A total lack of government action on Gaza has caused Palestinian supporters in Aotearoa to protest on 10 August, with particular concern about the spate of Israeli attacks on schools and rising death toll of children.
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa plans to mobilise protests in more than 25 centres throughout Aotearoa.
Spokesperson for the Wellington Coalition for Palestine, Don Carson says there will be rallies throughout the Wellington CBD, with the theme of a March for Gaza’s Children.
“The British medical journal, the Lancet, estimates the Israeli attacks on Gaza over nine months to June killed 186,000 Palestinians. Half of those are younger than 18.”
“Israel had already wiped out all Gazan universities by the end of January, and bombed 70 percent of the schools in Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces have recently been attacking remaining schools in a new blitz,” Carson says.
“This is ‘scholasticide’, as well as genocide. Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Israel has taken most of the Palestinian lands. Now it is taking away their education as well.”
New Zealand has announced troop deployments into the Middle East to, what Carson calls, protect Israeli occupation borders.
“But shamefully there is nothing except hot air about forcing Israel to adopt any rules-based protection for the Palestinians in Gaza.”
‘On 11 May Foreign Minister, Winson Peters called for a ‘de-escalation’ in Rafah. This was in line with demands from the International Court of Justice that Israel must not invade the city.”
“Israel ignored the ICJ and encircled and then attacked Rafah. Not a peep from the Foreign Minister about it’
“There has been, quite rightly, New Zealand government criticism of what it calls a ‘record expansion of settlements’ in the occupied West Bank, and a demand that Israel ‘reverse’ this. ”
“But in neither Israeli genocide in Gaza, nor in its illegal settlements in the West Bank, have we heard anything from our government that it intends to do anything about them.”
“Winston Peters has called on Israel to comply with the latest demand from the ICJ, which is that it must withdraw from East Jerusalem and the West Bank – that’s much more than just slow down its settlement building there.”
“The ICJ was equally clear that other countries which are signatories to the Geneva Conventions, such as New Zealand, also have legal obligations to do what they can to ensure Israel complies with the ICJ.”
“So far, the New Zealand government has not acknowledged that it has any such obligations at all, let alone act on them.”
“New Zealand is carefully avoiding direct criticism of Israel, and refuses to use any diplomatic or trade measures against Israel.”
“Winston Peters says the situation is Gaza is ‘catastrophic’ and human suffering there is ‘unacceptable’. ”
“At the moment though, the Israeli ambassador in Wellington has no reason to believe Peters means what he says.”