It hasn’t taken long for our security services to revert to type and shift their focus from white supremacists back to identifying security threats from progressive organisations challenging human rights abuses by US allies.
This time Aotearoa New Zealand’s Combined Threat Assessment Group (CTAG) in consultation with police, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the National Assessments Bureau (NAB) have identified “pro-Palestinian” protestors as part of the Covid 19-related occupation at parliament earlier this year.
The security assessments have been obtained by Newshub through the Official Information Act and looked at how “politically-motivated violent extremists” (PMVEs) could react as a result of the protest clearance at parliament.
This “five eyes” assessment has a long, narrow gaze which is seeing potential PMVEs in the Palestine solidarity movement.
It’s a nasty, repugnant smear.
There was a Palestinian flag being held at one point during the occupation but the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has no idea who that person was. We tried to identify them from the livestream but couldn’t – if we had we would have told them to put the flag away. For all we know it could have been a deliberate plant.
What we do know is there was an Israeli flag carried at the protest during the clearance of the occupation but somehow it escaped the attention of the myopic racists in our security services.
There is no mention in their report of the pro-Israel lobby being part of the Wellington protest. The SIS and Police don’t make any association of potential PMVEs from supporters of Israel’s racist, apartheid regime. It doesn’t fit their blinkered narrative – their essentially US-driven, racist view of the world.
Much easier to pick on the Palestinian victims of racism and apartheid – just as former governments here and in the US were happy to label the national liberation struggle in South Africa as “communist” and “terrorist” when all it wanted was basic human rights.
To rub buckets of salt in the wound, six Palestinians were amongst the 51 murdered worshippers in the mosque attacks in Christchurch and our security services were clueless. They failed to protect the Muslim community and the Palestinians who are part of the Muslim community. They were looking the other way.
And now here they are making repulsive smears – guilt by association – against Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists in their assessment of the Wellington occupation.
Dishonest, deceitful and misleading.
By all accounts our security services have regular meetings and a cosy relationship with the pro-Israel lobby. Nothing surprising there and no wonder they never gave a second thought to that Israeli flag.
The Israeli flag has become a symbol of racism and oppression across the world while the Palestinian flag is a symbol of hope and freedom.
I know which flag I stand with – our security services stand with the other one.
Abhorrent double standards are not even the worst of it – the clearly deep-seated Islamophobia of both our security services and this Labour government demand immediate and REAL action, not more token placations and hijab-donning – especially when the reality is that many Muslim women in NZ do not wear a hijab for fear of verbal and physical assault.
Yes, kindness is not extended to Palestinians that’s for sure. In Northland the Whangārei Labour MP Emily Henderson accepted a petition last year from a delegation and a march for Palestinian rights, Roger Fowler was there and other long time supporters, but I suspect she got reprimanded for it as she has been quiet ever since.
At least you have put this out in public John. Fighting back against Israeli apartheid state oppression is not extremism, nor is international solidarity support for Palestinians in NZ.
The Wellington occupation was chock full of contradictory symbolism and rhetoric–i.e. middle aged Pākehā women carrying 1814 United Tribes flags!–what the?
So who knows what to read into the various flags and signs, except having been a political activist since the 70s I know what should be read into the state security forces bollocks. SIS, cops and others have had a deep presence in virtually any protest activity or solidarity movement for decades so it is quite credible that the Palestine flag holder was a plant.
David Cumin and his cronies are good at pushing one narrative. They seize on anything, of course they are not going to say anything about the Israeli flag also being present doesn’t fit the narrative.
Did they lose people in the mosque shooting, NO.
Did Palestinians die in the mosque shooting, YES.
And today the Human Rights Commission continues building its “hierarchy of racism” with anti-semitism at the top.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128570937/why-its-time-to-fight-back-against-antisemitic-tropes-in-nz
Surely racism – such as the endless attacks on Maori for wearing moko was much more important and frankly dangerous.
To paraphrase Mark Twain; “if discussing injustice with the establishment made a difference, they wouldn’t let you do it!” so too, when it comes to Palestinians rights, will be the outcome of any meeting with those in control, be they government or media. Just as Zionists have illegally seized and established settlements in the land of Palestine, so too has its propaganda seized and established territory in the minds of men. And it’s nonsense to say that fighting for social justice “has become an iconic part of what it is to be a New Zealander.” when in truth the experience of the 1981 Springbok protest proved that it was an heroic minority who made us face the truth. Beneath the genial facade we are an ugly reactionary rabble easily swayed by whatever racist crap serves the establishment’s purpose, and nothing short of another 1981 will change that.
Chinese police are using modern psy ops tech on dissidents – but of course none of this is done in the West to discredit anyone …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCA38FojQTI
The NZ security services are clearly operating within the framework set and given to them by the US empire and, since the Ukraine war, by the more and more bellicose attitude of the UK. Given that NZ is part of the Five Eyes and bound within the Anglosphere’s other “defense” organisations, only a major shift away from these alliances can liberate NZ’s foreign policy and achieve NZ full potential as an independent actor on world stage.
As it is, NZ is being used to give credo to the indefensible actions of the altanticist global empire.
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