Details of our weekly solidarity protests around the country are listed at the end of this letter sent to the Prime Minister yesterday.
Rt Hon Christopher Luxon
Prime Minister
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
Kia ora Mr Luxon,
We write to you as a matter of utmost urgency, with a rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East.
The policy of appeasement towards Israel over the past year by western countries has failed miserably. Israel has expanded its attacks and has abandoned all pretence of any sort of negotiated settlements.
Our government is holding on desperately to a hopelessly weak and indefensible policy towards the Middle East. I have no doubt you know this.
Israel is running riot with endless bombing and killing as it spreads murder and mayhem. The majority of victims in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank are women and children – tens of thousands of children.
You and I know this would never be tolerated if the victims were European.
The situation has now become even more desperate and deadly with
-
- Israel has refused to allow any food or supplies to be delivered since the beginning of this month to northern Gaza. It has again unleased its firepower with absolute impunity on refugee camps and other civilian areas with the openly stated aim of ethnic cleansing of the majority of the 400,000 Palestinians who remain there.
- Israel’s delivery of its threat to turn Lebanon into another Gaza, with attacks throughout the country, including Christian areas.
- Israel’s endless attempts to widen the war across the region into Iran with repeated violations of its sovereignty until Iran responded – though without a single Israeli casualty.
- Israel’s blatant attacks on UNIFIL positions and demands that UNIFIL withdraw from its mission to allow Israeli military advances further into Lebanon to achieve regime change for a Lebanese government subservient to its interests.
Despite all that has happened over 12 months you have issued only platitudes “calling an all sides to exercise restraint” and condemnation of all parties Israel decides that is its enemies.
You have failed to condemn Israel for anything it has ever done against the Palestinian victims of its settler colonial project and yet you have condemned every act of Palestinian resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.
Other countries, the UK, France, Spain, Norway, and Ireland have spoken out and taken, albeit token, action to remind Israel that it is operating outside international law.
History will condemn your 12 months of complicit silence but action now can make a real difference and saves tens of thousands of innocent lives. A minimum list of actions includes:
-
- Condemn Israeli action against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank as war crimes
- Join South Africa’s case of proving genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice
- Implement the recent obligations specified by the ICJ under the Geneva Conventions towards ending Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
- Identify and ban imports of products from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
- End procurement of goods and services from companies identified by the United Nations as complicit in building and maintaining illegal Israeli settlements
- Direct the Superfund, ACC and Kiwisaver providers to divest from companies on the UN list
- Investigate the export of Rakon Industry components which are incorporated into US weapons which almost inevitably end in the industrial-scale killing of Palestinians.
- Immediately close the Israeli embassy as Israel’s propaganda and lobby outlet in New Zealand
- Clearly and publicly state that NZDF personnel in the Middle East will neither participate in nor provide assistance to either US or Israel attacks or preparations for attacks on Iran
- Publicly join other countries in condemning the Israeli military attack on UNIFIL and demand of Israel that it will cease to demand UNIFIL withdraw from any of its positions in Lebanon
- Reiterate New Zealand’s participation in UNTSO and demand that Israel allow UNTSO continue its work unmolested
- Demand Israel revoke its declaration that the UN Secretary General is persona non grata in Israel.
- Note and support this UN report https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/un-commission-finds-war-crimes-and-crimes-against-humanity-israeli-attacks
Please respond to this letter urgently.
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Nationwide rallies/marches/MP protests/vigils this week
These are on the PSNA Facebook events page here with the basic details listed below.
North Island
Opononi – Gathering for Palestine
Sunday 20 October
1.30pm
Opononi (outside the Four Square)
Kerikeri – Rally
Saturday 19 October
No Rally this weekend
Whangarei – Rally
Saturday 19 October
No Rally this weekend
Auckland – Picket
Friday 18 October
12:00 noon
New World Devonport –
35 Bartley Terrace, Devonport,
Waiheke – Market Stall – hosted by Stand With Palestine Waiheke!
Every Saturday
8:00 am – 1:00 pm
Ostend Market, Waiheke Island
Auckland – Banners around Tamaki Makaurau
Saturday 19 October
10:00 am
Text John on 021 899 659 for location
Auckland – Central Bike Ride for Palestine
Saturday 19 October
Meet at 12.45 to leave (ride to the rally) at 1.10pm
Western Park. Ponsonby Road
Auckland – Rally
Saturday 19 October
2:00 pm
Te Komititanga – Britomart Square, Tamaki Makaurau
Then travel to Browns Bay for the Prayer Vigil for Gaza
Auckland – Prayer Vigil @ Erica Stanford’s Office
Aotearoa Christians for peace in Palestine will hold a Prayer Vigil to mark a year since the Israeli airstrike on St Porphyrius Church in Gaza City
Saturday 19 October
4:00 pm
85 Beach Front Lane, Browns Bay, Auckland
https://www.facebook.com/events/s/vigil-for-gaza-st-porphyrius-c/1056552113142463/
Auckland – Movie – The Last Sky
Saturday 19 October
7:00 pm
Trades Hall auditorium – 147 Great North Road, Grey Lynn
Limited seats. Tickets essential
Admission by Koha
https://events.humanitix.com/the-last-sky
Director Nicholas Hanna will have a Q&A after the movie
Thames – Vigil to Stop the war on Children
(Hosted by The Basket – Social and Environmental Justice – Hauraki)
First Saturday of the month
Tauranga – Flag wave
Sunday 20 October
11:00 am
SH2 Bethlehem – By Woolworths
Hamilton – Rally for Palestine
Saturday 19 October
1:00 pm
Civic Square, Hamilton
Whaingaroa/Raglan
To be advised
Cambridge – Rally for Palestine
Every Saturday
11:00 am
Cambridge Town Hall
Rotorua – Rally for Palestine
Every Thursday
4:00 pm
Rotorua Lakes Council, Haupapa Street (Sir Howard Morrison Corner)
Gisborne – Farmers Market – Vigil to Stop the war on Children
Every Saturday
9:30 – 11:30 am
Gisborne Farmers Market
Napier – Rally for Palestine
Saturday 19 October
11:30 am
Marine Parade Soundshell Roundabout
Hastings – Rally for Palestine
Sunday 20 October
1:00 pm
Hastings Town Clock – Hastings CBD
Palmerston North – Rally for Palestine
Sunday 20 October
2:00 pm
The Square, Palmerston North
New Plymouth – Flags on the Bridge
Friday 18 September
4:30 pm
Paynters Ave Bridge, New Plymouth
New Plymouth – Rally and March
Saturday 19 October
1:00 PM
The Landing, 1 Ariki Street, New Plymouth
Whanganui – Rally for Palestine
Saturday 19 October
11:00 am
Riverside Market, Whanganui
Carterton – Gathering for Gaza
Every Tuesday
12:00 midday
Memorial Square.
Martinborough – Vigil for Palestine
Every Wednesday
11:00 am
The square at the top of Kitchener St, Martinborough
Masterton – Gathering for Gaza
Every Sunday
9:30 am
Town Hall Lawn, Masterton
Featherston – Gathering for Gaza
Every Saturday
11:00 am
The Squircle (opposite the op shop).
Wellington – Vigil for Palestine (by Aotearoa Healthcare Workers for Palestine)
Every Friday
6:00 pm
In front of Wellington Hospital
49 Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington
Wellington – Flags on the Bridge
(hosted by the Falastin Tea Collective)
Every Friday
7:15 – 8:15 am
Hill Street bridge Overbridge, Wellington
Wellington – Rally
(hosted by the Falastin Tea Collective)
Saturday 19 October
1:00 – 2:00 pm
Meet at Glover Park and Hikoi down Cuba Mall and back to Glover Park
South Island
Nelson – Rally for Palestine
Saturday 19 October
10:30 am
Rocks Road by the beach
Blenheim – Rally for Palestine
Saturday 19 October
11:00 am
Blenheim Railway Station
Christchurch – Nobela Protest
Thursday 17
11:45 am
Foodstuffs Headquarters
167 Main North Road, Northcote, Christchurch
Christchurch- Flag Waving for Palestine
Friday 18 October
4:00 pm
Bridge of Remembrance, Cashel Street, Christchurch
Christchurch – Rally and March
Saturday 19 October
1:00 – 2:00 pm
Bridge of Remembrance, Cashel Street, Christchurch
Timaru
No Rally this weekend
Dunedin – Rally and March
Saturday 19 October
No Rally this weekend
Queenstown
No Rally this weekend
Invercargill – Rally for Palestine
Sunday 20 October
1:00 pm
Wachner place Invercargill
Meanwhile the other 95% of the NZ population are cheering Israel on.
More like it is the other way round.
Geoffrey Lye – Not so sure about that…most Kiwis can think for themselves and know what supporting Terrorists can lead to…
this fucken nathan mug again
stephen – Greetings…still supporting hate?
no they are not
gordon walker – Yes they are…
You make no coherent statement, you just attack others for having a conscience. Sad little people like you should turn off your computer and go for a long walk in the fresh air.
Stuart McKenzie – Two things
1. It is a blog post, not a debating society…short, and sharp replies rule the day
2. I do switch off, and smell the roses…hence why I cannot support Hamas and Hezbollah
I hope that helps…
but you suport torture and sodomy instead! WTF???????
Meanwhile, meanwhile andy and nat- are the same thing. Yep. One can have more than one commenter ID.
Worryingly, what ever the andy-and-nat are it’s here with agendas.
Either way, the andynat-bot is making life anxious for us and I don’t like that. I don’t like it that the andy-bot is using hyperbolism to tell us what to think and believe while clearly displaying a bizarre and soulless disregard for the facts. Kids are being murdered on their lands and in their homes and the andy-bot turns their deaths into a tittering giggle-fest of inflated numbers. Thank God andy and the nat- don’t have the intelligence to take an uncharacteristically brave approach like going to Israel and not coming back, if you’re not already there of course.
Killer white T-Cell: Nah…most sane people know the score…Israel is defending itself.
Yep, Israel is just defending itself against annexation and being starved to death. Whoops, got that the wrong way around, inappropriate Mangatainoka moment by myself. The cat’s out of the bag, as said by Caitlin Johnson – “This has always been about taking land from the indigenous people of Palestine”
Caitlin Johnson – https://x.com/caitoz/status/1845574132668506378
“Israeli Defense Officials: Gov’t Pushing Aside Hostage Deal, Eyeing Gaza Annexation”, Haaretz – https://archive.vn/YrDLa#selection-537.0-537.83
“Retired Israeli General Giora Eiland Called for Starving Gaza. Does He Regret It?”, Haaretz – https://archive.vn/hBtEw#selection-397.0-397.81
“Haaretz: Israeli Government Done With Ceasefire Talks, Seeks Annexation of Gaza”, AntiWar.com – https://news.antiwar.com/2024/10/13/haaretz-israeli-government-done-with-ceasefire-talks-seeks-annexation-of-gaza/#gsc.tab=0
A O – Caitlin Johnson’s articles a so bias against Israel that she would put in a good word for the Devil if it helped…lame
Well, given that Caitlin is simply giving her take on what senior defense officials speaking for the Israeli government have said, as reported by Haaretz, you had the choice to either pick apart her take on this or pick apart the actual reporting itself. You chose neither – meaning – both are clearly rock solid.
Here’s Caitlin’s full comment – take it as gospel folks “And there it is. They’re finally admitting it. This is all this has ever been about. Not hostages. Not ending Hamas. Not self defense. Not mass rapes. Not beheaded babies or babies placed in ovens. This has always been about taking land from the indigenous people of Palestine.” https://x.com/caitoz/status/1845574132668506378
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/10/13/haaretz-israeli-government-done-with-ceasefire-talks-seeks-annexation-of-gaza/#gsc.tab=0
Andrew, proof not your feelings
Hey Andrew, 95% of the NZ population who thought Brenton Tarrant was doing the right thing are cheering Israel on.
There fixed it for you.
I’m interested to know if the Prime Minister replies to your letters?
Daniel: More toilet paper for our PM.
No one can hide here,,, no one can pretend they didn’t know what was happening because the Israelis were shouting it in our faces,,,,
Israeli Soldiers SICKENING War Crimes EXPOSED https://youtu.be/gEo813rYm8g
Over the last year we have witnessed what is the greatest crime of the 21st century.And perversely it’s a crime that has been meticulously documented and presented to us by the people who are carrying it out.
And they’re doing it and they’re recording it and they’re putting it on Facebook,,And we know the names of the soldiers and the commanders who did it,..
…They go into the homes of Palestinians and they’re often clearly staying there,,And they just smash them up,, and they film themselves smashing them up,, They also delight in going through women’s underwear drawers and this is a sort of recurring obsession….
Has Israel managed to destroy Hamas??,,,Israeli soldiers have posted thousands of videos online,, the IDF the Israeli Army repeatedly posts videos online,, scour those videos for the bodies of dead Fighters and there’s remarkably few
As an absolute indictment of Western media,, the way this is covered (pushed),,, the idea that Hamas the al-Qassam brigades and so
on use the civilian population as human Shields,,,, there is no evidence that they are positively using them as human shields in the sense that they’re hiding behind them,, or not allowing them to leave,,,or not telling them that they’re there…
‘ Al Qassam brigade’s own combat videos which are a stark contrast to the videos that the Israeli soldiers put online,,, there’s over 300 of them,,, and they very often show successful attacks on tanks and other armored vehicles… these attacks all take place in desolate abandoned Landscapes ,,, I have not seen a single civilian in them’..
.. Now then there is the secondary point,, the UN International and Israeli human rights organizations have found the Israelis to
be guilty of using human shields.. In the film we have footage of this,,, you can see it there,,, they are hiding behind people resting their guns on their shoulder,, they’ve got a man and he’s being forced to go and inspect empty buildings open’ ,,,, it’s clearly absolutely systematic now’,,,
‘the fact that the entirety of Western media and the Western political
class continues to trot out this Mantra about it being Hamas that be hides behind human Shields,,, when all of the Abundant evidence suggests precisely the opposite’,, cowardly war criminal Israelis do that shit.
***************************************************
“On October the 7th two babies are killed okay, which is Dreadful, it’s appalling, BUT at the end of August when the gazen health Ministry published detailed figures the first 14 pages, 701 names, were taken up with children under the age of one,, and that doesn’t include 7,000 people whom there was no documentation, it doesn’t include the large numbers of people who are still under the rubble … or who have died of because of lack of access to health care,,,, it’s very very likely that in the end the total number of dead and injured in the Gaza Strip will be more than a Quarter of a Million.’
Crowd funded prosecutions against western politicians partaking in the ‘Coalition of the Killing’?.
Criminals should fear the law ……
A remarkable effort @ B Awakesky.
I watched the youtube link you posted above and was left in tears.
The IDF. What evil monsters they are. What deranged perverts and gun nut psychopaths. Our political support of Israel is a shocking wake up call to announce what monsters we rub shoulders with in our own country. And then there are the israelis.
@ John Minto. You’re a wondrous hero. That’s what you are.
Maybe McKee is supplying all the weapons they need .
Any comment on Sinwar – or are you waiting for Hamas’s Telegram and WhatsApp channels to light up again?
Xenophon – Nice.
“From the Palestinian perspective, he died a hero’s death. He was not cowering in a tunnel. He was on the field of battle, carrying a weapon and fighting.” ……
….”Hamas is proving to behave more like mercury when struck — it fragments into smaller, separate globules, but retains the capacity to attack and damage the Zionist forces in Gaza. In this regard, I think Hamas shares an ironic similarity to the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto who rose up against the Nazis in April 1943, only they are better armed and trained than the Jewish youths who battled the Germans. The Zionists, whether they know it or not, are creating a Palestinian version of Masada. While the Jews who fought against the Romans at Masada ultimately died, their sacrifice created a legend that Jews have celebrated through the Centuries. I think we are witnessing something similar taking place with the Palestinians. They are managing to survive against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Unlike Masada, where the Jewish defenders committed suicide, the Palestinians are dying at the hands of the Zionist military forces. It would be one thing if the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) was focused on battling armed insurgents, but the horrific reality is that the Zionists are engaged in active genocide and wantonly killing civilians. This is a stain on Israel that will mark it for generations to come, if it survives. Killing women and children is a soul destroying endeavor and will scar the consciences of many of the IOF soldiers. Remember, one of the reasons that the Germans started using gas to carry out large-scale executions of Jews in Poland is that a large number of the Nazi soldiers, who shot people they had stuffed into large pits — such as the massacre at Babi Yar — experienced severe psychological reactions and became combat ineffective. Even crazed fanatics can reach a limit where the guilt crushes their mind.
Sinwar’s death, instead of diminishing the violence in Gaza and throughout the region, is likely to ignite further escalation. Hezbollah and the Houthis, for example, are likely to step up the intensity and lethality of their attacks in the coming weeks. If Israel, blinded by hubris, decides to up the ante and attack Iran, Iran will strike back with a ferocity Israel has never experienced. If that happens, I think the region will be engulfed in a major war.”….. https://sonar21.com/killing-sinwar-will-not-end-the-war-in-gaza/
***************************************************
Look how useless the Iron dome is for defending anything that Iran wants to hit ,,, https://youtu.be/3U7wp2YsQJI
If Israel gets the war their nutters are hell bent on getting,, then Israel will get wrecked ,,,,, and no doubt Iran will be harmed ….
,,,, BUT petrol will go to $10 per liter if the middle east goes up in flames ,,,, crashing our economy and the rest of the west …. and all you Zionist shills will become as popular as the Israeli snipers who shoot children in the head (to normal people that is, not Xenophon who loves em) ,,,,
I bet you wont be taking any of the credit ,,,, or reminding people that YOU wanted this war,,,, if you get your wish for this NZ wrecking war that you’ve positively drooled for.
Fucking Israel and their fucking dick-head enablers will be the sentiment if your vultures (zionist chickens) come home to roost.
BTW, Sinwar was so useless that the Jews didn’t need one of their specialist units, he was taken out by a bunch of IDF trainees.
So, it took a bunch of soldiers to kill one chap, a sniper bullet at that, he was missing one arm, was riddled with shrapnel, managed to throw a stick at a drone, despite all this…and yet this chap is useless. No wonder the IDF is propped up by the West.
More great points A B keep up the great comments
Yes it amazes me how these fuckwits like xenophon denegrate people who save lives like Jacinda but worship murderers like the IDF .Just shows how fucked the world is .
The IDF are saving Jewish lives, so I can understand your outrage.
buhahahaha keep the jokes coming lol
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/9/why-did-israel-deploy-hannibal-directive-allowing-killing-of-own-citizens
So they’re saving them from a fate worse than death at the hands of your buddies. Now that’s civilised behaviour.
After all the various reports regarding Sinwar’s final moments have aired, it turns out that he died from a bullet wound to the head. Obviously having just watched the drone seeking him out, he correctly realised that soldiers would soon be arriving to secure his arrest. A martyr such as he could never allow himself to be taken captive – not dissimilar to one Adolf Hitler. He knew he had been beaten. This is generally the pathway of tyrants.
He’d already spent 22 years in prison, released in a prisoner exchange in 2011. A sniper bullet took him out in the end so you are more closely aligned to Adolf than Sinwar ever was (because like you, Adolf was a b/s artist supremo also).
Iran will strike back with a ferocity Israel has never experienced….. AHAHAHAHA… Their military is more shit than Iraq’s and Israel hit their nuclear site in 1981.
Xen, Any mentions on Israelis getting slaughtered by Hezbollah? Murdering Nasrallah hasn’t stopped their military-wing successes on the battlefield even Iran top leader is dead doesn’t stop them continuing as a unified force in fact it’s galvanises populations opposite to what the western nations are hoping for! There are many Sinwar arising out of the ashes of Gaza your venerated white supremacist state can’t continuing existing like this as majority of its neighbors are attacking it which is distablizing its society along with its economy.
Free Palestine
stephen- still using that ‘Free Palestine’ slogan? Try the following the slogans…
– Everything is better with a Coke
– Ban the Bomb
– The truth is out there
– Big Foot is real
Nathan, how’s the knitting?
stephen – Nope…not a good slogan. Needs work, like your arguments.
Your idol zionazi state time is coming to an end nathan its getting desperate why its acting incoherently it panicking and all they can do is bomb from the air which doesn’t win wars!
The IDF are scared pussies picking on little kids unarmed civilians I don’t think they’ve killed many Hamas apart from Sinwar. It soldiers are getting slaughtered in Gaza & Lebanon helicopters carrying dead bodies in bodies bags sweet justice for all the innocent civilians they’ve been genociding
Free Palestine
stephen – Nah…still wrong…
Your proslethysized IDF cowardly using the Indigenous palestinians as humans shields making claims otherwise, makes you an undying supporter of a state sanctioned pedophile white supremacist failed project
Free Palestine
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-military-human-shields.html
stephen – Back to White Supremacist talking point…what a laugh!
…white supremacist state... 🙂 Ethiopian Jewish woman in the IDF, and not a burkha in sight.
Xen, look at the top echelon in their cabinet across the board they’re white not a black or brown face. Guess you’re one of the ignorant fools that think Israelis are all the same and treated as such! Picking ethiopian jew only put credibility to my argument as these groups don’t particularly like each other and in fact the ethiopian Jews were told to go back to their own country the irony
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/5/4/ethiopian-jews-not-jewish-enough
Yawn. Two thirds of Cubans are composed of blacks and those of part African ancestry. Now look at Cuba’s ruling Communist Party.
Our government are happy to support Israel so they can duck for cover and sweep our disgusting abuse of humans under a massive carpet .The current austerity drive is so they have some money to cover the looming payout to all the people that have been abused while in care .Then there is the paltry amount of treaty settlements for the systemic murder rape and land theft dished out to Maori over the last 100 years.This abuse is now being ramped up by the current government by stripping as many people of dignity as they can in the next 2 years .When the next election they will be calling all those people they have thrown on the scrap heap lazy bottom feeders .Next they will be putting massive charges on cardboard boxes and charging the homeless for over night camp fees for sleeping on the street or in a park somewhere.
When you deny millions of innocent people of food and better standards of living besides murdering them indiscriminately than it “Genocide” not ethnic cleansing!
” Meanwhile the other 95% of the NZ population are cheering Israel on. ”
Beware the silent majority.
At least John Minto is doing the MSM’s job for them and bringing this appalling carnage out into the light.
While most media outlets are discussing the important issues like why is your hair getting oily ? or your not big or clever for hating reality tv.
One way or another we are going to destroy the world .We will either kill everyone or the world will be cooked due to climate change .Might be time the younger generations took over control .By that I mean the under 20s
Comments are closed.