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, killing at least 10 members of an extended family, mostly children, while at least eight people were killed and 45 wounded on Saturday night, mostly civilians, including two doctors.
    The IDF dispersed angry protesters in the West Bank with rubber tipped bullets, stun grenades and tear gas, killing nine. Soldiers killed a further two protesters, allegedly because they were attempting to carry out a terrorist attack, who turned out to be unarmed, making it the deadliest day since the military invasion of the West Bank in April 2002. It brings to 14 the number killed in the West Bank since the start of the week. The army has deployed additional troops to the West Bank, nearly doubling the usual number, including both regular units and reservists to replace the Border Police sent to crush the Palestinian protests within Israel.

    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/17/isra-m17.html

    • The mish-mash of ancient clips is not shocking at all now.

      We are inured after watching Zionist Israeli racist ranting, demonstrations of lack of humanity, extreme violence and wall to wall media coverage of mass killing and destruction, all served with some liberal coatings BS IDF and Israeli Government propaganda.

      Big talk of people trying to maintain some semblance of dignity isn’t the same as US financed Israeli bombardments of unprotected populations of the disposed and illegally subjugated, who are now being subjected to a medieval siege.

      Don’t you feel ashamed of your un-Kiwi lack of humanity Gaby?

    • I really can’t fathom what you hope to achieve by pasting up links to such obvious propaganda junk.
      Even if the Arabic spoken in these vids were not badly translated by MEMRI, an outfit long since exposed as an Israeli psy-op created for that purpose, are you not aware that conflict breeds fanaticism?

      Although these ravings of Rabbi Ovadia Josef are absolutely authentic:
      “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel.”
      “In Israel, death has no dominion over them… With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money.”
      “This is his servant… That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew.”
      “Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat… That is why gentiles were created.”
      “It is forbidden to be merciful to them (Palestinians). You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable”

      ……nobody in their right mind trots these out as evidence of the entirety of Israeli thinking, even though it is far more mainstream in Israel nowadays:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFl4U2NRJTg

      I have no hesitation in condemning fanaticism of any stripe.
      Do you condemn Ovadia Josef and Meir Kahane? You have let accusations of being a Kahanist pass unremarked. Are you in fact a supporter of Kahane?

  14. “All You Nations Sleeping”

    Israel’s slaughter goes on. Marking Eid, the holiest day of the holiest month in the Islamic calender, at least 87 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 18 children; over 530 have been wounded, and hundreds have been left homeless after Israeli missiles targeted 17 homes and the 13-story al-Hanadi apartment building, which also housed business, medical and media offices.

    “Gaza will burn,” vowed right-wing, blood-soaked Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz in an explicit threat to commit war crimes, pledging to exceed the savagery of his 2014 Operation Protective Edge that killed over 2,200 Palestinians, including 550 children…

    Gaza is already a hellscape where “the sounds of children screaming are louder than the missiles.”

    The victims are random, innocent, beloved:
    – Awad Abuselmya, who was his family’s only survivor when Israeli bombs killed his parents and six siblings in 2006;
    – Munther Abd al-Karim Baraka, 21, and his sister Manar Abd al-Karim Baraka, 18, who were working on their family’s chicken farm;
    – Lina Iyad Shrir, 15, and both her parents;
    – Bashar Ahmad Samour, 17, a farmer who was harvesting parsely with two relatives; a family of six, including four children and their pregnant mother; many in their cars, some in their stores, one in a park; –
    – Reema Saad, a 30-year-old journalist, killed in an Israeli airstrike with her 3 year-old daughter, 5 year-old son, and husband Muhammed . She was four months pregnant. She is not a number. None of them are.

    “Here is what I want you to understand,” writes one resident of untenable life in the long-besieged Gaza. “We are bleeding here, anyway. Bleeding silently, all the time. Regardless of this or that war.. Why do I, why do we, have to choose between a quick death during a time of war, or a silent death under blockade?”

    Complicit in the Gazan nightmare, lest we forget, is the U.S. and its almost four billion dollars in military aid…

    “Hold the missiles, drones, bombs, cages, interrogations, detentions, incarceration, deportations, CIA covert missions, economic sanctions, torture, humiliation, forced evictions, land theft, broken promises, lies, empty gestures, hostilities, and most recently the vaccine apartheid.”

    The bottom line: “You don’t need to be Muslim to stand for GAZA. You just need to be HUMAN.”

    The call to an indifferent world is echoed by one small, ferocious Gazan boy:
    “All you nations sleeping through our pain – children are dying.”

    – Abby Zimet, 12/5/21
    All You Nations Sleeping

  15. Shooting Fish in a Barrel

    Nearly two million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip… It is one of the more densely populated places on earth.

    Some 50% of the population consists of children. One in 10 children there are stunted, in part because of food insecurity imposed by the Israeli blockade.

    Over 70 percent of the families in Gaza are refugees, having been ethnically cleansed from southern Israel.

    Gaza is not an independent state. Its people are stateless and at the mercy of the Israeli military.

    1.46 million registered refugees out of 1.9 million total population (approximately 73 per cent)

    The Israeli Air Force destroyed the Gaza airport and port. Israel is considered in international law the Occupying power in Gaza, but often takes steps inconsistent with its responsibilities in this regard. At one point in the zeros the Israeli military made a plan to only allow enough food into Gaza to keep the population from becoming malnourished, but nothing more.

    The unemployment rate in Gaza is 50%, the highest in the world. Half the population depends on food aid. The aquifer is polluted and increasingly salty from rising seas owing to climate change, so truly clean water is available to only about 5 percent of the population. Israel has several water purification plants. The Palestinians of Gaza do not.

    There is no equivalence between Israel and Gaza. Israel has the best-equipped military in the Middle East and has several hundred nuclear bombs, Its gross domestic product (nominal) per capita is on the order of $42,000 per year.

    The nominal GDP per capita in Palestine is $3000, and those who live in Gaza earn less yet.
    —–
    Excerpts from Juan Cole, 14/5/21 Shooting Fish in a Barrel

  17. And the Egyptian blockade, thats not hurting them in Gaza, just the Israeli blockade?
    Wondering why Minto/Bravery and Lois havent penned a post condemning Egypt?…is it because Egypt is not jewish and thus not worth mentioning, or their blockade has been lifted?

    • “Wondering why Minto/Bravery and Lois havent penned a post condemning Egypt?…is it because Egypt is not jewish”
      Most likely it is because they, like most people with a modicum of sense know full well that Egypt’s rulers are propped up by U.S. Aid which is conditional of their support for Israel’s policies.

      • Ahhh Brewer ‘know full well that Egypt’s rulers are propped up by U.S. Aid which is conditional of their support for Israel’s policies.’
        But according to you all that is what Israel is backed by US….so, back to the question, why no posts condeming Egypts blockade?

        • If I could comprehend what it is you are trying to say I would attempt a more specific reply but frankly I cannot so I’ll simply elaborate.
          The Egyptians are ruled by strongman el-Sisi, installed and supported by the U.S. Neocons AKA the Israel lobby. Popular leader Morsi was removed (and probably killed) in the 2013 coup d’etat because he supported Palestinians. According to Pew Research more than half the Egyptians support Hamas.
          Naturally I condemn el-Sisi but not the Egyptian people.

  18. Brewer,
    Thanks for the rather long comment.
    My knowledge comes from many years spent in the Middle East including Israel and Gaza.
    So don’t need a third party to inform me.
    I’ve formed my own opinion based on real life experience.
    But anyway as always I respect your right to a view.

    • Appreciate your reply. The other pro-Israel posters do not answer direct questions. I’d love to sit down over coffee with you and hear about your experiences there and compare notes.
      I was an avid supporter of Israel until a debater presented some facts about the Historical context of this conflict that inspired my interest (I am trained in Historical method). That was about twenty years ago and what I then learned and have continued to learn gave me a whole new perspective. I can easily understand how someone can spend time up close yet not see the whole picture just as many perfectly good Kiwis can have lived their whole lives in this country yet not understood the grievances of the indigenous people of Aotearoa. I had to marry into Maoridom to begin to understand the subtleties.
      Another big influence was when my dearest friend in life, a hugely intelligent man (IQ180) – former high ranking U.S. Naval Officer, embraced Islam and explained his reasons. From that I learned that my understanding of Islam was deficient – mostly influenced by the popular press. That is why I bit down on your comment regarding “Hamas morals” incidentally.
      So lets continue this dialogue. There may be stuff we can learn from each other.

    • How long did you spend in Gaza John? Can you inform us what it was like being treated the same as your Palestinian neighbours? How hard was it to source food and medical treatment? Was it difficult to watch kids being fried with IDF ordinance or watching them hugging the bodies of their dead parents?

      Seriously, since in your opinion we are being fed bullshit by the world press and Hamas, your superior first hand experience should be very informative.

  19. America only just gifted another $735m to Israel for specialised weapons to kill more Palestinians, on top of the $3.8b IDF Military Hardware!
    The death toll is disproportionate! This is perpetuated by the billions of dollars given to the Israeli death merchants known as the IDF.

    American should assist the Palestinians with an equal amount of funding to make this a fair fight at least! Or, not fund Israel at all.

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